HOLA MAHALLA or simply Hola, a Sikh festival, takes place on the first of the lunar month of Chef which usually falls in March. This follows the Hindu festival of Holi. The name Hola is the masculine form of the feminine sounding Holi. Mahalla, derived from the

JAITSAIILMAHALA 5 VARSLOKANNALI, by GuruArjan, is one of the twenty-two Vdrs, i.e. compositions in this folk form but moulded to a spiritual theme, included in the Guru Granth Sahib. It has been named Jaitsari because of the musical measure it belongs to. While the philosophical standpoint in the entire

RAMDAS, BAVA, a nineteenth century Punjabi poet, was born at the village of Harganari, in Fatehgarh Sahib district of the Punjab. He belonged to the Divana sect, a mendicant order established during the seventeenth century by Haria and Bala, two Jatt disciples of Sodhi Miharban, the son of Guru

JANAM SAKHI, i.e. life story, is the term used to designate traditional narratives of the life of Guru Nanak. Although the compound is occasionally applied to narratives concerning later Gurus or other religious teachers too, it is normally confined to those which relate in anecdotal prose the life and

SANSRAM, son of Baba Mohan and a grandson of Guru Amar Das. According to Sarup Das Bhalla, Mahima Prakash, he lost his mother in infancy. His father being indifferent to worldly affairs, Guru Amar Das took him under his care. Sarisram grew up to be a gifted young man.

AKAL MURATI, a composite term comprising akal (non temporal) and murati (image or form), occurring in the Mul Mantra, the root formula or fundamental creed of the Sikh faith as recorded at the beginning of the Japu, composition with which the Guru Granth Sahib opens, literally means `timeless image`. Elsewhere,

KAFI (Arabic Qafi), literally stands for the leader, the enlightener, one who fulfils the need. In poetics it denotes the refrain in a song or hymn, and is also the title given to a poetic form in Arabic as well as in Indian literature. Guru Nanak was the first to

VAR MAJH KI, by Guru Nanak occurs in the musical measure Majh, in the Guru Granth Sahib. The word majh, in Punjabi, means in the middle or midway, and the raga which goes by this name was a folk tune of Majha, the central country of die Punjab, which

ANJALI:Literally,Anjali means an offering of a palmful of water or a few grams of rice to a deity as a mark of respect or devotion. Anjali is also a form of poetry. Guru Arjan wrote four \'chhands\' in Raga Maru (GGS, p. 1019) in the form of \'Anjali\'. In

BAISAKHI, a seasonal festival popular in the Punjab which takes place on the First day of the solar month of Baisakh (Sanskrit Vaisakha, so called because according to astrological calculations, the moon at this time passes through visakha naksatra or constellation) of the Indian calendar. Traditionally, the festival was celebrated