TOSHAKHANA, from Persian toshakhanah (toshah = food or provisions for journey or food articles in general+ khana = house, store) or tosha khana (toshak = bedding, clothing + khana) means in Punjabi a treasury or secured storehouse for valuables. It is now generally used for the

ANNEXATION OF THE PUNJAB to British dominions in India in 1849 by Lord Dalhousie, the British governor general, which finally put an end to the sovereignty of the Sikhs over northwestern India, was the sequel to a chain of events that had followed the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh ten

DULEEP SINGH, MAHARAJA (1838-1893), the last Sikh sovereign of the Punjab, was born at Lahore on 6 September 1838, the youngest son of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. On 18 September 1843, at the age of five, he was, after the murder of Maharaja Sher Singh, proclaimed Maharaja of the Punjab

JODH SINGH (1798-1864), son of Deva Singh whose ancestral village was Rariala in Gujrariwala district. Jodh Singh, who came into the jdgir of Rariala, rose to prominence in the kingdom of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. From 1813 to 1825 he served with the Ghorcharas (special cavalry) of SardarJodh Singh Sowariarivala.

NIRANJAN SINGH, PROFESSOR (1892-1979), educationist and writer, was born in 1892, the youngest of the five sons of Bhai Gopi Chand and Mai Mulan Devi, a Sahijdhari Sikh couple of the village of Harial in Gu|jarkhan tahsil, Rawalpindi district (now in Pakistan). His father died in 1901 and his brothers,

TREATY WITH GULAB SINGH, 16 March 1846. Gulab Singh Dogra was formally invested with the title of Maharaja on 15 March 1846 and on the following day was concluded between him and the British government a treaty whereby he was recognized as ruler of the hill territory of Jammu and

ARUR SINGH (1890-1917), also known as Doctor Rur Singh, described in British government records as "a dangerous man," was born the son of Arjan Singh in 1890 at Sangval, a village in Jalandhar district of the Punjab. Working as a compounder in a veterinary hospital at Jalandhar, he came

GANDA SINGH (d. 1845), of Butala, in Gujranwala district of undivided Punjab, was a soldier in the Sikh army. Early in his career, he was assigned by Maharaja Ranjit Singh to Prince Sher Singh`s troops. Ganda Singh`s father, Dharam Singh, had also served in the army and taken part

KAPUR SINGH, NAWAB (1697-1753), eighteenth century Sikh hero and founder of the Dal Khalsa. He was born in 1697 in a peasant family of Virks of the village of Kaloke, now in Shcikhupura district of Pakistan. His father`s name was DalTp Singh. When Kapur Singh was of the age

PANJABI PRACHARNI SABHA, society for the promotion of Punjabi language, established in 1882 under the aegis of the Lahore Singh Sabha. In pursuance of the policy set forth in the famous Wood`s Dispatch of 1853 (a letter from Sir Charles Wood, President of the Board of Control of the East

SHIROMANI GURDWARA PARBANDHAK COMMITTEE, a statutory body comprising elected representatives of the Sikhs concerned primarily with the management of sacred Sikh shrines under its control within the territorial limits of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and the Union territory of Chandigarh. It originated with the Gurdwara Reform or Akali movement of

WADE, SIR CLAUDE MARTINE (1794-1861), soldier and diplomat, son of Lt.Col Joseph Wade of the Bengal army, was born on 3 April 1794. He joined the Bengal army in 1809 and was promoted lieutenant in 1815. He served in operations against Scindia and Holkar, and the Pindaris (1815-19) and officiated