guru

WAZIRKHAN (d. 1634) is the name popularly given by Sikh chroniclers to Hakim `Alim udDin, son of Shaikh `Abd ulLatif of Chiniot, a town now in Jhang district of Pakistan Punjab. Trained as a physician, he rose in favour with Emperor Shah Jahan, who created him a ma.nsa.bdar of 5000 at and so war and appointed him governor of Lahore in 1628, which office he held until 1633. Wazir Khan was a pious man and an admirer of Guru Arjan. He had, as says Bhai Santokh Singh, Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth, felt great relief listening to the Guru`s Sukhmani when suffering from dropsy. 

ABDULLA, KHWAJA, a native of Mani Majra, near present day Chandigarh, was the keeper of the jail at Chandni Chowk kotwali in Delhi, where Guru Tegh Bahadur, Nanak IX, was detained under imperial warrant. He was a pious man and truly reverenced the holy detenu. He tried to mitigate the rigour of his incarceration as far as his official position permitted. After Guru Tegh Bahadur`s execution (1675), he resigned his post and went to live at Anandpur, where he served Guru Gobind Singh, Nanak X, as a physician. His son, Ghulam Abbas, served under Nawab Kapur Singh as a physician during misl times.

AHIMSA. The term ahimsa is formed by adding the negative prefix a to the word himsa which is derived from the Sanskrit root \'han\', i.e. \'to kill\', \'to harm\', or \'to injure\', and means not killing, not harming, not injuring. The commonly used English equivalent \'non-violence\' is inadequate as it seems to give a false impression that ahimsa is just a negative virtue. Ahimsa is not mere abstention from the use of force, not just abstention from killing and injuring; it also implies the positive virtues of compassion and benevolence because not killing and not injuring a living being implicitly amounts to protecting and preserving it and treating it with mercy.

AKALI, a term now appropriated by members of the dominant Sikh political party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, founded in 1920, and groups splitting from it from time to time, was earlier used for Nihangs (q.v.), an order of armed religious zealots among the baptized Sikhs. The word Nihang is from the Persian nihang meaning crocodile, alligator, shark or water dragon, and signifies qualities of ferocity and fearlessness. The term Akali is originally from Akal, the Timeless One.

ALAMGIR, a village in Ludhiana district, 13 km to the southwest of the city (30°54\'N, 75°52\'E), is famed for its Gurdwara Manji Sahib Patshahi 10. Guru Gobind Singh made a halt in the village as he was travelling after the battle of Chamkaur in December 1705. Here the Guru discarded the palanquin which he had used for part of the journey, and took a horse presented by an old disciple, Bhai Naudha. A Manji Sahib was later constructed on the site. At present, the gurdwara compound covers over three acres of land.

AMARU, BHAI, a devoted Sikh of the time of Guru Amar Das. He lived at the village of Dalla, in present day Kapurthala district of the Punjab, and was initiated a Sikh at the hands of Guru Amar Das. See RAMU BHAI

ANANDU, noncanonically spelt Anand, by Guru Amar Das, is like Guru Nanak`s Japu, one of the more familiar texts in the Guru Granth Sahib. Set in the Ramkali musical measure and comprising forty stanzas, Anand is recited liturgically, especially in its shortened form, at the conclusion of all congregational services and at prayers offered at weddings and other ceremonies to seek God`s grace and solace and to rejoice on happy occasions in the favours granted by Him. The Sikh marriage ceremony itself has come to be called anand, which term has also been used in the legislative enactment governing the custom.

ASTPADI, from Sanskrit astapada, astapad or astapadf, is a poetic composition comprising ast or eight padas or stanzas. No specific rhyme scheme, measure or burden is prescribed for it, but all the eight stanzas must be in the same metre and measure. Lines in each stanza are generally rhymed. In Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, there are astpadfs composed in different musical measures (ragas) and metres.

The Gurdwara Aaduporh is a historical shrine commemorating the visit of Guru Hargobind Ji. Guru Ji came to the site while riding his horse, where now the present Gurdwara Sahib stands. At this place Guru Ji met a holyman whose name was Aadu and asked him about the well being of the villagers. Aadu apprised GuruJi that the village faces acute water problem hence the village development was suffering .On hearing the problem, it so happened that Guru Ji’s horse struck on the ground with Porh (Horses hoof) and then water started pouring out of the earth.

Anoop Singh (1910 - 1989) was a lawyer by profession, hailing from the North-West Frontier Province of undivided Punjab. A lover of every good thing in life, he came to writing poetry seriously very late in life but his output compensated his late-coming both quantitatively and qualitatively. The most striking feature of his verse is his thought-content. Evidently, he owes this to his age; maturity of outlook on life, wealth of experience, and the asset of erudition that he gathered over the years. An admirer of Saadi and Hafiz, Meer and Ghalib, Iqbal and Faiz, he was equally knowledgeable about the Vedas and the Upanishads, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.