guru

AYODHYA (26° 45`N, 82° 10`E), on the right bank of the River Saryu, also known as Ghaghara, is sacred to the Hindus as the birthplace of Lord Rama. This ancient town has Sikh shrines in memory of the First, the Ninth and the Tenth Gurus. All three are located within 50 metres of each other near Brahma`s Tap Sthan (Brahma Kund) on Saryu bank, and are collectively called Gurdwara Brahmakund. The memorial commemorating Guru Nanak`s visit at the beginning of the sixteenth century consists of only a Sikh flag on a platform constructed in 1972.

\'Wonderful is the fire which works wonders.\' (Var Asa M. l, p. 464) \'Agni is called Baisantar Devta\' (Var Asa M. l, p. 473). Its other names are Pavak and Tejas. It is an evolute from Air (Paun Devata) and labours hard like him under the Fear of the Lord. \'When the sun blazes in the sky, the earth is roasted and her såp is dried by the fire of the sun.\' (Baramaba Tuhhart M. l, p. 1108) The sun is the main source of heat (Agni) and light. The fire is latent in wood.

BABAR VANI (Babar\'s command or sway) is how the four hymns by Guru Nanak alluding to the invasions by Babar (1483-1530), the first Mughal emperor of India, are collectively known in Sikh literature. The name is derived from the use of the term in one of these hymns: "Babarvani phiri gai kuiru na rod khai Babar\'s command or sway has spread; even the princes go without food" (GG, 417). Three of these hymns are in Asa measure at pages 360 and 41718 of the standard recension of Guru Granth Sahib and the fourth is in Tilang measure on pages 72223. Zahir-ud-Din Muhammad Babar, driven out of his ancestral principality of Farghana in Central Asia, occupied Kabul in 1504.

BAHORU, BHAI, a Khosia Khatri of Lahore, received initiation at the hands of Guru Arjan. As Bhai Bidhi Chand in Guru Hargobind`s time went to Lahore to rescue the second of the two horses belonging to Bhai Karori, a horse dealer of Kabul, who was bringing the pair as an offering for the Guru but which had been forcibly taken away by the faujdar, Qasim Beg of Lahore, he stayed with Bhai Bahoru. The latter, a cloth merchant by profession, provided garments for Bhai Bidhi Chand to disguise himself as an astrologer in order to beguile the faujdar and his servants, and recover the horse.

BALVAND, RAI, a rababi or rebeck player in the time of Guru Arjan and co-composer with Satta, said to be his brother, of a Var included in the Guru Granth Sahib in the Ramkali musical measure. He was by birth a mirasi, Muslim minstrel and genealogist, and sang the sacred hymns to the accompaniment of rebeck like Bhai Mardana used to do during the time of Guru Nanak. Not much authentic biographical information is available about him except that he and his brother, Satta, were contemporaries with Guru Arjan (1563-1606) for whom they recited sabdakirtan. According to another tradition, they started their career under Guru Arigad sometime after he succeeded Guru Nanak on the latter`s demise in 1539 and continued to serve the Gurus until the time of Guru Arjan.

BARH, a town in Patna district of Bihar, 56 km east of old Patna city (25° 37`N, 85° 10`E), is sacred to Guru Tegh Bahadur who stayed here during his tour of the eastern districts in 1666. It has one Suthrashahi Sangat and two Udasi Sangats existing of old. Guru Tegh Bahadur stayed at what is known as Bari (larger) Sangat, situated in Chuna Khari Mohalla. It was spread over a oneacre compound and had a prayer hall with the Guru Granth Sahib seated in the centre. But the building^was completely destroyed in the 1934 earthquake, with the exception of an old well which is still in use.

BEDI, a subcaste of the Khatris, Prakritized form of the Sanskrit kstriya which is one of the four caste groups into which the Hindu society is divided. The Khatris are mainly Hindus though there is among them a Sikh element which is small in number but important historically.There are no Muhammadans in the caste because a Khatri after conversion into Islam ceases to be a Khatri and becomes a Khoja. The Khatris are further divided into four subgroups Bahri, Khukhrain, Bunjahi and Sarin. Bahris have twelve castes, Khukhrain eight, Bunjahi fiftytwo and Sarins twenty.

BHAGBHARI, MAI (d. 1614), of a Brahman family of Srinagar, was converted to the Sikh faith by Bhai Madho Sodhi, sent by Guru Arjan to preach in Kashmir. As she grew old, she wished to have a glimpse of the Guru before she died. Guru Hargobind then occupied the spiritual throne of Guru Nanak. Mai Bhagbhari had stitched a role of homespun fabric which she longed to present to the Guru personally, but she was too old to travel to distant Amritsar. As says Gurbilas Chhevin Patshahi, Guru Hargobind did visit Kashmir and, reaching Srinagar, he went straight to Mai Bhagbhari`s house in Hathi Gate area.

BHAKTI AND SIKHISM. The word bhakti is derived from Skt. bhaj, meaning to serve, honour, revere, love and adore. In the religious idiom, it is attachment or fervent devotion to God and is defined as "that particular affection which is generated by the knowledge of the attributes of the Adorable One." The concept is traceable to the Vedas where its intimations are audible in the hymns addressed to deities such as Varuna, Savitra and Usha.

BHAROANA or Bhairoana, a small village 16 km southwest of Sultan pur Lodhi (31°13`N, 75°12`E) in the Punjab, is the place where at the close of the fifteenth century lived Bhai Phiranda, a piousminded musician who also manufactured the stringed instrument called rabab or rebeck. Guru Nanak, before setting out from Sultanpur Lodhi on his extensive travels to deliver his message, sent Bhai Mardana to buy a rabab from Phiranda. Phiranda produced the instrument but, on learning as to who had ordered it, refused to accept any money for it.