ASAVARI See ASA ASCETICISM, derived from the Greek word askesis, connotes the `training` or `exercise` of the body and the mind. Asceticism or ascetic practices belong to the domain of religious culture, and fasts, pilgrimages, ablutions, purificatory rituals, vigils, abstinence from certain foods and drinks, primitive and strange dress, nudity, uncut hair, tonsure. shaving the head, circumcision, cavedwelling, silence, meditation, vegetarianism, celibacy, virginity, inflicting pain upon oneself by whips and chains, mutilation, begging alms, owning no wealth or possessions, forbearance and patience, equanimity or impartiality towards friends and foes, eradication of desires and passions, treating the body as something evil or treating human life as a means of achieving ultimate release or union with God all these are subsumed under ascetic practices. The history of Indian religiousness presents the ultimate in the development of the theory and practice of asceticism.
Anik Bisthar by Pritam Singh \'Safir\' is a collection of forty-eight poems. Safir is a major modem Punjabi poet who has eleven books of poetry to his credit. Safir is a romantic as well as a mystic poet. With romantic wings the lover-poet wants to fly to spiritual and mystic heights. His main source of inspiration is Gurbani and Guru-history. Even the title of this book has been chosen from Sukhmani by Guru Arjan Dev. The influence of Guru Gobind Singh\'s personality on his poetic sensibility is very deep. The artistic admixture of romanticism and mysticism has made him a philosopher poet by bringing depth in his thought and pithiness in his expression.
BAHADUR SHAH (1643-1712), Mughal emperor of India from 1707 to 1712. Born Muhammad Mu\'azzam at Burhanpur in the Deccan on 14 October 1643, he was actively employed by his father, Aurangzib, from 1663 onwards for subduing the kingdom of Bijapur and the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Golconda in the south. In 1695 he was appointed subahdar of Agra and in 1699 governor of Kabul. Mu\'azzam was at Kabul when news arrived of the death, on 20 February 1707, of Aurangzib.