guru

GURPURB, a compound of two words, i.e. guru, the spiritual preceptor, and purb, parva in Sanskrit, meaning a festival or celebration, signifies in the Sikh tradition the holy day commemorating one or another of the anniversaries related to the lives of the Gurus. Observance of such anniversaries is a conspicuous feature of the Sikh way of life. A line frequently quoted from the Guru Granth Sahib in this context reads "bdbdmd kahdmd put saput kareni it only becomes worthy progeny to remember the deeds of the ciders" (GG, 951).Among the more important gurpurbs on the Sikh calendar are the birth anniversaries of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, the martyrdom days of Guru Arjan and Guru Tegh Bahadur, and of the installation of the Holy Book in the Harimandar at Amritsar on Bhadon sudi 1, 1661 Bk/16 August 1604.

GURUSAR SATLANI, GURDWARA, 1.5 km south of the railway station named after it, is within the revenue limits of Hoshiarnagar village in Amritsar district of the Punjab. The shrine marks the spot where Guru Hargobind (1595-1644), travelling from Lahore to Amritsar, made a night`s halt near a pond. According to local tradition, Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) himself appointed one of his Sikhs, Bulaka Singh, as the custodian of this shrine. The shrine was richly endowed by Sikh rulers and chiefs during the first half of the nineteenth century.

HARIJAS GRANTH, by Bhai Darbari, is a collection of verse the first part (ff. 1530) of which is, in imitation of the Guru Granth Sahib, cast in rdgas, totalling thirty-four in number, adding Malkauns, Malva and Hindol to the thirty-one employed in the Sikh Scripture. The only known manuscript of the Harijas Granth, comprising 918 folios, which has so far remained unpublished and which was, according to internal evidence (f. 760), completed on Thursday, Jeth vadi 13, 1860 Bk/20 May 1803, is preserved in the Gurdwara Bhai Darbari at the village of Vairoke in Faridkot district. Bhai Darbari was a follower of Bhai Abhai Ram who was fifth in the line from Baba Miharban, leader of the schismatic Mina group of the Sikhs, and who later received the rites of Sikh baptism at the hands of Guru Gobind Singh and came to be known as Abhai Singh. The Harijas Granth begins with the Sikh Mul Mantra, here recorded in a somewhat changed order.

HAZARA SINGH, GIANI (1828-1908), scholar and educator, was born in Amritsar in 1828. He also used to inscribe his name as Bhai Hazara Singh Giani as well as Hazur Hari. His father, Bhai Savan Singh, was employed in the Golden Temple as a store keeper. The family had migrated from Harappa, now in Pakistan, to settle in Amritsar.

HAQIQAT RAH MUQAM RAJE SHIVNABH KI Haqiqat Rah Muqam Raje Shivnabh Ki (account or description of way, i.e. journey to the abode of Raja Shivnabh) is an anonymous and undated short piece in Punjabi prose, found appended to some manuscript copies of the Guru Granth Sahib, particularly to copies of the Bhai Banno recension. The author of this account is supposed to be Bhai Paira, a learned Sikh who was deputed by Guru Arjan to go to Singhladip (Singhladip of the Janam Sakhis), present-day Sri Lanka, to fetch a copy of a manuscript called the Pran Sangll (Chain of the Vital Breath), an interpretation of Hatha Yoga, which was said to have been recited by Guru Nanak to the Raja of Sanghladip, Shivnabh.

JAGGA, BHAI, a Khatrl of Dharni clan, was a devoted Sikh of the time of Guru Arigad. As he first waited upon the Guru, he said, "Show me the light, True Master. I have been to a yogi for guidance, but he would not instruct me until I renounce my home and family which I am unable to do. How shall I be saved?" The Guru, according to Bhai Mani Singh, Sikhdn di Bhagat Maid, spoke, "If you renounce the world to practise meditation and yet go to a householder begging for food, the reward for your endeavour must go to him who sustains you.

JANAM SAKHI SRI GUR NANAKU SAH KI by Sant Das Chhibbar is a versified biography of Guru Nanak (1469-1539), founder of the Sikh faith, based primarily on Janam Sakhi Bhai Raid. A manuscript copy of the work is preserved in the Central Public Library, Patiala, under MS. No. 2737. This script is dated 1838 Bk/AD 1781. Two more manuscripts were preserved in the Sikh Reference Library, Amritsar, until it perished in the aimy action in 1984.A published version of the work, based on all the three manuscripts then available, has been brought out by Punjabi University, Patiala, in 1985.

JATPURA, village adjacent to Lammari, 14 km from Raikot (30°39`N, 75°37`E) in Ludhiana district on the Guru Gobind Singh Marg, is believed to have been visitct. by Guru Hargobind during his sojourn in the Malva country in 1631-32. Gurdwara Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib Band! Chhor commemorates that visit. It consists of a rectangular hall witli a verandah on three sides and a domed room on the first floor. A residential room and the Guru ka Larigar arc at the back. The Gurdwara is managed by Sant Ajaib Singh of Boparai, who also controls Gurdwara Guru Sar Panjauana at Lamman.

JHORAR, a village still flanked on two sides by arid mounds of shifting sands, 6 km northeast of Bara Gudha railway station (29"43`N, 75"1`E), in Sirsa district of Haryana, is sacred to Guru Gobind Singh, who made a brief halt here while travelling from Talvandi Sabo towards Sirsa in the winter of 1706. Gurdwara Patshahi X, constructed in the 1950`s, is a flat roofed hall, within a lowwallcd compound. It is maintained by the village sanga.l.

JOTI BIGAS is the joint title of two poetic compositions, one in Persian and the other in Punjabi, by Bhai Nand Lal Goya, a devoted Sikh of Guru Gobind Singh, much revered in Sikh piety and in letters. Bhai Nand Lal`s verse is classed as approved Sikh canon and can be recited at religious assemblies along with the hymns of the Gurus. Both the works included mJoti Bigds are in the nature of a fervent homage to the Gurus, all ten of whom are acclaimed as sharing the same light, the same voice speaking through ten bodies. The work in Punjabi comprises forty-three couplets whereas the one in Persian has 175 couplets.