guru

BABAR, ZAHIR UD-DIN MUHAMMAD (1483-1530), soldier of fortune, founder of the Mughal dynasty in India, diarist and poet, descending in the fifth generation from Timur, was born on 14 February 1483. In June 1494, he succeeded his father, \'Umar Shaikh\', as ruler of Farghana, whose revenues supported no more than a few hundred cavalry. With this force of helmeted, mailclad warriors, Babar began his career of conquest. He joined in the family struggle for power, thrice winning and thrice losing Samarkand, alternately master of a kingdom or a wanderer through the hills.

BAISAKHI, a seasonal festival popular in the Punjab which takes place on the First day of the solar month of Baisakh (Sanskrit Vaisakha, so called because according to astrological calculations, the moon at this time passes through visakha naksatra or constellation) of the Indian calendar. Traditionally, the festival was celebrated as the harbinger of happiness and plenty being closely connected with harvesting. To ward off malignant spirits ruinous to the harvest, a ritual dance preceded the festivities. In the central districts of Gujrariwala, Sialkot and Gurdaspur as also in parts of Jammu, the popular dance form was, and still is, bhangra.

BAMBELI (also referred to locally as DuggBambeli because of its proximity to another village called Dugg), 12 km north of Phagwara (31°, 14`N, 75° 46`E) in the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Har Rai who visited here during one of his journeys between Kartarpur and Kiratpur. Gurdwara Chaunta Sahib Patshahi VII, near the confluence of two chos or seasonal streams to the northwest of the village, marks the site where the Guru had halted and sat on a platform of earth work (chaunta in the local dialect of Punjabi).

BARHE, village 6 km southwest of Budhlada Mandi (29° 55`N, 75° 33`E) in Bathinda district of the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Tegh Bahadur, who, according to the Sakhi Pothi, spent a rainy season here, while travelling through the Malva country. Gurdwara Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib commemorating the visit is on the northwestern outskirts of the village, near a big pond a part of which has been converted into a sarovar. An extensive complex has developed around the old Manji Sahib, a domed room with a square platform within it, near an old van tree.

BEERWAH (pronounced Birvah), a sub divisional town in Badgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, 35 km southwest of Srinagar (34° 5`N, 74° 50`E), claims a historical Sikh shrine, Gurdwara Sri Guru Nanak Charan Asthan Dukhnivaran, commemorating the visit of Guru Nanak to these parts in the early years of the sixteenth century. The old building was washed away by floods in 1948. Only a single small room served as the gurdwara until the present doublestoreyed building was constructed in 1975.

BHALAN, village near the confluence of Soah rivulet with the River Sutlej 14 km south of Nangal in Ropar district of the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Gobind Singh, who arrived here following Khanzada Rustam Khan in the winter of 1693-94. As Guru Gobind Singh himself relates in his Bachitra Natak, the Khanzada had planned to surprise the Sikhs with a night attack, but finding the defendants alert he beat a hasty retreat. "Ravaging Barva village (on his way back)," records Guru Gobind Singh, "he made a halt at Bhalan." The shrine rebuilt by the local sangat in 1960 is called Gurdwara Dashmeshgarh (lit. Fort of the Tenth Master). It is a small square sanctum with a circumambulatory verandah around it. The Gurdwara is managed by a committee of the local Sikhs.

BHAROVAL, village 15 km east of Tarn Taran (31°27`N, 74°56`E) along the Tarn TaranGoindval road, is sacred to Guru Angad (1504-52), who stayed here awhile on his way back from Khan Chhapri to Khadur Sahib. The commemorative shrine formerly known as Guruana is now called Gurdwara Guru Angad Sahib. The present complex, reconstructed during the 1980`s, includes a marblefloored, rectangular divan hall, with the sanctum at the far end and a verandah around it.

BHIRAI, MAI, spelt by some chroniclers also as Bharai and Virai, who belonged to Matte di Sarai, the birthplace of Guru Arigad (1504-52), was married to Bhai Mahima, a Khahira Jatt of Khadur (Sahib) in Amritsar district of the Punjab. She was like a sister to Bhai Pheru Mall, the Guru`s father, who too had made Khadur his home. According to Sarup Das Bhalla, Mahima Prakash, after Arigad (formerly Lahina) had been nominated by Guru Nanak to be his spiritual successor at Kartarpur in 1539 and advised to return to Khadur, the former instead of going back to his own home went to Mai Bhirai`s and stayed there for some time in seclusion, immersed in deep meditation.

BILAVAL KI VAR, by Guru Ram Das, is one of his eight vars in a corpus of twenty-two included in the Guru Granth Sahib. It occurs in Raga Bilaval, and consists of thirteen pauris or stanzas, each comprising five lines, with the exception of pauri 10 which is of six lines. To the pauris which are of Guru Ram Das`s composition, slokas were added by Guru Arjan at the time of the compilation of the Holy Book. In its present form, each paun, except pauri 7 which has three slokas prefixed to it, is preceded by two slokas. Of these twenty-seven slokas, two are of the composition of Guru Nanak, one of Guru Ram Das and the remaining of Guru Amar Das.

BRAHM DAS, PANDIT, described in the Puratan Janam Sakhi as a learned man of Kashmir, is said to have been a resident of Bij Bihara, near Matan. Once Guru Nanak journeying through the valley halted close to where he lived. As Brahm Das, proud of his learning, heard of the arrival of afagfr, holy man, he came in his accustomed manner with his packs of Puranas and other old texts amounting to "two camel loads" and with a stone idol suspended from his neck. No sooner had he uttered his greeting than he began questioning the Guru on how he clad himself, what ritual he observed and what food he ate.