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MANI MAJRA is an old town, 2 km east of Chandigarh (30°44`N, 76°47`E). After the death of Baba Ram Rai at Dehra Dun in 1687, one of his wives, Mata Raj Kaur, settled in Mani Majra. The following year, Guru Gobind Singh returning from Paonta Sahib to Anandpur Sahib, came here on Maghar vadi 10, 1745 Bk/November 1688, to call on her. What is now known as Gurdwara Manji Sahib was the residence of Mata Raj Kaur, expanded later by the members of the Ram Raia sect who were maintaining it until the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee took it over. Mata Raj Kaur was a pious lady credited with spiritual powers.
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MARTYRDOM or voluntarily laying down of one`s life for one`s faith or principles, considered a noble death in any society, is especially prized in Sikhism which has a long and continuous tradition of such adherence to religious belief and sacrifice for it. Etymologically, "martyr" is derived from the Greek martys meaning "witness." Significantly, the Punjabi word for martyrdom, shahddat, borrowed from Arabic, also means testimony or affirmation.
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MUMTAZ, according to Sarup Singh Kaushish, Guru kian Sakhian, was the daughter of Nihang Khan, Muslim chief of Kotla. Nihang Khan near Ropar. She served the Sikh warrior Bhai Bachittar Singh who, severely wounded in a skirmish after the evacuation of Anandpur in December 1705, had been brought to her father`s house. To throw the pursuers off the scent, Nihang Khan told them that the wounded person in the house was his son-in-law.
Meharban, Sodhi, original name Manohardas, son of Prithichand, the elder brother of Guru Arjan Dev (the fifth Guru of the Sikhs), wrote poetry as well as prose, but his prominent work is Janam sakhi Guru Nanak Dev (Story of the nativity of Guru Nanak, the first Guru of the Sikhs). It is said in Bansabalinama by Kesar Singh Chibbar, (published by the Sikh History Department, Khalsa College, Amritsar, 1962), that under the very pseudonym of \'Nanak\', he composed and made available his poetry as Mahalla-1 (the seventh hierarchical position of the Guru). Sodhi Hariji, his son, also employed prose and poetry as a vehicle of his thought, under the pen-name of Mahalla-8. Both of them borrowed their diction and imagery from the great \'Gurbani\' (verses of the great Sikh Masters).
NANAK, by Ksitish Chakravarty, is a versified biography of Guru Nanak (1469-1539) in Bengali. The author, a lawyer by profession, was of a devout temperament. He was attracted to the teaching of Guru Nanak whom he hails as an harbinger of the bhakti movement, spreading the gospel of love and devotion among the people of the Indian subcontinent. The book was published in 1916. As for his sources, the poet refers solely to Annie Basant`s Children of the Motherland, but it seems he was not wholly unaware of some of the writings on Sikhs published in the Bhdrati Sind other contemporary Bengali journals. The poem begins with Guru Nanak`s birth at Talvandi, and recounts his early schooling in the village pdth sald, his encounter with the cddia.nd other episodes of his early life.
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NANDPUR, commonly referred to as NandpurKalaur because of its proximity to the village by the name of Kalaur, is 9 km from Bassi Pathanan (30°42`N. 76°25`E) in Fatehgarh Sahib district. The historical shrine at Nandpur, Gurdwara Sahib Patshahi Nauviri, commemorates the visit of Guru Tegh Bahadur. The present building constructed over the old Manji Sahib, was completed in 1957. It appears that Nandpur village sank down sometime after the construction of the Manji Sahib.
NAU SEKHAR, a Sekhar Khatri, who had turned a mendicant, received Guru Arjan`s teaching and became his Sikh. His name is included in the roster of the Guru`s devotees in Bhai Mani Singh, Sikhan di Bhagat Maid.
NIRANJAN SINGH, SANT (1922-1994). Fair complexioned, and blue eyed, Giani Sant Niranjan Singh was nurtured on several branches of learning, old and new. He was especially interested in vedanta and nydya. He was also well read in Panini. All his life he remained immersed in Sikh letters.
OANKARU is a composition of Guru Nanak`s in the measure Ramkali in the Guru Granth Sahib. The full title of the barn is Rdmkali Mahala 1 Dakhani Oankaru. The title is explained differently by different scholars. According to one tradition, dakham is the adjective for the noun Oarikaru which is the actual name of the bdm. It is called dakham because it was addressed to the priest of the Oarikar temple in the dakhan (South), on an island in the river Narmada, in Madhya Pradesh.
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PAKKHOKE RANDHAVE, a village in the east of Dera Baba Nanak (32° 2`N, 75° 2`E) in Gurdaspur district of the Punjab, is the place where Guru Nanak`s wife and children stayed with his fatherinlaw during the Guru`s absence on udasis or preaching journeys. The village has a historical shrine dedicated to Baba Sri Chand, the Guru`s elder son, who, after the passing away of his father, stayed here for some time before settling down at Barath. Known as Tahli Sahib Baba Sri Chand, it is a small domed room, with a statue of Baba Sri Chand in a sitting posture installed inside it, near an old shisham or tahti tree. The shrine is managed privately.
