guru

HARI SINGH KAHARPURI, SANT (1888-1973), Sikh saint and preacher, was born in 1888 in a Liddar Jatt family of the village of Jian, in Hoshiarpur district of the Punjab. He was the youngest of the three sons of Avtar Singh and Atar Kaur. He received instruction in religious texts from Sant Dalip Singh of Domeli. He grew up to be a youth of a strong, athletic build and enlisted in the 25th Punjab Battalion as a sepoy in 1904, serving in the North-West Frontier Province. Under the influence of Sant Harnarn Singh, who also belonged to the village of Jian and who was also then serving in the army, his native religious inclination asserted itself and he became more and more preoccupied with gurbdni and meditation.

HEMA KAPAHI, BHAI, was a resident of Sultanpur Lodhi in the present Kapurthala district of the Punjab. He was in cotton (kapdh) trade for which reason he was known as Kapahi. He embraced the Sikh faith in the time of Guru Amar Das and also received instruction from Guru Arjan. He was known for the spiritual enlightenment he had achieved. The name figures among the leading Sikhs of the times of Guru Amar Das (Varan, XI. 21).

IKULAHA, a village 6 km south-west of Khanna (30°42`N, 76°13`E) in Ludhiana district, is sacred to Guru Hargobind, who visited it on his way from Ghurani and Dhamot to Saunti. The shrine which commemorates the visit was raised much later. The construction work was started in 1907-08 by Bhai Rala Singh, who resigned his job in East Africa to return to his village for this purpose, but the building was not completed until 1933. By then the supervision had passed into the hands of a revered lady, Man Gulab Kaur. The shrine is known today as Gurdwara Guru Sar Patshahi Chhevin.

JAIDEV (JAYADEVA), saint and poet, two of whose hymns are incorporated in the Guru Granth Sahib, is chiefly known to the literary world as the author of the Gita Govinda, a lyrical poem in which the love of Radha (soul or devotee) for Govinda (the Supreme Being) is described symbolically and mystically. Jaidcv was born at Kindu Bilva which, according to some, is now Kcnduli, in BTrbhum district of West Bengal, on the river Ajay and, according to others, KcnduliSasan, on Prachi river, near Jagannath Purl in Orissa. At the end of Ins poem, he has given his father`s name as Bhojadcva and mother`s as Radhadcvi, deciphered also as Ramadevi, or Vamadcvl.

JAUNPUR (25°47`N, 82°40`E), a district town in Uttar Pradesh, situated on the bank of the River Gomati, claims a historical gurudwara known as Gurdwara Tap Asthan Sri Guru Tegh BahadurJi (Bari Sarigat) or simply Gurdwara Ban Sarigat. A Sikh sangal was in existence inJaunpur when Guru Tegh Bahadur passed by travelling from the Punjab to the eastern parts in 1665. Bhai Gurbakhsh, a melodious singer of the divine hymns, called on the Guru, along with theJaunpur sangat, atVaranasi.

JIT MALL, a cousin of Guru Gobind Singh, was the son of Bhai Sadhu, a Khosia Khatrl of Malla, in present day Faridkot district of the Punjab, and Bibi Viro, daughter of Guru Hargobind and elder sister of Guru Tegh Bahadur. As recorded in Guru Gobind Singh`s autobiographical poem Bachiira Ndtak,]{. Mall and his four brothers took a heroic part in the battle of Bharigam, near Paonta, now in Himachal Pradcsh, fought on 18 September 1688. In reverberating verse matching the fierce pace of the battle, Guru Gobind Singh describes how the mighty Raja Hari Chand who had kept up a deadly discharge of arrows was challenged by JTt Mall and felled with a single thrust of his spear. JTt Mall was among two of the five brothers who were killed in the battle.

JANMEJA (JANAMEJAYA) Janamejaya could not comprehend the Word of the Guru. Having strayed in illusion, how could he attain peace. He erred a little (and afterwards repented). (Gauri M. l, p. 225) The king Janamejaya was being advised by Vyasa (not to ride the horse, not to bring home the Apasaras and not to do any-thing at her bidding), but the king did the same and accepted the proposal of the Apasaras regarding the performance of a Yajna. He invited eighteen Brahmins.

KALIAN CHAND, BABA (1440-1522), variously mentioned by chroniclers as Mahita Kalu, Kalu Rai, Kalu Chand, Kalian Rai and Kalian Chand, was the father of Guru Nanak, founder of Sikh faith. He was the elder of the two sons of Baba Shiv Ram, a Bedi Khatn, and Mata Banarasi of the village of Patthevind (no longer in existence). The village fell in what is now the Amritsar district of the Punjab. The family later shifted to Talvandi Rai Bhoi Ki, now known as Nankana Sahib, in present day Sheikliupura district of Pakistan, where Shiv Ram became the village patvdn or keeper of revenue records, a post occupied by Baba Kalian Chand after his father`s death.

KANHAIYA, BHAI (1648-1718), founder of the Sevapanthi or Addanshahi sect of the Sikhs, was born in a Dhamman Khatri family of Sodhara near Waxirabad in Sialkot district (now in Pakistan). His father was a wealthy trader, but he himself being of a religious bent of mind left home when still very young and roamed about with sddhus and ascetics in search of spiritual peace. His quest ended as he met Guru Tegh Bahadur (1621-75) and accepted initiation at his hands. Kanhaiya established a dharamsdl at Kavha village in the present Attock district of Pakistan which he turned into a preaching centre.

KARKHE PATSHAH DASVEN KE. The term "karkhe" is the plural from of`karkha" which is the name of a poetic form, mostly used in war poetry in old Hindi. The Karkhe Pats hah Dasven Ke consists of two such poems, desciribng the battles of Guru Gobind Singh. The poet goes by the name of Sain, who is identified by some as Sainapati, a contemporary of the Guru and the celebrated author of Sri Gur Sobhd.The battle of Bharigam is the subject of the first Karkha; the second deals with the battle of the Fort of Fatehgarh at Anandpur.