SHAHABAD (30"10`N, 7653E), also called Shahabad Markanda, is an old town in Kurukshetra district of Haryana on the left bank of the Markanda River, 20 km south of Ambala Cantonment. During the medieval period it had a fortified serai used by imperial officers and troops moving between Delhi and the northern provinces. It also had a resident garrison to guard the highway. Banda Singh Bahadur reduced and plundered Shahabad in 1709.
SIARH, village 14 km southeast of Mandi Ahmadgarh (30°42N, 75"51`E), inLudhiana district of the Punjab, has a historical shrine, Gurdwara Gurusar Patshahi Chhevin. It is said that as Guru Hargobind was moving from Rara towards Jagera, his horse suddenly became so sick that the Guru had to break his journey in a thicket near this village. The horse soon died. The Guru had the animal covered with a costly shroud and buried. According to local tradition, two greedy residents of Siarh, who had witnessed the burial, dug up the grave after the Guru`s departure, removed the shroud, and sold it.
SINGH SAGAR, by Vir Singh Bal, is a versified account of the life of Guru Gobind Singh. The author, not many details of whose career are known, was born to Bhai Bakht Singh towards the end of eighteenth century. He was a poet at the court of Maharaja Karam Singh (1797-1845) of Patiala and wrote several books, including Kissa HirRahjha, Bara Maha, GurKirat Prakas, Gopi Chand Vairag Shatak, Sudha Sindhu Ramayana. The Singh Sagarwas written in 1884 Bk/AD 1827 at Patiala. The work, two manuscript copies of which are extant one preserved in the Motibagh Palace at Patiala has since been published (1986) by the Punjabi University.
SORATHI KI VAR, or Ragu Sorathi Var Mahale Chauthe KI as is the full title recorded at the head of the text in the Guru Granth Sahib contrasting the short title in the index, is one of the eight vars composed by Guru Ram Das. It comprises twenty-nine pauns, i.e. stanzas of five verses each, interspersed with fifty-eight slokas three of them being by Guru Nanak, one by Guru Angad, forty-seven by Guru Amar Das and seven by Guru Ram Das, the author of the Var. The Var opens with Guru Nanak`s line: "sorathi sada suhavani je sacha mani hoi agreeable always (to sing) is Raga Sorathi provided one`s mind is to truth attuned" (GG, 642).
SUDHAIL, one of the two villages in Ambala district of Haryana about 400 metres apart from each other, but popularly called by the joint name of Sudhal Sudhail, situated 7 km west of Jagadhri (30"7`N, 77"17`E), claims a historical gurdwara. It is called Gurdwara Manji Sahib Patshahi Nauim. Sikh chronicles record that Guru Tegh Bahadur visited Sudhail in the course of his travels in this area. According to local tradition, a platform existed in the village commemorating the visit.
SUNDAR, BABA, celebrated for his six stanza composition, the Ramkali Sadu, incorporated in the Guru Granth Sahib, was the great grand son of Guru Amar Das. His father, Anand Das son of Baba Mohri, was a man of a devout temperament. Sundar grew up in an environment of faith and piety and developed deep affection and reverence for Guru Amar Das, his great grandfather. The theme of his poem, Sadu meaning call, is the ascension of Guru Amar Das, described in terms of his having been recalled by God Almighty.
Starting his career as lecturer in Punjabi at Doaba College, Jalandhar, Professor Pritam Singh shifted to Sikh National College, Lahore the next year where he served as a teacher in Punjabi until 1947. Joining the Punjab Education Service after Partition he rose to be Principal, Government College, Ludhiana and then Brijendra College,Faridkot but he continued his involvement in Punjabi teaching. He retired as Head of Guru Nanak Studies in Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar in 1980. He has several publications of prose of ideas and research to his credit.
TAPIYA SINGH, MAHANT (1892-1980), was a master of the Sikh scholarly texts besides being learned in Ayurveda and Sanskrit grammar. He was born into a Saraojatt family of Lehal Kalan in Sangrur district. He was a descendant of ^ Baba Ark who had been blessed by Guru Tegh Bahadur himself. One of his ancestors, Bhai Mall Singh, was the founder Mahant of Dhamtan Sahib also known as the Deori (gateway) of Hazur Sahib, Nanded.
THATTA, a small village 10 km west of Kapurthala (31022`N, 75022`E) in the Punjab, has a historical shrine, Gurdwara Damdama Sahib, commemorating the visit of Guru Nanak. According to local tradition, Guru Nanak and the guests who constituted his marriage party, on their way from Sultanpur Lodhi to Batala in 1487, made their first day`s halt here. Hence the name of Gurdwara, damdama, in Punjabi meaning a resting place. Baba Bir Singhof Naurarigabad (d. 1844), celebrated Sikh saint of early nineteenth century, is said to have served the shrine for some time.
TRANSMIGRATION OF THE SOUL. doctrine of rebirth based on the theory that an individual soul passes at death into a new body or new form of life. Central to the concept is the principle of universal causality, i.e. a person must receive reward or punishment if not here and now then in a subsequent birth, for his actions in the present one. The soul, it is held, does not cease with the physical body, but takes on a new birth in consequence of the person`s actions comprising thoughts, words and deeds. The cumulative effect of these determines his next existence. Attached to worldly objects, man will continue in the circuit of birth death rebirth until he attains spiritual liberation, annulling the effect of his past actions.
