GALAURA, BHAI, a resident of village Chlka in the present Kaithal district of Haryana, became a devotee of Guru Tegh Bahadur The Guru appointed him his masand, representative in Hisar and Harisi, in which capacity he spread the teachings of the Gurus in that region.

MAYYA, BHAI, a Khullar Khatri, is mentioned among the prominent Sikhs of the time of Guru Ram Das. According to Bhai Mani Singh, Sikhdn di Bhagat Maid, Bhai Mayya along with Bhai Japa and Bhai Nayya, both of the Khullar clan, and Bhai Tulsa, a Vohra Khatri, once waited

VANJARA SIKHS or Banjaras, akin to Labana Sikhs of the Punjab, are found scattered throughout Central and South India as well as in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Although vanjara, from Sanskrit vanij (a merchant, trader), is now used as a generic term for peddlers in the Punjab, the Vanjaras during

GANJ NAMAH (Treasure Book), by Bhai Nand Lal Goya, is a panegyric in Persian, partly verse and partly prose, in honour of the Ten Gurus. Bhai Nand Lal was a revered Sikh of the time of Guru Gobind Singh and a distinguished poet. The Ganj Namah renders homage to the

MELI, lit. attached or companion, appears in the Sikh Scripture in different connotations usually as a verb form, past indefinite of melana (to attach, join, bring together), in the feminine form (GG, 54, 63, 90, 243, 379, 389, 584 et al.); as an adjective meaning loving, attached (GG, 4243); and

YOGA, derived from Sanskrit root yuj having its equivalent in Latin as jugum, in Gothic as juk, in German as jock, is the equivalent of yoke in English. Yoga refers to yoking or harnessing of mind in order to cultivate paravidya or higher knowledge, the result of those psychical

GIANI SAMPRADAI is one of three major schools of Sikhs theologians and expositors of the Sikh scripture, the other two being the Udasis and the Nirmalas. Giani, the Punjabi form of Sanskrit jndni from the rootjnd (to know), originally meant a scholar of high learning. In Sikh tradition, a gidmis

PARCHI (plural parchtdn), Punjabized form of the Sanskrit noun parichaya which means introduction, evidence or an anecdote bearing witness to the miraculous powers of a prophet or seer. The term was applied to the form of Punjabi writing developed in the seventeenth century to present the life stories of the

APOCRYPHAL COMPOSITIONS, known in Sikh vocabulary as kachchi bani (unripe, rejected texts) or vadhu bani (superfluous texts) are those writings, mostly in verse but prose not excluded,which have been attributed to the Gurus, but which were not incorporated in the Guru Granth Sahib at the time of its compilation in

GOPI MAHITA, BHAI, accompanied by Bhai Tirath, Bhai Nattha, Bhai Bhau Mokal and Bhai Dhilli Mandal, once visited Guru Arjan. One of them, as says Bhai Mani Singh, Sikhdn d~i Bhagat Maid, said: "Lord, Prithi Mall and Mahadev [the Guru`s brothers] are also composing verses using the name of

PARCHIAN SEVA DAS, variously titled as Sdkhidn Sevd Dds Udasi, Mahaldn Dasdn kidn Sdkhidn, Sdkhidn Dasdn Pdtshdhidn Kidn or Parchidn Pdtshdhi 10, is an eighteenth century collection of 50 sdkhis or anecdotes from the lives of the Ten Gurus. Only one sakhl each relates to the first eight Gurus;