HOLA MAHALLA or simply Hola, a Sikh festival, takes place on the first of the lunar month of Chef which usually falls in March. This follows the Hindu festival of Holi. The name Hola is the masculine form of the feminine sounding Holi. Mahalla, derived from the

SAMMAN BURJ, also called Musamman Burj, an octagonal tower commanding a wide range of buildings within the Lahore Fort, was built by Emperor Akbar, who made the city his capital for some time. Within the Fort was situated the royal palace which was enlarged by Jahangir and,

GOVARDHANA Through the Guru\'s discipline, Krishna lifted the Govardhana (mountain). (Maru M. l, p. 1041) Govardhan-dhari (One who holds up the mountain Govardhana)... (Maru M. 5, p. 1082) Govardhana is the name of a mountain in Vrindavana near Mathura. Once Krishna induced the cowherds and Gopis to worship this

SARHALA (popularly known as Sarhala Rannuan), village 12 km west of Bahga (31`1 I`M, 76"E) in Jalandhar district of the Punjab, has within its revenue limits a historical shrine, Gurdwara Gurplah Panj Tahli, dedicated to Guru Tegh Bahadur (1621-75), who stayed here once during a journey through the Doaba

JASSA MALL (d. 1836), son of Dhanpat, a Brahman shopkeeper, of the village of Dalval, in Jehlum district, joined Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s service in 1809 as a clerk on five rupees a month. In 1816, he became a treasurer in the Bela To shakhana, the treasury for charitable purposes.

TARA SINGH, SARDAR (1888-1956), lawyer, legislator and judge, was born in 1888, the son of Pratap Singh Gill of Moga, a district town of the Punjab. Having matriculated from a local high school in 1903, he graduated from Khalsa College, Amritsar, in 1907 and obtained his law degree from

KALU NATH, son of Jaimal, also called Data, a Dhalival Jatt of the Malva region, became a Vaisnav sddhu while still very young and, according to his biographer, Balmukand Das, roamed the countryside accompanied by his mother, Mohini, and young brother, Chikha. Later, he settled down under a jand

AZIZ UDDIN, FAQIR (1780-1845), physician, diplomat, and foreign minister at the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was the eldest son of Ghulam Mohy udDin, a leading physician of Lahore. Of his two brothers, Nur udDin held charge of the city of Lahore and had been governor of Gujrat, and Imam

KESAR SINGH (1875?), one of the leading organizers and first vice-president of the Hindustani Association of the Pacific Coast (of the United States), more commonly known as the Ghadr Parly. Born in 1875, he was the son of Bhup Singh and came from the village of Thatgarh, in Amritsar

BAGH SINGH VIRK (d. 1806), a feudatory chief under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. His father Lal Singh, who had migrated from Jammu, held sway in the tract between Sheikhupura and Miralivala as the Sikh sardars started acquiring territory in the Punjab in the latter half of the eighteenth century. He