RAM SINGH, a holy man maintaining a dharamsala at Zahura, near Tanda, in Hoshiarpur district, assisted Bhai Maharaj Singh, the leader of the anti British rebellion of 1848-49, not only by lodging him and his followers in his dharamsala but also introducing him to several influential

SAROVAR, a tank, pool or lake, especially at a sacred place or by a holy shrine used for sacramental ablutions and other religious ceremonies. Sanskrit synonyms are sar, sarvar, tarag and vapl. Another word is puskar or puskarini which usually means a pond full of lotus

BIKRAM SINGH, RAJA (1842-1898). born in January 1842, succeeded his father, Wazir Singh, to the throne of Faridkot state in 1874. A dominant figure in Faridkot history, Raja Bikram Singh modernized the state administration. He employed retired British officials of experience and in 1875 set up offices and courts

KANRE KI VAR, by Guru Ram Das, is one of the twenty-two compositions entered in the Guru Granth Sahib under the rubric of vdr. Like oilier vdrs it is assigned to a specific musical measure Kanra, in this instance. At the head of the Vdr is recorded by Guru

RAGMAIA, lit. a rosary of ragas or musical measures, is the title of a composition of twelve verses, running into sixty lines, appended to the Guru Granth Sahib after the Munddvam, i.e. the epilogue, as a table or index of ragas. In the course of the evolution of Indian music,

BIR SINGH, BABA (1768-1844), soldier become religious preacher and saint, was born in July 1768 at the village of Gaggobua, in Amritsar district of the Punjab, the son of Seva Singh and Dharam Kaur. After the death of his father in one of the campaigns against the Afghan rulers

KATHA is the noun form of the Sanskrit word kath, meaning to speak, describe, narrate or interpret. In religious terminology, kathd stands for exposition, analysis and discussion of a passage from a scripture. It involves a full length discourse on a given text, with a proper enunciation of it and

RAHRASI is the name given to the main evening prayer of the Sikhs. The word itself implies supplication, though some traditionalist scholars have interpreted it as rahirdst which, in Persian, means the straight path, the path of faith and devotion as against that. of mere ritual practices or yogic

BRAHM DAS, PANDIT, described in the Puratan Janam Sakhi as a learned man of Kashmir, is said to have been a resident of Bij Bihara, near Matan. Once Guru Nanak journeying through the valley halted close to where he lived. As Brahm Das, proud of his learning, heard of

KIRTAN (from Skt. kirii, i.e. to praise, celebrate or glorify), a commonly accepted mode of rendering devotion to God by singing His praises, is a necessary part of Sikh worship. Music plays a significant role in most religious traditions. In Sikhism it is valued as the highest form of expression

SADHARAN PATH is the reading of the Guru Granth Sahib from beginning to end, with no time limit for completion. Even where the limit is fixed and it exceeds a week, it will be called a sadharan path, two other terms synonymously used being khulla path (khulla = unrestricted,

AGAUL, village 10 km from Nabha (30°22\'N, 76°9\'E) in Patiala district, has a historical shrine called Gurudwara Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib. In the course of a journey through this area, Guru Tegh Bahadur came and sat here under a pipal tree on the bank of a pond. The