ANAND KARAJ: Aanand Kaaraj is the Sikh marriage ceremony. The exact date of its origin is not known but references can be found that the marriage of the children of Guru Sahib had been performed by way of this ceremony. Guru Sahib had made it obligatory for a Sikh

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

BABAK (d. 1642), a Muslim rababi or musician, kept Guru Hargobind company and recited the sacred hymns at divans morning and evening. The word babak, from Persian, means faithful. As says the Gurbilas Chhevin Patshahi, Babak was, at the death of Satta and Balvand, who used to recite sacred

MAIA, BHAI, a Lamb Khatri of Suhand, identified as Sirhind by Bhai Kahn Singh, Gurushabad Ratnakar Mahan Kosh, was a devotee of Guru Hargobind. He regularly participated in the sangat and sang the holy hymns. According to Bhai Mani Singh, Sikhan di Bhagat Mala, he once asked the Guru,

BABAR VANI (Babar\'s command or sway) is how the four hymns by Guru Nanak alluding to the invasions by Babar (1483-1530), the first Mughal emperor of India, are collectively known in Sikh literature. The name is derived from the use of the term in one of these hymns: "Babarvani phiri

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

BALVAND, RAI, a rababi or rebeck player in the time of Guru Arjan and co-composer with Satta, said to be his brother, of a Var included in the Guru Granth Sahib in the Ramkali musical measure. He was by birth a mirasi, Muslim minstrel and genealogist, and sang the sacred

NAMDEV (1270-1350), saint of Maharashtra who composed poetry of fervent devotion in Marathi as well as in Hindi. His Hindi verse and his extended visit to the Punjab carried his fame far beyond the borders of Maharashtra. Sixty-one of his hymns in fact came to be included in Sikh Scripture,

BANI BIRDH PRATAP is a collection of religious and devotional poetry in a mixture of Braj and Punjabi, written in Gurmukhi script by Baba Ram Das, a Divana sadhu. The volume is preserved with reverence due to a religious scripture in the dera or monastery of the Divana sect established

RAVIDAS, poet and mystic, was born to Raghu and Ghurbinia, who lived near the city of Varanasi. Not much biographical information about him is available, but, from what can be made out of his own compositions, he belonged to a lowcaste (Chamdr) family. He followed the family profession of

BHAGAT (BHAKTA) BANI The Sikh Holy Book, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, comprises writings coming from two sources the sayings of the Gurus and those of the Bhagats (Bhaktas). The term Bhagat here broadly covers, besides some of the saints of medieval India whose compositions occur in the Guru Granth

SHABAD (SABAD) HAJARE, also called Hajare de Sabad, is a collection of seven hymns taken from the Guru Granth Sahib and grouped together for the purpose of daily recitation. The title Shabad Hajare occurs nowhere in the Guru Granth Sahib, though it has found its way into breviaries (gutkas)