POTHI, popular Punjabi form of the Sanskrit pustaka (book), derived from the root pust (to bind) via the Pali potlhaka and Prakrit puttha. Besides Punjabi, the word poihi meaning a book is current in Maithili, Bhojpuri and Marathi languages as well. Among the Sikhs, however, polhi signifies a sacred book,

BALA, BHAI (1466-1544), who, according to popular belief, was a lifelong companion of Guru Nanak, was the son of Chandar Bhan, a Sandhu Jatt of Talvandi Rai Bhoi, now Nankana Sahib in Pakistan. Three years senior in age to Guru Nanak, he was his childhood playmate in Talvandi. From

LALO, BHAI, was, according to Bala Janam Sakhi, a carpenter by profession who lived at Saidpur, present day town of Eminabad in Gujranwala district of Pakistan, and with whom Guru Nanak put up for three days during his travel through those parts. Bhai Lalo served him with devotion. That

PURATANJANAM SAKHI is considered to be the oldest extant Janam Sakhi. The term `Purdtan,` is used to designate an early Janam Sakhi tradition, rediscovered in 1872 after more than a century of oblivion. By the mid eighteenth century the Bald Janam Sdkht tradition had won general acceptance as the

BALA JANAM SAKHI. The Janam Sakhis of the Bala tradition owe both their name and their reputation to Bhai Bala, a SandhuJa^ from Guru Nanak`s village of Talvandi. According to the tradition`s own claims, Bala was a near contemporary of Guru Nanak who accompanied him during his period in

MAHIMA PRAKASH, known as Mahima Prakash Vartak (prose) to distinguish it from another work, in verse, bearing the same title, Sarup Das Bhalla\'s Mahima Prakash, is an unpublished manuscript containing anecdotes from the lives of the Gurus. The manuscript, copies of which are now available in the Khalsa College at

SACHCHA SAUDA, GURDWARA, at Chuharkana in Sheikhupura district of Pakistan, celebrates a popularly told event from the lit of Guru Nanak. According to Bhai Bala janam Sakhi, Guru Nanak`s father, Baba Kalu, to settle his son in a permanent vocation once gave him a sum of twenty rupees and

MAHIMA, BHAI. Khahira Jatt of Khadur in Amritsar district, was a devoted Sikh contemporary of Guru Angad. According to Bhai Balevali Janam Sakhi, the Guru once stayed with him in his house. When the Guru desired someone to be sent for to transcribe in Gurmukhi characters Guru Nanak\'s horoscope

SAJJAN, SHAIKH, a resident of Makhdumpur, 20 km southwest of the ancient town of Talumbha or Tulambha, now in Multan district of Pakistan, was a thug or cutthroat who, according to the Janam Sakhi "tradition, was once visited by Guru Nanak. Sayan lived in apparent piety and prosperity and maintained

In Punjabi Letters this term is not current. There is a long tradition of tikas, meaning compositions in which a poetic text is published with every line followed by its meaning in prose, including a brief comment wherever considered necessary by the tikakar.

MAN CHAND, son of Khan Chand. resident of Kabul in Afghanistan, became a devotee of Guru Nanak. According to Bala Janam Sakhi, once Guru Nanak accompanied by Bhai Bala went to Kabul especially to meet Man Chand whom he sent for through a local Pathan. Man Chand, who had

SALAS RAI was, according to Bhai Bala Janam Sakhi, a jeweller of Bishambharpur, present Bishnupur in Bankura district of West Bengal, although a tradition recorded by Giani Gian Singh, Twankh Guru Khalsa, identifies the place as the city of Patna in Bihar. As Guru Nanak travelling in the eastern