GOMATI My Haj (Muslim Pilgrimage) is on the banks of Gomati, where lives my Pir (Guru) of yellow garments (i.e Krishna). (Asa Sri Kabir, p. 478) Gomati is a river in Uttar Pradesh. The Sikh Gurus and radical saints do not believe in religious rituals. Kabir, in the reference

HARAMBAY (MAGHAR) If the hard-hearted sinner dies at Banarasa, he cannot save himself from hell. If the saint of the Lord dies at Harambay, he ferries across many people besides himself. (Asa Kabir, p. 484) Harambay seems to be another narne for Maghar, where, according to tradition, if anyone

HARDWAR (HARI-DWARA) I am eager to die and also die at Hari-dwara, so that the Lord may ask who is lying here at my door-step ? (Shalok Kabir, p. 1367) Hardwar (Hari-dwara) is a pilgrim station at the place where Ganga (the Ganges) finally breaks through the mountains into

KABIR PANTHIS, followers of Kabir (1398-1448), a saint and reformer some of whose compositions have been included in Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib. Kabir did not found any sect during his own lifetime; it was after his death that a math, called Kabir Chaura, was established by Surat

If you pray fraudulently in your mind, what is the need of going to Ka\'bah .for a Å«^/ ? (Prabhali Kabir, p. 1350) The Sheikh (Muslim divine) without the quality of sabar (patience)—why should he go to Ka\'bab for a hajj, says Kabir ? The one who has no

LANKA A strong fort like Lanka and the moat of sea around it-— such an abode of Ravana is no more traceable. (Asa Kabir, p. 481) The Fort of Lanka was made of gold; What did foolish Ravana take away with him ? (Bhairo Kabir, p. 1158) The island

POTHIAN, BABA MOHAN VALIAN, manuscript copies {pothidn, lit. books), in Gurmukhi script, containing some of the compositions of the first three Gurus and eight medieval saints, which, according to Sikh tradition. Guru Arjan (1563-1606) obtained from Baba Mohan, the elder son of the Third Guru, Amar Das, and which

PURANMASHI, in Sanskrit pumimd, is the day of the full moon, the last day of the moon`s bright phases. The day has sanctity in the Indian tradition and several ceremo nial observances such as ritual bathing, fasting and giving away of charity are associated with it. In the Sikh

RAVANA Rama has gone and Ravana has gone, who had a big family; the world is a dream and nothing is stable, saith Nanak. (Shalok M. 9, p. 1428) Ravana, who had one lakh sons and lakh and a quarter grandsons; there is not even a lamp and a

SAIN or SAIN, whose one hymn has been included in the Guru Granth Sahib, is counted among the disciples of Ramanand (1300-1411). Guru Arjan, Nanak V, says in one of his hymns in the Holy Book that the name of Sain was a household word as a bhakta of

BAVAN AKHARI, a poem constructed upon 52 (bavan) letters (akhar) of the alphabet. In this form of poetry each verse begins serially with a letter of the alphabet. The origin of the genre is traced to ancient Sanskrit literature. Since the Devanagari alphabet, employed in Sanskrit, comprises fifty-two (bavan, in

SANT TRADITION comprises those medieval monotheistic and devout personalities belonging to different shades of Indian society who are supposed to have been quiet, tranquil nonsectarian, opposed to Brahmanical ritualism, piously tired of the duplicity of the world but otherwise deeply conscious and critical of the outrageous anamolies professed by certain