NIHAL SINGH THAKUR (1808-1895), Sikh theologian and musician, was born at Amritsar on 7 Phagun 1864 Bk/17 February 1808 to Bhai Mahal Singh and Mata Basi. Bhai Mahal Singh lived in the village of Sayyid ki Sarai in Gujjarkhan tahsil of Rawalpindi district, now in Pakistan, and had come to

ANGLOSIKH TREATY (1840). In 1832, a treaty was executed by Lord William Bentinck, the Governor General of India, through Col. C.M. Wade, with the Lahore Darbar concerning navigation through the Sutlej and the Indus rivers within the Khalsa territory. Another treaty on the subject was subsequently executed in 1834, fixing

BIKRAMA SINGH, KANVAR (1835-1887), one of the pioneers of the Singh Sabha movement, was born in 1835. He was the son of Raja Nihal Singh of Kapurthala. As he grew up, he developed interest in classical learning and music. He received several honours and distinctions from the British government.

DES RAJ. BHAI, a Khatri Sikh of Amritsar, was entrusted with the supervision of the reconstruction of the Harimandar during the sixties and seventies of the eighteenth century. Nothing is known about his early life or family except that he originally came from Sursingh village, 30 km southwest of

GURBAKHSH SINGH, SANT (1871-1939), better known as Sant Gurbakhsh Singh of Patiala, scholar and preacher, was born in 1871 at Chunlan in Patiala district. His father, Bhal Sham Singh, and his family shifted to Harisron, near Navashahar in Jalandhar district, as the repression was let loose by government on

KALGIDHAR DlWAN MALAYA, a socioreligious body of the Sikhs in Malaya (Malaysia), and an offshoot of Khalsa Diwan Malaya, was first formed in January 1918 as Khalsa Diwan, Sclangor (3"20`N, 101°15`E), by those elements of the Khalsa Diwan Malaya who were dissatisfied with the parent body`s affiliation witli the Chief

KHALSA NAMAH, by Bakht Mall, a Persian manuscript prepared during 1810-14, is a history of the Sikhs from the time of Guru Nanak (1469-1539) to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Copies of the script, unpublished so far, are preserved in British Library; Royal Asiatic Society, London; Panjab University, Lahore;

MIRIPIRI, compound of two words, both of Perso Arabic origin, adapted into the Sikh tradition to connote the close relationship within it between the temporal and the spiritual. The term represents for the Sikhs a basic principle which has influenced their religious and political thought and governed their societal structure

PHAGWARA (31°14`n, 75°46`E), an industrial town along the Sher Shah Suri Marg (Grand Trunk Road) in Kapurthala district of the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Hargobind, who passed through here on his way to Kiratpur after the battle of Kartarpur (M) 1635). Two historical gurdwaras within the limits of

SARBATT KHALSA (sarbatt from Sanskrit sarva/ sarvatas meaning the whole or entire) is a term with a dual connotation. It is a concept as well as an institution. In the conceptual sense, KhaJsa is the extension of sarig"at, holycongregation, an institution which has been eulogized in the Sikh Scripture as

SRI GUR SOBHA, a poetical work, part eulogy and part history, is an admixture of Braj and eastern Punjabi, by Sainapati who enjoyed Guru Gobind Singh`s patronage for several years. The work, which had remained unknown to scholars of the recent period, was rediscovered by Akali Kaur Singh and published

TEJA SINGH BHUCHCHAR (1887-1939) , one of the pioneers of the Gurdwara reform movement in the 1920`s was the eldest son of Mayya Singh and Mahitab Kaur, of the village of Bhuchchar Khurd, 25 km from Tarn Taran, in Amritsar district. He was born on 28 October 1887 at