RAM SINGH BEDI, BABA (d. 1797), a Nihang warrior, was the son of Bhai Faqir Chand, of the village of Kotia Faqir Chand, in Sialkot district, now in Pakistan. The family claimed direct descent from Guru Nanak. Ram Singh took khande di pahul or vows by the double edged sword,

LAILI or LAILA, a famous horse of superb beauty and grace, was originally owned by Yar Muhammad Khan Barakzai, the Sikh tributary governor of Peshawar. It was much coveted by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, whose love for horses was proverbial. With the romantic name given it, Laili was known throughout Central

ASRARISAMADI, a Persian chronicle by an anonymous writer who is now identified as Munshi Jot Prakash attached to the court of Nawab Abd us Samad Khan, the governor of Lahore from 1713 to 1726. Written around 1728, the work. which the author claims to be an eyewitness account of

BINOD SINGH, a Trehan Khatri in direct descent from Guru Angad, Nanak II, was a devoted disciple of Guru Gobind Singh and was among the few Sikhs who accompanied him to the South in 1708. He was chosen to be one of the five companions of Banda Singh (1670-1716)

FATEH KHAN (d. 1818), son of Painda Khan, the Barakzai chief, who overthrew Shah Zaman, the king of Afghanistan (1793-1800), and placed his half-brother Shah Mahmud on the throne of Afghanistan, himself becoming prime minister. Shah Mahmud was dethroned in 1803 and was succeeded by Shah Shuja`. Fateh Khan expelled

HUSAIN KHAN (d. 1696), called Husaim in Guru Gobind Singh`s Bachitra Ndtak, was a slave general of Dilawar Khan, an important officer in the Mughal hierarchy. When Dilawar Khan learnt of the disaster suffered by the imperial expedition led by his son against Guru Gobind Singh, he sent his

KARAM CHAND (d. 1621), the son of Chandu Shah and a revenue official under `Abdulla Khan, faujddr of Jalandhar, bore enmity towards Guru Hargobind because of his father`s death at the hands of the Sikhs. He along with Ratan Chand, the son of Bhagvan Das Gherar, Chaudhari of Ruhela,

MANI SINGH, BHAI (d. 1737), scholar and martyr, came, according to Kesar Singh Chhibbar, his contemporary, of a Kamboj family, and according to some later chroniclers, following Giani Gian Singh, Panth Prakash, of a DullatJatt family of Kamboval village (now extinct), near Sunam (30°7`N, 75"48`E), in Sarigrur district of

PIR MUHAMMAD KHAN, one of the Barakzai brothers who came into control of Peshawar which became a tributary to Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1823. Dost Muhammad Khan who had established himself in power at Kabul bitterly felt the loss of Peshawar. Pir Muhammad along with his brother, Sultan Muhammad,

SIRHIND (30°37`N, 7623E), pronounced Sarhind, an ancient town lying along the Grand Trunk Road (now renamed Sher Shah Suri Marg) midway between Ludhiana and Ambala, derives its name probably from Sairindhas, a tribe that according to Varahamihira (AD 50587), Brihat Samhita, once inhabited this part of the country. According