BUDDHU SHAH, PIR (1647-1704), a Muslim divine whose real name was Badr udDIn and who was an admirer of Guru Gobind Singh, was born on 13 June 1647 in a prosperous Sayyid family of Sadhaura, in present day Ambala district of Haryana. Because of his simplicity and silent nature during

FATEHNAMAH GURU KHALSA JI KA, by Ganesh Das, an employee of the Sikh Darbar, and published as edited by Sita Ram Kohli, contains accounts, in Punjabi verse, of three of the major battles of Sikh times. The first of these was fought at Multan in 1818 between Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s

IMAD USSAADAT, a chronicle in Persian, composed at the instance of Col. John Baillie, British Resident at Lucknow, by Ghulam `All Naqyi, of Rac Barcli, in 1808 containing accounts of the Nawabs of Oudh from Saadat Khan to Saadat `All Khan. besides those of the Marathas, the Ruhilas, the

KAURA MALL, DIWAN, MAHARAJA BAHADUR (d. 1752), a Sahajdhari Sikh and trusted officer under the Mughals in the eighteenth century Punjab, was the son of Valid Ram, an Arora of the Chuggh clan, originally from a village near Shorkot in Jhang district, now in Pakistan. Little is known about the

MATAB SINGH or Mahtab Singh (d. 1745). eighteenth century Sikh warrior and martyr, was born the son of Hara Singh, aJatt Sikh of Bharigu clan of the village of Mirarikot, 8 km north of Amritsar. He grew up amidst the most ruthless persecution Sikhs suffered under the later Mughals, and

PRITHI CHAND DADHVAL (d.1696) was one of the hill chieftains who sided with Bhim Chand, the ruler of Kahlur, in the battle of Nadaun fought on 20 March 1691 against Alif Khan, the deputy of Mian Khan. governor of Jammu. Guru Gobind Singh helped Bhim Chand and his allies

SUBEG SINGH (d. 1745), an eighteenth century martyr of the Sikh faith, was born to Rai Bhaga of the village of Jambar in Lahore district. He learnt Arabic and Persian as a young man and later gained access to the Mughal officials as a government, contractor. When in 1733, the

VADDA GHALLUGHARA, lit. major holocaust or carnage, so called to distinguish it from another similar disaster, Chhota (minor) Ghallughara that took place in 1746, is how a one day battle between the Dal Khalsa and Ahmad Shah Durrani fought on 5 February 1762 with a heavy toll of life is

ABD USSAMAD KHAN (d. 1737), governor of Lahore from 1713 to 1726, a descendant of the Naqashbandi saint `Abdulla Ahrar, a great grandson of Khwaja Baki of Baghdad, was born at Agra when his father, Khwaja `Abd ul-Karim Ansari, had come out with his family from Samarkand on a tour

AZIM KHAN, MUHAMMAD (d. 1823), was one of the sons of Painda Khan and a brother of Fateh Khan, who appointed him governor of Kashmir in April 1813. In 1814, Maharaja Ranjit Singh made an unsuccessful attempt to conquer Kashmir. On the death of Fateh Khan in 1818, Azim

CHARHAT SINGH (d. 1770), grandfather of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was the eldest of the four sons of Sardar Naudh Singh. He took to arms while still very young and started taking part in the raids and expeditions led by his father. He also fought in the Sikhs` skirmishes with

FATEH SINGH KALIANVALA (d. 1807), military commander and jagirdar under Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was the son of Jassa Singh and grandson of Jaimal Singh. Jaimal Singh was a Sandhu Jatt and the first in the line to embrace the Sikh faith. He was a resident of Kala village in