AVTAR SINGH VAHIRIA, polemicist and scholar of Sikh texts, was born on 12 June 1848 at Thoha Khalsa, a village in Rawalpindi district, now in Pakistan. As a small boy, he learnt to recite the Sikh psalms from his mother and maternal uncle, Prem Singh. After he had learnt

KHALSA DIWAN AMRITSAR, established at Amritsar on 11 April 1883 to oversee and provide direction to the work of the Singh Sabha. This reform movement had originated in Amritsar with the formation of the first Singh Sabha on 1 October 1873. Singh Sabhas began springing up in other places,

KHEDA, BHAI, a Brahman resident of Khem Karan, in present day Amritsar district, was a devout Sikh of the time of Guru Amar Das. According to Sarup Das Bhalla, Mahimd Prakdsh, Kheda was initially a staunch worshipper of the goddess Durga and regularly went on pilgrimage to Javalamukhi. Once,

KHEM SINGH BEDI, BABA SIR (1832-1905), one of the founders of the Singh Sabha movement, was born on 21 February 1832 at Kallar, a small town in Rawalpindi district, now in Pakistan. He was a direct descendant, in the thirteenth place, of Guru Nanak. He received the rites of

RAGHUPAT RAI NIJJHAR, a rich landlord of Khem Karan in present day Amritsar district, was a devout Sikh. He called on Guru Tegh Bahadur at Goindval in 1664, and requested that he be pleased to visit his native Khem Karan. Guru Tegh Bahadur accepted the invitation and came to

WAZIRABAD (32"26`N, 74"7`E), a sub divisional town in Gujranwala district of Pakistan, is sacred to Guru Hargobind (1595-1644), who halted here briefly while returning from his visit to Kashmir in 1620. Bhai Khem Chand, a local Sikh, placed at the Guru`s disposal his own house (kotha, in Punjabi) which was