JANAM SAKHI, i.e. life story, is the term used to designate traditional narratives of the life of Guru Nanak. Although the compound is occasionally applied to narratives concerning later Gurus or other religious teachers too, it is normally confined to those which relate in anecdotal prose the life and

KHIVI, MATA (d. 1582), wife of Guru Arigad, was the daughter of Bhai Devi Chand, a well to do Marvaha Khatri of village Sarigar, 4 km north of Khadur Sahib in present day Amritsar district of the Punjab. She was, on 15 November 1519, married to Bhai Lahina (later

MALDA (25°7\'N, 88-11\'E), a district town of West Bengal situated on the banks of the River Mahananda, is sacred to both Guru Nanak and Guru Tegh Bahadur, who vistited it in the course of their travels through the eastern region. A Sikh shrine once existed here in Sarbari area

NAM JAPANA, KIRAT KARNI, VAND CHHAKANA, i.e. ever to repeat God`s name, to be ready to engage in the labour of one`s hands and to be willing to share with others what one has gathered may be said to be the triple principle underlying Sikh ethics and way of

PAKKHOKE RANDHAVE, a village in the east of Dera Baba Nanak (32° 2`N, 75° 2`E) in Gurdaspur district of the Punjab, is the place where Guru Nanak`s wife and children stayed with his fatherinlaw during the Guru`s absence on udasis or preaching journeys. The village has a historical shrine

RAI BULAR, a Muhammadan noble of the Bhatti clan, was during the latter half of the fifteenth century the chief of Talvandi Rai Bhoi, the village where Guru Nanak was born in 1469. Rai Bular had great affection for young Guru Nanak and held him in high esteem. According to

SAHIB SINGH BEDl, BABA (1756-1834), tenth in direct descent from Guru Nanak, was much revered in Sikh times for his piety as well as for his martial prowess. He was born at Dera Baba Nanak, Gurdaspur district on Chet. Sudi 5,1813 Bk/5 April 1756. Around 1770, his parents Baba

SHIVNABH, RAJA, was, according to the Janam Sakhi tradition, a Ceylonese king who became a devotee of Guru Nanak. It was a merchant of Lahore, Bhai Mansukh, who during a visit to Ceylon, then known as Sinhaldvip, had impressed the king with his conduct as well as with the

SULTANPUR LODHI (3P13N, 7512E), old town in Kapurthala district of the Punjab, where Guru Nanak put up for several years before setting out on his travels to deliver his message. In this town lived his sister, Bibi Nanaki, and her husband, Jai Ram, an official in the service of

VAHIGURU, also spelt and pronounced Vahguru, is the distinctive name of the Supreme Being in the Sikh dispensation, like Yahweh in Judaism and Allah in Islam. In Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, the term does not figure in the compositions of the Gurus, though it occurs therein, both as

AHANKAR (hankar as it is commonly pronounced in Punjabi) is a compound of Sanskrit aham (I) and kar (\'maker\') and means I-maker, i.e. what individuates the person as I. It stands for egotism, egoism, self conceit, self centredness, vanity or simply pride. Other synonyms used in the sacred texts of

ASAVARI See ASA ASCETICISM, derived from the Greek word askesis, connotes the `training` or `exercise` of the body and the mind. Asceticism or ascetic practices belong to the domain of religious culture, and fasts, pilgrimages, ablutions, purificatory rituals, vigils, abstinence from certain foods and drinks, primitive and strange dress, nudity,