BAVANJA KAVI, lit. fifty-two poets, is how the galaxy of poets and scholars who attended on Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) is popularly designated. Guru Gobind Singh, Nanak X, prophet and soldier, was an accomplished poet and also a great patron of letters. According to Sarup Das Bhalla, Mahima Prakash, he

BHAI: Bhai, literally means brother. In the Sikh culture this term is used to show respect for a person. A saintly person, an intellectual, a humanitarian, a leader may be addressed as Bhai. The British adopted conferring the title of Sardar Bahadur to the persons loyal to their regime.

GANJ NAMAH (Treasure Book), by Bhai Nand Lal Goya, is a panegyric in Persian, partly verse and partly prose, in honour of the Ten Gurus. Bhai Nand Lal was a revered Sikh of the time of Guru Gobind Singh and a distinguished poet. The Ganj Namah renders homage to the

JOTI BIGAS is the joint title of two poetic compositions, one in Persian and the other in Punjabi, by Bhai Nand Lal Goya, a devoted Sikh of Guru Gobind Singh, much revered in Sikh piety and in letters. Bhai Nand Lal`s verse is classed as approved Sikh canon and can

KANSA Kansa, Kesi and Chandura were not equalled by anyone; They did not comprehend the Lord, therefore they were dishonoured. (Gauri M. l, p. 225) Kansa was the son of king Ugrasena of Mathura, whom he deposed and usurped his throne with the help of his father-in-law Jarasandha, the

NAND CHAND, of the village of Darauli Bhai, who had been a playmate of Guru Gobind Singh, served as a masand or officiant and later as the Guru`s diwdn, looking after his accounts and stores. His grandfather, Umar Shah, was a masand during the time of Guru Arjan. Nand

NAND GOPAL, son of Kanhaiya Lal, joined the service of the Sikh government as a munshi (clerk) in 1840. His grandfather and father had also served under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Nand Gopal worked as kotwdl under the British, then tahsilddr and afterwards as Inspector of Police in 1861. Later

NAND LAL, BHAI (c. 1633-1713), poet famous in the Sikh tradition and favourite disciple of Guru Gobind Singh. His poetry, all in Persian except for Joti Bigds, which is in Punjabi, forms part of the approved Sikh canon and can be recited along with scriptural verse at Sikh religious

NAND RAM, one of the poets who kept Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) company, was the son of a well known Siift poet, Vali Ram. He had been in the service of Dara Shukoh, who, having lost the struggle for succession to his father`s throne, was executed by his brother,

NAND SINGH or Anand Singh was still in his teens when he went to Anandpur to see Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) and stayed on until his parents arrived to complain to the Guru that the boy, who had lately been married, had forsaken his bride and took little interest in

TANKHAHNAMA, by Bhai Nand Lal, is a Sikh penal code laying down punishments and fines for those guilty of religious misconduct. Tankhah, a Persian word, actually means salary, reward or profit, and nama, also Persian denoting an epistle, a code or a catalogue. In Sikh usage, however, tankhah stands for

ZINDAGI NAMAH, a book of pious poetry in Persian by Bhai Nand Lal Goya, an honoured Sikh of Guru Gobind Singh, whose name continues to be remembered with affection and esteem. A distinction which uniquely belongs to him is that his verse can be sung along with Scriptural hymns at