BHATRAS (the term bhatra appears to be a diminutive of the Sanskrit bhatta, a bard), an endogamous and tightly knit group among the Sikhs with peddling and fortunetelling as their principal occupations. More than one story is current about their origin. However, the Bhatras themselves trace it to Baba Changa

COSMIC EGG (HIRANYAGARBHA) The True Lord created the world with his own hands. He broke the Cosmic Egg into two parts. He united the ends of both the parts, and separated them from each other from the middle. (The middle portion became the space). In this way he made

GUAL DAS, BHAI, son of Chhote Mall and grandson of Bhai Paira, belonged to the family of Chhibbar Brahmans, originally of the village of Kariala, Jehlum district, now in Pakistan, who served successive Gurus from Guru Arjan (1563-1606) onwards. According to Bhatt Vahi records, he accompanied Guru Tegh Bahadur

MELA SINGH, SANT (1784-1854), holy saint and preacher of the Sikh faith, was born in 1784 at Kotchari, a village in Bagh tahsil of the present Punchh district of Jammu and Kashmir. He was only eleven years of age when his father, BhaT Makkhan Singh, a pious Sikh convert from

SRI GUR PRATAP SURAJ GRANTH, Bhai Santokh Singh`s monumental work in Braj verse portraying in comprehensive detail the lives of the Ten Gurus of the Sikh faith and the career of Banda Singh Bahadur. Besides being an historical narrative of great significance, it is an outstanding creation in the style

TRAVELS IN CASHMERE AND THE PUNJAB, "containing a particular account of the government and character of die Sikhs," is an English translation by T.B.Jervis of Baron Charles Hugel`s travelogue written originally in German. The German edition was published at Stuttgart, in four parts, at distant intervals, and the English

TWARIKH GURU KHALSA, a voluminous prose narrative delineating the history of the Sikhs from their origin to the time when they lost the Punjab to the British. The author, Giani Gian Sihgh (1822-1921), claimed descent from the brother of Bhai Mani Singh, the martyr, who was a contemporary of Guru