GAJJA SINGH, MAHANT (c. 1850-1914), maestro of Sikh classical devotional music, was born in a Jatt Sikh family of Vandar, a village in Faridkot district of the Punjab. He had a sensitive ear for music from his early childhood. His father, a pious Sikh himself, apprenticed him for religious

GURBAKHSH SINGH, BHAI (d. 1764), founder of the Bhai family of Kaithal, was great grandson of Bhai Bhagatu of revered memory. His grandfather, Bhai Bhagatu`s elder son, Gaura, was a brave warrior who became the chief of Virijhu, near Bathinda. His father, Dial Das, on the other hand was

HURBON, a Spaniard, who joined the Sikh army as an engineer in 1842. He was given command of a regiment and, later, that of a brigade. He was an astute tactician and is said to have planned and built, in concert with Mouton, entrenchments at Ferozeshah and Sabhraori during

JUJHAR SINGH, SAHIBZADA (1691-1705), the second son of Guru Gobind Singh, was born to Mata Jitoji at Anandpur on 14 March 1691. Like his elder brother, Ajit Singh, he started training in the fighting skills as soon as he started learning the religious texts. In 1699, when he was

LAKKHA, BHAI, a devout Sikh who served as Guru Hargobind`s drummer. He was in attendance upon the Guru during the battles of Ruhela and Amritsar (1629).

MALUK DAS was a long-lived Vaisnava saint who spanned the reigns of the Mughal emperors from Akbar to Aurangzib. He was widely venerated and counted among his admirers and followers, Muslims as well as Hindus. He lived at Kara, on the right bank of the River Ganga, in Allahabad

MUNAK (29°49`N, 75°53`E), an old village lying between the River Ghaggar and the PatranJakhal link road, in Sangrur district of the Punjab, has a historical shrine, called Gurdwara Akalgarh Patshahi IX. The name Akalgarh derives from the Akalgarh Fort constructed at Munak by Maharaja Amar Singh of Patiala (1748-82).

NIRANJAN SINGH, SANT (1922-1994). Fair complexioned, and blue eyed, Giani Sant Niranjan Singh was nurtured on several branches of learning, old and new. He was especially interested in vedanta and nydya. He was also well read in Panini. All his life he remained immersed in Sikh letters.

PINJAUR, famous for its historic Mughal gardens, is a small town, IS km northeast of Chandigarh (30"44`N, 76°47`E). Gurdwara Pahili Patshahi Mariji Sahib, close to the ancient remains of Dhara Mandap, about 75 metres from the Yadavindra Gardens, commemorates the visit of Guru Nanak who arrived here from Kalka

RAMDAS, BAVA, a nineteenth century Punjabi poet, was born at the village of Harganari, in Fatehgarh Sahib district of the Punjab. He belonged to the Divana sect, a mendicant order established during the seventeenth century by Haria and Bala, two Jatt disciples of Sodhi Miharban, the son of Guru

SAHIB SINGH, BHAI (1665-1705), one of the Pahj Piare or the Five Beloved of revered memory in the Sikh tradition, was born the son of Bhai Guru Narayana, a barber of Bidar in Karnataka, and his wife Ankamma. Bidar had been visited by Guru Nanak early in the sixteenth century

SATTA, also called Satta Dum because he was a du/n or miraslby birth, a rababior rebeckplayer to Guru Arjan, and co-composer, with Rai Balvand, of Ramkall ki Var, included in the Guru Granth Sahib in the Ramkali musical measure.