THATTA, a small village 10 km west of Kapurthala (31022`N, 75022`E) in the Punjab, has a historical shrine, Gurdwara Damdama Sahib, commemorating the visit of Guru Nanak. According to local tradition, Guru Nanak and the guests who constituted his marriage party, on their way from Sultanpur Lodhi to Batala

ZORAWAR SINGH PAUT (d. 1708), generally known as Guru Gobind Singh\'s adopted son, was born to Bhai Natthu, a carpenter of Bassi Pathanan, near Sirhind. His mother, Mai Bhikkhi, served in the Guru`s household at Anandpur, where the boy spent his early childhood, too. He was about the same age

ADDAN SHAH, BHAI (1688-1757), third in succession to Bhai Kanhaiya, founder of the Sevapanthi sect, was born in 1688 in the village of Lau in Jhang district, now in Pakistan. His parents were of a devout temperament and he inherited from them a deeply religious bent of mind. He

ANANDGHANA, SVAMI, an Udasi sadhii known for the commentaries he wrote on some of the Sikh scriptural texts. Not much biographical detail is available about him, but references in his own works indicate that he was a disciple of Baba Ram Dayal, an Udasi ascetic; also, that he was

BAKER, GEORGE, a Eurasian, who served as a drum major in one of the battalions of Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army.

BHANA, BHAI (1536-1644), the youngest son of Baba Buddha, was born in the village of Katthu Nangal, in Amritsar district of the Punjab. Baba Buddha, blessed by Guru Nanak himself, was the most revered Sikh of his day. In his lifetime, he had had the privilege of anointing with

BUDHMOR, commonly called Budhmar, is a village in Patiala district, 8 km southeast of Ghuram (30°7`N, 76°28`E). It is sacred to Guru Tegh Bahadur, who visited it during one of his journeys through this region. A Manji Sahib, constructed by Maharaja Karam Singh (1798-1845) of Patiala, was located east

DEVA SINGH, SIR (1834-1890), a highranking Patiala state administrator, was born in 1834 into an Arora Sikh family, the son of Colonel Khushal Singh, a brave soldier who had once killed a tiger (sher, in Punjabi) near one of the city gates conferring upon it the name Sheranvala which lasts

GANDA SINGH (d. 1845), of Butala, in Gujranwala district of undivided Punjab, was a soldier in the Sikh army. Early in his career, he was assigned by Maharaja Ranjit Singh to Prince Sher Singh`s troops. Ganda Singh`s father, Dharam Singh, had also served in the army and taken part

GURDAS, BHAI (1551-1636), much honoured in Sikh learning and piety, was a leading figure in early Sikhism who enjoyed the partronage of Guru Arjan under whose supervision he inscribed the first copy of Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, which is still extant. He was born in a Bhalla

HUSAIN KHAN (d. 1696), called Husaim in Guru Gobind Singh`s Bachitra Ndtak, was a slave general of Dilawar Khan, an important officer in the Mughal hierarchy. When Dilawar Khan learnt of the disaster suffered by the imperial expedition led by his son against Guru Gobind Singh, he sent his

LAL SINGH, BHAI, ruler of the Sikh state of Kaithal, was the younger son of Bhai Desu Singh, founder of the principality. Unlike other rulers of the cis Sutlej states, the Kaithal chiefs did not assume the title of rajah (king), but preferred to use the family epithet of