SRI SANT RATAN MAL by Bhai Lal Chand, containing biographical sketches in Punjabi of the Sevapanthi saints, completed in 1919 Bk/AD 1862 at Amritsar, was first published in 1924 and reprinted in 1954 by Bhai Hira Singh Mahant, Sevapanthi Addan Shahi Sabha, Patiala. The voluminous work, comprising 563 printed pages,

TASIMBU, a village in Patiala districts, 13 km northeast of Ambala city (30°23`N, 76°47`E), claims a historical shrine, Gurdwara Patshahi IX, dedicated to Guru Tegh Bahadur, who visited it during one of his travels through this territory. Only a platform in a small room with a Sikh flag, existed

YADAVINDER SINGH, LIEUTENANT GENERAL MAHARAJA (1913-1974), Grand Commander of the Indian Empire, Companion of the British Empire, Doctor of Laws from Banaras and Panjab Universities, was the last hereditary ruler of the east while Indian princely state of Patiala. Born on 7 January 1913 during the high noon of

ALVARINE, an Italian (Irishman, according to C. Grey`s European Adventurers of Northern India), who joined service under the Sikh Darbar in 1841. He died at Lahore soon afterwards.

BAHADURGARH, Fort, 9 km northeast of Patiala (30° 20\'N, 76° 26\'E), marks the site of the old Saifabad Fort, the residence of Nawab Saif ud-Din Mahmud or Saif Khan. The Fort was acquired by Raja Amar Singh (1748-82) of Patiala in 1774 and was reconstructed by Maharaja Karam Singh

BHAGO, MAI, the sole survivor of the battle of Khidrana, i.e. Muktsar (29 December 1705), was a descendant of Pero Shah, the younger brother of Bhai Langah, a Dhillon Jatt who had converted a Sikh during the time of Guru Arjan. Born at her ancestral village of Jhabal in

BIDHI CHAND, BHAI (d. 1640). warrior as well as religious preacher of the time of Guru Hargobind, was a Chhina Jatt of the village of Sursingh, 34 km south of Amritsar (31° 37`N, 74° 52`E). His father`s name was Vassan and his grandfather`s Bhikkhi. His mother was from Sirhali,

DAKNO, RANI, who came of a Rajput family of Kangra district, was married to Maharaja Sher Singh in 1842. Reputed to be a most beautiful woman of her time, she was tall and slender, graceful and very fair, with a peculiarly gentle and winning expression of countenance. In the

FATEHGARH SAHIB, GURDWARA, 5 km north of Sirhind (30°37`N, 76°23`E), marks the site of the execution of the two younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh at the behest of Wazir Khan of Kunjpura, the faujdar of Sirhind. As Guru Gobind Singh evacuated Anandpur on the night of 5-6 December 1705,

GOULD, JOHN (d. 1842), an English soldier of fortune who arrived at Lahore with his brother in law Colonel Van Cortlandt. He took up service under Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1834. He commanded a battalion of the Sikh army and remained in servk :e for eight years till his

HEST, a Greek national, who, before joing the Sikh army in 1843, was the commandant of Hyderabad artillery. According to Carmichael Smyth, he was killed at Lahore.

JHORAR, a village still flanked on two sides by arid mounds of shifting sands, 6 km northeast of Bara Gudha railway station (29"43`N, 75"1`E), in Sirsa district of Haryana, is sacred to Guru Gobind Singh, who made a brief halt here while travelling from Talvandi Sabo towards Sirsa in the