BATHINDA (30° 14`N, 74° 59`E), an old town in the Punjab, was called Vikramgarh during the preMuhammadan period. Tradition ascribes its foundation to Bhati Rao, a Rajput chief who also founded Bhatner, present Hanumangarh, in Rajasthan. The two towns together commanding the area between Hissar and Bikaner known as

BHIKHI, popularly pronounced Bhikkhi (30° 3`N, 75° 33`E), an old town along the SunamBathinda road in Bathinda district of the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Tegh Bahadur, who halted here for several days during one of his travels through the Malva region. Desu, the local chief, who had been

CHANDU SHAH, a wealthy banker and revenue official at the Mughal court at Lahore. He earned the annoyance of Sikhs by uttering disparaging words when his family priest proposed Guru Arjan`s son, Hargobind, for his daughter who was of marriageable age. Chandu Shah accepted the suggestion but with reluctance

DIAL DAS, BHAI or Bhai Diala (d. 1675), martyr to the Sikh faith, was, according to Shahid Bilas Bhai Mani Singh, the son of Mai Das and an elder brother of Bhai Mani Ram. He was a prominent Sikh of his time and was in the train of Guru

GIRDHAR LAL or Girdhari Lal, a poet in Guru Gobind Singh`s retinue at Paonta, was the author of Pingal Sdr, a treatise in verse on Hindi prosody. According to its autobiographical stanzas 716, Girdhar Lal was the son of Gaj Mall, a Khatri of Gadiyal clan. The family came

HARIJI, SODHI (d. 1696), a great grandson of Guru Ram Das (1534-81) and head of the schismatic Mma sect from 1640 to 1696, was the second son of Baba Manohar Das, better known as Sodhl Miharban (1581-1640), the author of Sachkhand Polhi, janam. sakhi or life story of Guru

JASVANT SINGH, RAJA (1775-1840), succeeded his father, Raja Hamir Singh, to the throne of Nabha in 1783 at the age of eight, under the guardianship of his stepmother, Mai Deso, a very resourceful and energetic woman. In 1790, after the death of Mal Deso, he assumed the reins of

KESRA SINGH Guru Gobind Singh`s warrior Sikh, according to Sarup Singh Kaushish, Guru kidn Sdkhidn, fell a martyr during a rearguard action while Guru Gobind Singh and his Sikhs, disengaging themselves from the battle of Nirmohgarh, crossed the Sutlej and went towards Basali on 14 October 1700.

MAHIMA PRAKASH, by Sarup Das Bhalla, is a versified account, in Gurmukhi script, of the lives of the ten Gurus, completed according to inner evidence, in 1833 Bk/AD 1776. Three copies of the manuscript, are still extant: one (No. 176) in the Languages Department, Punjab, Patiala, the second (No. 792)

MIRI SINGH was son of Kahn Singh and grandson of Baba Binod Singh, who had under the orders of Guru Gobind Singh accompanied Banda Singh Bahadur from Nanded, in the South, to the Punjab in 1708 along with three other disciples. Miri Singh took part in several of Banda

NARLI, village barely one kilometre from the Indo Pakistan border in Amritsar district of the Punjab, claims a historical shrine, Gurdwara Manji Sahib which commemorates one of the manjis or preaching centres established by Guru Amar Das (1479-1574), The first preacher appointed here by the Guru was Bhai Mai

PARCHI BHAI SEVA RAM is a biographical sketch, in Punjabi verse, of Bhai Seva Ram who led the Sevapanthi sect after the death of its founder Bhai Kanhaiya, a disciple of Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708). Written by Bhai Sahaj Ram, himself a renowned Sevapanthi saint, the book was edited by