PAINTIS AKKHARI, lit., a poem based on paintis or thirty-Five letters, is a composition in the form of an acrostic utilizing for successive verses the thirty-five characters of the Gurmukhi alphabet. The poem is sometimes attributed to Guru Nanak but mistakenly, for it is not included in the Guru

PRARTHANATITADAN, poem in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore on the Sikh martyr Bhai Taru Singh. Written on 2 Agrahayan, 1306 BS/1819 November 1899 and included in Kathd, a collection of Tagore`s poems published in October-November 1899, the poem refers to Bhai Taru Singh`s arrest along with some other Sikhs "who had

RANA SURAT SINGH, an epiclike poem by Bhai Vir Singh published in 1905. This poem of more than fourteen thousand lines is written in blank verse, tried for the first time in Punjabi. With all its protracted search and pang, it is ultimately a poem of complete spiritual certitude, of

SIHARFISARDAR HARI SINGH NALVA, subtitled "Hari Singh Naive di Mahima ," by Qadar Yar, is a poem in Punjabi, Gurmukhi script, celebrating the valour of Hari Singh Nalva, a general in the army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The poem is also popularly known as Var Sardar Hari Singh Nalva. Qadar

SUCHAJl (SUCHAJJI), literally, a woman of good manner and accomplishment, is the title of one of Guru Nanak`s compositions, in measure Suhi, in the Guru Granth Sahib. Antithetically, it follows another of his compositions called Kuchaji (literally, an awkward, illmannered woman). Suchaji (`sn`, meaning good or appropriate; `chaf meaning

SVAPAN NATAK, lit. dream play, is an allegorical poem in Braj, comprising 133 stanzas, by Giani Ditt Singh, a leading figure in the Lahore Singh Sabha. Published in the supplement to the issue, dated 16 April 1887, of the Khalsa Akhbar, a Punjabi newspaper of which Giani Ditt Singh himself

ANI RAI, author of Jangnama Guru Gobind Singh Ji, was one of the numerous poets and scholars who enjoyed the patronage of Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708). The Jangnama is an account in verse of a battle on the banks of the River Sutlej in which an attack from the imperial

Siharfian Hari Singh Nalva, by Misr Hari Chand who adopted the pen-name of Qadar Yar celebrating an earlier poet of this name, is a poem in Punjabi, Gurmukhi script, describing the valorous deeds of Hari Singh Nalva (1793-1837), an army general of the Sikh times. Inspired by the elder Qadar

BAINTAN SHER SINGH KIAN, by Nihal Singh, is a poem dealing with some gruesome events from the history of the Sikhs murders in 1843 of the Sikh monarch Maharaja Sher Singh, his young son Partap Singh, and minister Dhian Singh Dogra at the hands of Sandhanvalia collaterals Ajit Singh and

VAR MALAR Kl MAHALLA I, composition of the first Guru (i.e. Guru Nanak), is one of the twenty-two vars appearing in the Guru Grandi Sahib under different ragas. A var is a folk poem of war and chivalry, celebrating a hero and his gallantry. In the Guru Granth Sahib

BANDI BIR (Warrior Bound), a poem in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore, based primarily on McGregor`s History of the Sikhs and Cunningham`s A History of the Sikhs was composed by him in October/November 1899. The poem celebrates the heroism of the Sikh warrior Banda Singh Bahadur (1670-1716). The opening stanzas tell

VAR SRI BHAGAUTlJI Kl, a short anonymous poem describing an unnamed battle in which Guru Gobind Singh emerged a victor. The poem consists of eight stanzas only. It begins with a dohra, followed by six savaiyyas, and ends with another dohra. It panegyrizes Bhagauti (sword) as the source of