PRASADI HATHI, an elephant trained to perform several unusual feats, was among the presents brought to Guru Gobind Singh by an Assamese chief, Ratan Rai. According to Sikh chronicles, Ratan Rai`s father. Ram Rai had served Guru Tegh Bahadur during his travels across Assam in the mid1660s and received his

AJMER SINGH was the name given a seventeenth century Muslim recluse of Chhatteana, a village in present day Faridkot district of the Punjab, as he received the initiatory rites of the Khalsa. His original name was Ibrahim, popularly shortened to Brahmi or Bahmi. According to an old chronicle, Malva

RAI SINGH (d. 1809), one of the leaders of the Karorsinghia misi, was the son of Matab Singh of Mirarikot in Amritsar district, the avenger of the sacrilege perpetrated by Masse Khan, the Muslim chieftain, who had occupied the holy Harimandar and converted it into a place of revelry.

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

RAN SINGH NAKAI (d. 1781), son of Nattha Singh, succeeded in 1768 his brother, Nahar Singh, to the leadership of Nakai misl. Ran Singh considerably increased the power and influence of the Nakais. The territory under his control was worth nine lakh of rupees per annum, and comprised Chuniari,

BHAI: Bhai, literally means brother. In the Sikh culture this term is used to show respect for a person. A saintly person, an intellectual, a humanitarian, a leader may be addressed as Bhai. The British adopted conferring the title of Sardar Bahadur to the persons loyal to their regime.

RATAN CHAND (d. 1629), son of Bhagvan Das Gherar who had been killed in a skirmish with the Sikhs in the time of Guru Hargobind (1595-1644), made common cause with Karam Chand, son of Chandu Shah, with a view to avenging his father`s death. Chandu Shah, the main instigator

DAN SINGH, a Brar Jatt of the village of Mahima Sarja in present day Bathinda district of the Punjab, joined along with his son the contingent of Brars raised by Guru Gobind Singh after his escape from Chamkaur in December 1705. Dan Singh by virtue of his devotion and

RATAN DAM by Tahkan, a translation and adaptation into Braj of Acharya Amar Singh`s Amar Kosh, the famous Sanskrit lexicon. Tahkan was one of the several poets who kept Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) company. In preparing Ratan Dam, the poet consulted works other than Amar Kosh as well. The manuscript

DESU, Jatt of Chahal clan, was a minor chief at Bhikhi, in present day Bathinda district, when Guru Tegh Bahadur visited that village travelling through the Malva region in 1672-73. As he came to see him, the Guru asked him why he carried a walking stick in his quiver.

RATAN SINGH MAN (d. 1857), a general in the Sikh army, was the son of Nahar Singh of Mughal Chakk, now in Pakistan. He joined military service as a trooper under the Sikhs and rose to be an adjutant. He served under Hari Singh Nalva in Kashmir and Hazara

DHIAN SINGH (d. 1705), a devoted Sikh of the time of Guru Gobind Singh. He was one of the warriors who took part in the battle against Said Khan. He fell a martyr in the battle of Chamkaur (7 December 1705). M.G.S. DHIAN SINGH, resident of the village of