FIVE SYMBOLS, a set of five distinctive features or elements of personal appearance or apparel that set off Sikhs from the followers of any other religious faith. Any study of religious symbols involves a dual task: first, to explain the meaning of symbols not only in terms of their

MANI SINGH, BHAI (d. 1737), scholar and martyr, came, according to Kesar Singh Chhibbar, his contemporary, of a Kamboj family, and according to some later chroniclers, following Giani Gian Singh, Panth Prakash, of a DullatJatt family of Kamboval village (now extinct), near Sunam (30°7`N, 75"48`E), in Sarigrur district of

SEVA SINGH KRIPAN BAHADUR (1890-1961), Akali activist and newspaper editor, was the son of Bhai Harnam Singh and Mai Prem Kaur of Bakhtgarh, village 18 km northwest of Barnala (30"22`N, 75"32`E), in Sangrur district of the Punjab. Born in 1890, he received lessons in Punjabi and in scripture reading in

ARDAMAN SINGH, BHAYEE (1899-1976), of pious lineage was born on 20 September 1899 (father: Bhayee Arjan Singh; mother: Devinder Kaur) at Bagarian, in present day Sarigrur district of the Punjab. The family traces its descent from Bhai Rup Chand, a devout Sikh of the time of Guru Hargobind (1595-1644)

GRANTHI, from the Sanskrit granthika (a relaier or narrator), is a person who reads the granih, Sanskrit grantha (composition, treatise, book, text). The terms are derived from the Sanskrit grath which means "to fasten, tie or string together, to compose (a literary work)." In Sikh usage, granih refers especially to

MIRIPIRI, compound of two words, both of Perso Arabic origin, adapted into the Sikh tradition to connote the close relationship within it between the temporal and the spiritual. The term represents for the Sikhs a basic principle which has influenced their religious and political thought and governed their societal structure

SHUDDHI SABHA, a society working in the closing years of the nineteenth century primarily for the reconversion to Sikhism of those proselytized into Christianity or Islam, was established in 1893. . Christian pro-selytization had started with the advent of British rule in the Punjab with official encouragement. Though the

ASAVARI See ASA ASCETICISM, derived from the Greek word askesis, connotes the `training` or `exercise` of the body and the mind. Asceticism or ascetic practices belong to the domain of religious culture, and fasts, pilgrimages, ablutions, purificatory rituals, vigils, abstinence from certain foods and drinks, primitive and strange dress, nudity,

GURBAKHSH SINGH, SANT (1871-1939), better known as Sant Gurbakhsh Singh of Patiala, scholar and preacher, was born in 1871 at Chunlan in Patiala district. His father, Bhal Sham Singh, and his family shifted to Harisron, near Navashahar in Jalandhar district, as the repression was let loose by government on

NAND LAL, BHAI (c. 1633-1713), poet famous in the Sikh tradition and favourite disciple of Guru Gobind Singh. His poetry, all in Persian except for Joti Bigds, which is in Punjabi, forms part of the approved Sikh canon and can be recited along with scriptural verse at Sikh religious

SIKH STUDENTS FEDERATION. A front of the Sikh youth studying in schools, colleges and universities formed in 1944, at Lahore, with Sarup Singh, then a senior law student, as president. Its primary object was the promotion among the Sikh youth of the Sikh priciples and values and to bring to

ANCESTORS,In ancient Hindu scriptures, the honouring of human ancestors is commanded. Pitri or mass\'s to one\'s ancestors arc regarded as sacred funeral rights and Sradh (offerings of food) are considered obligatory for placating the spirits of the departed ancestors up to thee seventh generation. It is believed that the