KHALSA, from Arabic khalis (lit. pure, unsullied) and Perso Arabic khalisah (lit. pure; office of revenue department; lands directly under government management), is used collectively for the community of baptized Sikhs. The term khalisah was used during the Muslim rule in India for crown lands administered directly by the

KIRPAL SINGH, SINGH SAHIB GIANI (1918-1993), theologian and writer, was born on 10 June 1918, the son of Bhai Mall Singh and Bibi Rani Kaur, a Brar Jatt family of the village of Vairoke in Moga tufis`il of Firozpur district (now in district Faridkot). He passed his middle school

LAVAN is the title traditionally given a short fourslan/a composition by Guru Ram Das included under rdga Suhi (p. 773) in the Guru Granth Sahib. The word Idvdn, in the Indian tradition, also stands for the marriage ceremony: in Hindu society the couple reverentially circumambulates the holy fire to

MANI MAJRA is an old town, 2 km east of Chandigarh (30°44`N, 76°47`E). After the death of Baba Ram Rai at Dehra Dun in 1687, one of his wives, Mata Raj Kaur, settled in Mani Majra. The following year, Guru Gobind Singh returning from Paonta Sahib to Anandpur Sahib,

MUSAN, BHAI, son of Bhai Samman of Shahbazpur, in the present day Amriisar district of the Punjab, was, like his father, a devoted Sikh of the time of Guru Arjan. The Guru Granth Sahib contains a composition entitled Chaubole by Guru Arjan in which several couplets are addressed to

NATHANA SAHIB, Gurdwara near the village of Jand Magholi in Patiala district, is dedicated, according to Gurus habad Ratnakar Mahan Kosh, to Guru Tegh Bahadur, but is now called Gurdwara Nathana Sahib Patshahi Tisari. According to current tradition, Guru Amar Das stayed here 22 times during his annual pilgrimage journeys

PAN SAU SAKHI, a collection of five hundred anecdotes (panj = five; sau = hundred; sdkhi = anecdote), attributed to Bhai Ram Kuir (1672-1761), a descendant of Bhai Buddha, renamed Bhai Gurbakhsh Singh as he received the rites of the Khalsa at the hands of Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708). It

PHATTE NANGAL, village near Dhanval (31"57`N, 75°19`E) in Gurdaspur district of the Punjab, claims a historical shrine Gurdwara Burj Sahib, marking the spot where Guru Arjan, returning from a visit to Baba Sri Chand at Barath, stayed near what used to he a pond. The devotees, who flocked to

RAJOANA, village in Ludhiana district, on Guru Gobind Singh Marg, 10 km north of Raikot town (30° 39`N, 75° 37`E), has a shrine, Gurdwara Manji Sahib, commemorating the visit of Guru Gobind Singh in 1705. It is said that as Guru Gobind Singh, accompanied by Mahant Kirpal Das, was

SADHU SINGH BHAURA, JATHEDAR (1905-1984), Sikh missionary who rose to be the Jathedar or high priest of Sri Akal Takhat, Amritsar, was born the son of Bhai Ran Singh and Mai Atam Kaur, on 6 June 1905 at Chakk No. 7, a village in Lyallpur district (now in Pakistan).

SALOP SAHASKRITI, title of a composition comprising seventy-one verses incorporated in the Guru Granth Sahib. The term `Sahaskriti` denotes the language form, a mixture of Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit, in which these slokas have been written. `Gatha` is another word used for `Sahaskriti`. Of the seventy-one verses collected under

SAUNTI, an old village 2 km northeast of Amioh (30"36`N, 76"14`E), in Fatehgarh Sahib district, claims a historical shrine called Gurdwara Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib. It is situated in the open fields over a kilometre to the east of the village and is approached through a cart track going