BAGHDAD (33° 20\'N, 44° 30\'E), capital of Iraq, situated on the banks of Dajala (Tigris) River, has a historical shrine dedicated to Guru Nanak, who visited here on his way back from Mecca and Madina early in the sixteenth century. Here he held discourses with some local

BANI BHAGATAN SATIX (satik = exegesis or commentary) by Pandit Tara Singh Narotam (q.v.) is an exposition of the bani or hymns of the bhaktas or saints (here the word implies contributors to the Guru Granth Sahib other than the Gurus). The work was, according to inner evidence, completed in

GHARIBDAS IAS, followers of` Sant Gharibdas (1717-78), also known as Satsahibias for their peculiar form of greeting which is `Sat Sahib,` i.e. eternally existent (satya) is the Lord (sahib). The founder of the sect, Gharib Das was born in 1717 in the small village Chhudani, in Rohtak district. He got

GOSHTI, from Sanskrit gostha (go = cow + stha = place, i.e. cowpen) means, secondarily, an assembly of people engaged in a discourse or debate on some metaphysical, theological or ethical point, thereby seeking to expound their respective views or tenets and revealing in the process their dialectical prowess

PHUNHK, plural of phunha, a word derived from the Sanskrit punha meaning `again`, is the name of a poetic metre in which a particular term or phrase occurs repeatedly in each chhand or may be in each verse of a poem; in the Guru Granth Sahib it is the title

POTHI ASAVARJAN, pothi, i.e. book, comprising discourses of some of the saints of the Sevapanthi sect. Since the sermons are interspersed with hymns composed by saints who used to sing them at their sangats in Asavari rdga or musical measure, the book is called Pothi Asdvandn. The language of

SANTMAL, by Bhai Sobha Ram, is an account in Punjabi verse, of the Sevapanthi sect. The work, still unpublished, was completed in Bk 1923/AD 1866. A copy of the manuscript is preserved in Dera Bhai Ram Kishan, Patiala. This manuscript copied in Bk 1927/AD 1870 comprises 255 folios, each folio,

SRI SANT RATAN MAL by Bhai Lal Chand, containing biographical sketches in Punjabi of the Sevapanthi saints, completed in 1919 Bk/AD 1862 at Amritsar, was first published in 1924 and reprinted in 1954 by Bhai Hira Singh Mahant, Sevapanthi Addan Shahi Sabha, Patiala. The voluminous work, comprising 563 printed pages,