GURU KA LANGAR (lit., langar or refectory of the Guru) is a community kitchen run in the name of the Guru. It is usually attached to a gurdwara. Langar, a Persian word, means \'an ahnshouse\', \'an asylum for the poor and the destitute\', \'a public kitchen kept by a

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

CHARHAT SINGH, son of Jai Singh, a Sandhu Jatt of Kot Sayyid Mahmud, a small village near Amritsar, held a service jagir under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. His father had served as a trooper under Gulab Singh Bhangi. Charhat Singh`s sister Rup Kaur married Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1809. Charhat Singh

IMAM SHAH (d. 1846), who rose to be a colonel in Ranjit Singh`s army entered the service of Jodh Singh of Wazirabad in 1809 as an artillery Jamadar. He was of Persian descent and a grandson of Qamar udDin, an officer in the army of Nadir Shah. In 1810,

NIDHAN SINGH, a Varaich Jatt of Patti in present day Amritsar district of the Punjab, was, according to Sarup Singh Kaushish, Guru kian Sakhian, the husband of the celebrated Sikh heroine, Mai Bhago. He was one of the warriors who fell fighting in the battle of Muktsar fought on 29

DE LA FONT, CAPTAIN AUGUSTE, a Frenchman, who entered Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s service in 1838. He was appointed an aide decamp to General Ventura. Later, he acted as a staff officer to Colonel C.M. Wade during his journey to Kabul. He took active part in the action at Fort

JAGIRDARI, a feudal system of political and revenue administration based on jagir, lit. fief or grant of land received from the sovereign or a vassal owing fealty and obedience to him. Sikhs who, after the fall of Sirhind in early 1764, started occupying territory, did not automatically take to the

PADARATH, BHAI, a devoted Sikh of the time of Guru Ram Das. Once accompanied by Bhai Taru and Bhai Bharu, he went to visit Guru Ram Das. He and his companions felt deeply moved to hear kirtan being recited in the Guru`s presence. "0 refuge of the poor," they

AKHAND PATH (akhand = uninterrupted, without break; path = reading) is nonstop, continuous recital of the Guru Granth Sahib from beginning to end. Such a recital must be completed within 48 hours. The entire Holy Volume, 1430 large pages, is read through in a continuous ceremony. This reading must

DE MEVIUS, BARON, also known as Frank Ernest Mevins, was a Prussian who came to the Punjab in March 1827 and was employed in the Sikh army in the rank of colonel. According to the Khalsa Darbar records, Mevius had to sign a pledge that he would, "during his period

JAN SAHIB (as the name is recorded in Sikh documents), a Frenchman, originally employed by the Barakzai sarddrs of Kabul. He left them in 1824 and entered Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s service.

PANJAB SINGH, son of Sham Singh, a banker in the village of Gharjakh, near Gujrariwala, enlisted in the force of Fateh Singh Kaliarivala as a trooper. After the death of his patron, Fateh Singh, in 1807, in the battle of Naraingarh, he went over to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who