ROCHA SINGH, SANT (1688-1803), a holy man and preacher of Sikh faith, was born of Brahman parents living at Kausari, a small village in Hazara district (now in Pakistan). Rocha Singh was barely 14 years of age when his father, Bhai Parijaba, died leaving his wife and a younger

AVITABILE, PAOLO CRESCENZO MARTINO (1791-1850), a Neapolitan soldier of fortune who, starting life as a private gunner, succeeded in obtaining high ranks in two widely separated Asiatic armies of Persia and Punjab, was born at Agerola, Naples, Italy, on 25 October 1791. From 1807 onwards he successively served in the

DUBUIGNON, ROBERT WALTER, DE TALBOT (1809-1868), a French adventurer in the employ of Begam Samaru of Sardhana, who came to Lahore to seek better prospects. He obtained employment in the Sikh court through the good offices of General Ventura, and was assigned to General Allard as aide decamp. He

KARAM SINGH SIDDHU, son of Dial Singh, of village Othiari in Gurdaspur district, popularly known as Karam Singh Othiarivala, rendered service in several campaigns undertaken by Maharaja Ranjil Singh, including those of Peshawar and Hazara. Under the Sikh court he received rupees 1,800 annually subject to the service of

SADH, BHAI, devoted disciple of Guru Hargobind (1595-1644), who lived near the ancient city of Balkh in central Asia. Zulfiqar Ardastani, the author of DabistanI Mazahib, a contemporary work in Persian, records, two anecdotes which show that Bhai Sadh was a devoted Sikh who, unaffected by joys and sorrows of

BADRI NATH (d. 1871), son of Pandit Gobind Ram who migrated from Kashmir to the Punjab at the beginning of the nineteenth century, entered Maharaja Ranjit Singh\'s army as a soldier in 1821, rising to the rank of colonel in 1835. He saw plenty of fighting during his service

FRANCIS, a French adventurer, who arrived at Lahore in 1833 and joined Maharaja Ranjit Singli`s army. But he had no military training, and was discharged from the service soon afterwards.

KEHAR SINGH, BHAI (1869-1921), one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs, was the eldest of the three sons of Bhai Jivan Singh and Mai Harnarn Kaur of the village of Jarg, in Patiala state. Kchar Singh grew up into a strongly built, fair complexioned, young man much interested in wrestling

SEVA, from Sanskrit root sev (to serve, wait or attend upon, honour, or worship), is usually translated as `service` or `serving` which commonly relates to work paid for, but does not convey the sense in which the term is used in the Sikh tradition. The word seva has, in

BATTICE, an Italian, who joined the Sikh service in 1843. He was employed in the ordnance factory at Lahore for manufacturing gunpowder and saltpetre. In 1844, the army Panchayats removed him from the service, along with some other European officers. He died at Lahore soon afterwards.

GARDNER, ALEXANDER HAUGHTON CAMPBELL (1785-1877). son of a Scottish immigrant, was, according to an autobiographical account, born in North America in 1785. As a boy, he learnt Italian, Spanish, Latin and Greek, and proceeded in 1807 to Ireland to train for a maritime career. Returning to America, he set out

LALU, BHAI, headman of Khadur (Sahib), a village in Amritsar district of the Punjab, became a devout Sikh of Guru Angad. According to Bhai Mani Singh, Sikhan di Bhagat Mala, he along with Bhai Durga and Bhai Jivanda once begged the Guru to show them the way to liberation.