NESTA, village 2 km south of Atari in Amritsar district of the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Hargobind (1595-1644) who stayed here for a while during his journey from Lahore to Amritsar. According to local tradition, at the villagers` complaint that the water of their well was brackish, the

NIHAL SINGH AHLUVALIA (d. 1852), son of Fateh Singh Ahluvalia, succeeded to the Ahluvalia chieftaincy on the death, in 1836, of his father. In his youth he was a favourite of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and was the recipient of the towns of Nur Mahal and Kalat Majra and other

PANGAT, from Sanskrit pankti (lit. a row, line, series, or a group, assembly, company), stands in Sikh terminology for commensality or sitting together on the ground in a row to partake of food from a common kitchen regardless of caste, creed, sex, age or social status. Pangat is thus a

SIKANDARA is a township along the Grand Trunk Road, about 8 km north of Agra (27"10`N, 78" E). Gurdwara Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Dukh Nivaran Guru Ka Tal, commonly known as Gurdwara Guru Ka Tal, is about 2 km from Sikandara towards Agra. Sikh chronicles have preserved the tradition

SIKH COINS or NUMISMATICS. Sikh coins like coins anywhere else were both a commercial necessity and a symbol of sovereignty. Coin, derived from the Latin cuneus, a wedge, through Old French coing and cuigne, "is properly the term for a wedge  shaped die used for stamping money,

Sandhu, Gulzar Singh was born at Kotia Badia, district Ludhiana in 1933/5, his mother\'s native place. His family hails from the village of Soni in Hoshiarpur district. Both from the father\'s side and the mother\'s side, he draws upon a lineage of Jagirdars or fief-holders from the time of the

DHAND, village 15 km southwest of Amritsar (31° 38`N, 74° 52`E) along the ChhehartaJhabal road, is sacred to Guru Hargobind (1595-1644), who once came here to fulfil the wish of an old Sikh, Bhai Langaha. Gurdwara Patshahi Chhevin commemorating the visit stands on the southern outs kirts of the village.

GADIAL, a village in Ropar district of the Punjab about 18 km east of Garhshankar, is sacred to Guru Gobind Singh, who arrived here in 1700 from Khera Kalmot and stayed awhile under a fig tree. A memorial in the form of a small platform built around the fig

LUDHIANA (30°54`N, 75°52`E), one of the major cities in the Punjab, claims a historical shrine, Gurdwara Gau Ghat Patshala I, situated on the bank of the stream Buddha Nala. According to local tradition, Guru Nanak visited the site in the course of Ins travels during the early sixteenth century. The

MATAB SINGH or Mahtab Singh (d. 1745). eighteenth century Sikh warrior and martyr, was born the son of Hara Singh, aJatt Sikh of Bharigu clan of the village of Mirarikot, 8 km north of Amritsar. He grew up amidst the most ruthless persecution Sikhs suffered under the later Mughals, and

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