sikh

UJJAL SINGH, SARDAR (1895-1983), parliamentarian, expert in finance and governor, was the younger of the two sons of Sujan Singh and Lakshmi Devi, a family that traced their ancestry back to Bhai Sangat Singh, one of the Chamkaur Sahib martyrs dying with two of Guru Gobind Singh`s elder sons in 1705. A tradesman by profession, Sujan Singh turned to real estate. He came by much prosperity this way. In his till then little known village of Hadali, Ujjal Singh was born on 27 December 1895 in Sindh Sagar Doab of the Punjab (now in Pakistan). His education began in the conventional way.

VIDIA SAGAR GRANTH, lit. the book (granth) of the ocean (sagar) of wisdom {vidia), is the title given to a legendary literary corpus created at Anandpur under the patronage of Guru Gobind Singh. The volume, also known as Vidiasar Granth, Vidiadhar Granth and Samund Sagar Granth, was supposed to comprise the writings of die Guru as well as of the fifty-two poets and scholars he kept with him. As the tradition goes, it weighed nine maunds (approximately 320 kilograms) and got lost in the River Sarsa when Guru Gobind Singh and the Sikhs were crossing it after evacuating Anandpur in 1705.

AJAB, BHAI, a Jatt of Sangha clan who lived in the village of Darauli, now called Darauli Bhai, in Faridkot; district of the Punjab. He, like his brothers Umar Shah and Ajaib, forsook his faith in Sultan Sakhi Sarwar, became a Sikh and rendered devoted service at the time of the construction of the Harimandar at Amritsar. The three brothers were appointed masands, or parish leaders, in the areas of Moga, Zira and Dharamkot. They often used to quote Guru Arjan`s line: " If God so wills, He may keep one alive even after breath had departed the body." They were especially gratified once to have the line expounded by the Guru himself.

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 go on day and night, without a moment\'s intermission.

AMAVAS (AMAVASYA), massia in Punjabi, lit. a combination of ama, i.e. together, and vasya, i.e. stationing, signifying coming of the sun and the moon together in one line, is the last day of the dark half of the lunar month when the moon remains entirely hidden from our view. The twenty-eight naksatras, considered to be the wives of the moon, are the lunar mansions or stations through which the moon passes as does the sun through the twelve signs of the zodiac.The life of an individual is believed to be deeply influenced by the naksatra through which the moon passed at the time of his birth.Thus, different days such as panchami (fifth), ekadasi (eleventh), puranmashi (the fifteenth day when the moon is full) and amavas assumed a special significance in the Hindu tradition.

ANGLOSIKH WAR II, 1848-49, which resulted in the abrogation of the Sikh kingdom of the Punjab, was virtually a campaign by the victors of the first Anglo Sikh war (1945-46) and since then the de facto rulers of the State finally to overcome the resistance of some of the sardars who chafed at the defeat in the earlier war which, they believed, had been lost owing to the treachery on the part of the commanders at the top and not to any lack of fighting strength of the Sikh army.

ATAR SINGH, SANT (1867-1927), of Gurdwara Reru Sahib at Rampur, in Ludhiana district in the Punjab, was born in March 1867 at the village of Lopon, now in Faridkot district. He was the son of Lal Singh, the village headman. Atar Singh was married in 1885 to Bishan Kaur ofTodarpur, a village near Samrala. A son, Indar Singh, was born to them in 1887.

BABA, a Persian word meaning \'father\' or \'grandfather\', is used among Sikhs as a title of affection and reverence. In its original Persian context, Baba is a title used for superiors of the Qalandar order of the Sufis, but as transferred to India its meaning extends to cover the old as well as any faqiror sannyasi of recognized piety. This was also one of Guru Nanak\'s honorific titles during his lifetime. It assumed a hereditary character and all the physical descendants of the Gurus were generally addressed by this title. Apart from them, the title was also applied to one who combined piety with the exercise of a secular authority.

BANDAI, name given to the followers of the Sikh hero, Banda Singh Bahadur (1670-1716), who regarded him not only as a military leader but also as Guru next to Guru Gobind Singh in spiritual succession. They were opposed and ultimately expelled in 1721 by the mainstream of the Sikhs, the Tatt Khalsa. A small number of Bandai Sikhs still survive. They reverence the Guru Granfh Sahib as their Scripture and most of them also undergo the Khalsa initiatory rites, but Banda Singh Bahadur is for them their eleventh Guru against the common Sikh belief of the spiritual line having ended with Guru Gobind Singh, the Tenth Master.

BHAGAT MAL, subtitled SakhiBhai Gurdas Ji ki Var Varvfri Sikhan di Bhagatmala, is an anonymous manuscript (Kirpal Singh, A Catalogue of Punjabi and Urdu Manuscripts, attributes it to one Kirpa Ram, though in the work itself no reference to this name exists) held in the Khalsa College, Amritsar, under MS. No. 2300, bound with several other works all of which are written in the same hand. The manuscript comprises 83 folios and is undated. The opening page of the full volume, however, carries the date 1896 Bk/AD 1839 which may be the year of its transcription. Bhagat Mal is a parallel work to the more famous Bhagatmala by Bhai Mani Singh and is, like the latter, meant to be an elaboration of Bhai Gurdas`s eleventh Var, listing the more prominent of the Sikhs of Guru Nanak`s time.