sikh

SHIROMANI GURDWARA PARBANDHAK COMMITTEE, a statutory body comprising elected representatives of the Sikhs concerned primarily with the management of sacred Sikh shrines under its control within the territorial limits of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and the Union territory of Chandigarh. It originated with the Gurdwara Reform or Akali movement of the early 1920`s, which lasted until the 1925 when the Gurdwara bill was placed on the statute book. The administration of Darbar Sahib (the Golden Temple) complex had been, since the annexation of the Punjab to the British territory in 1849, controlled by the British government through a committee of Sikh aristocrats and a manager (sarbarah) appointed by the British deputy commissioner of Amritsar district.

SIKH TRADITION (HISTORIOGRAPHY) begins with Janam Sakhis, the life stories of Guru Nanak (1469-1539). There is hardly any evidence of the tradition of history writing in ancient India, though in modern times attempts have been made at different levels to show the existence of somewhat vague historio graphic elements particularly in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata: but religious, mythological and allegorical legends and stories are so mixed up with the Indian religious thought and philosophy in them that it is extremely difficult to discern in them a pure hislorio graphical tradition. Similarly, the Puranas contain mostly mythological elements with a semblance of history.

SOHAN SINGH JOSH (1898-1892), Akaliturned Communist, was born on 22 September 1898 at Chetanpura in Amritsar district. His father`s name was Lal Singh. Sohan Singh, who entered school rather late, passed the Middle standard examination from Church Mission School, Majitha, and the Marticulation examinationa from D.A.V. School, Amritsar, then joining the Khalsa College at Amritsar which he had to leave soon after owing to lack of financial support. Search for employment took him to Hubli and later to Bombay where he worked for a short while in a post office assigned to censoring mail in the Gurmukhi script, putting up in a gurdwara of which he took charge as `secretary.

SUJANA, BHAI, a warrior, was the devoted Sikh of Guru Hargobind. He fought with great valour in the battle of Amritsar against Mukhlis Khan in AD 1629.

Singh, Nanak, the father of Punjabi novel, was born at Peshawar. Like most Hindu families in the West Punjab in those days, Nanak Singh\'s parents were devoted to the Sikh faith. Their son, Hans Raj, embraced Sikhism under the influence of the Singh Sabha Movement of the early twenties and was named Nanak Singh. Nanak Singh was jailed for some time as an Akali Satyagrahi, and while in jail, he read the famous Urdu novelist, Munshi Prem Chand, who stood for a Gandhian egalitarianism.

TARIKHIMUZAFFARl, by Muhammad `All Khan Ansari, is the title of a Persian manuscript of much historical value copies of which are preserved in several libraries in India and abroad. The author belonged to a prominent family of Arab extraction, long resident at Panipat, in present day Haryana state. His grandfather, Lutfullah Khan Sadiq, a haftliazan mansabdar, had been a minister under emperors Farrukh Siyar and Muhammad Shah and was the governor of Delhi at the time of Nadir Shah`s invasion (1739).

TRAVELS IN CASHMERE AND THE PUNJAB, "containing a particular account of the government and character of die Sikhs," is an English translation by T.B.Jervis of Baron Charles Hugel`s travelogue written originally in German. The German edition was published at Stuttgart, in four parts, at distant intervals, and the English version in 1845 by John Petheram of London. Baron Huge! visited die court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1835. He seems to have possessed extensive knowledge of the narratives of early travellers, viz., Bemier (1667), Forster (1783), Moorcroft (1820), Jacquemont (1831) and Wolff (1832), as well as a reasonable familiarity with the local chronicles, in Persian, relating to these parts.

VAHIGURU JI KA KHALSA VAHIGURU JI KI FATEH, form of Sikh salutation, was made current among the Sikhs by command of Guru Gobind Singh at the time of the manifestation of the Khalsa in 1699. The salutation used in the days of Guru Nanak was Sati Kartar (Hail the Creator, the Eternal). This is how he, according to the Puratan Janam Sakhi, his oldest biography, greeted those he met. Some accounts of his life, such as that by Hariji, mention other similar forms of greeting, one among those being Raja Ram Sati (Hail the Holy Creator !) In the hukamnamas or letters sent to sangats by the Gurus prior to Guru Gobind Singh`s time, the opening greeting used to be : Guru Sati (Hail the Eternal Lord !) which is only an inverted form of Satiguru.

WAZIRABAD (32"26`N, 74"7`E), a sub divisional town in Gujranwala district of Pakistan, is sacred to Guru Hargobind (1595-1644), who halted here briefly while returning from his visit to Kashmir in 1620. Bhai Khem Chand, a local Sikh, placed at the Guru`s disposal his own house (kotha, in Punjabi) which was subsequently turned into what came to be known as Gurdwara Guru Kotha Chhevin Patshahi. According to local tradition, Bhai Khem Chand died during Guru Hargobind`s stay here and the Guru himself performed his funeral rites.

AGYA KAUR. BIBI (d. 1918), wife of Bhai Takht Singh and his helpmate in promoting women\'s education among Sikhs to which cause he was passionately devoted, was the daughter of Sardar Tek Singh of the village of Sultanpur, near Rahim Yar Khan railway station in the princely state of Bahawalpur. She had been a resident student at the Sikh girls school, at Firozpur, founded in 1892 and nurtured by Bhai Takht Singh. Agya Kaur had studied at the Mahavidyala up to the high school level. Bhai Takht Singh\'s first wife Harnam Kaur who was a co-builder of the school died in 1906.