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DHAMTAN, a large village in Jind district of Haryana, is sacred to Guru Tegh Bahadur. He visited it first in 1665 in the course of his travels through Malva and Bangar territories. Chaudhari Daggo, who was a cattle lifter and lived on plunder, came with pitchers full of milk, but the Guru declined the offering saying that he would not take what was not honestly earned. Daggo asked forgiveness for his past misdeeds and promised to abide by the Guru`s teaching. Guru Tegh Bahadur gave him funds to construct a well and a dharamsala for the travellers.
DUDDUN RAM, a saintly person of Pandori, in present day Amritsar district of the Punjab. He gave shelter in his dera at Pandori to some Sikh women and children when the Sikhs were being hounded out in 1817 Bk / AD 1760 by the joint forces of the subahs of Sirhind, Multan and Lahore under the orders of Ahmad Shah. A Niranjania informed the Mughal scouts, who searched the dera. As no Sikhs were apprehended inside the dera, Duddun Ram and his disciples were tortured, but they gave out nothing.
EDWARDES, SIR HERBERT BENJAMIN (1819-1868), soldier, writer and statesman, son of the Rev. B. Edwardes, was born on 12 November 1819. He joined the Bengal infantry as a cadet in 1841, and served as Urdu, Hindi and Persian interpreter to his regiment. He was aide decamp to Lord Hugh Gough during the first Anglo Sikh war and was, in 1847, appointed assistant to Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence, British Resident ai the Sikh capital, who sent him to effect the settlement of Bannu, the account of which is given in his work, A Year on the Punjab Frontier in 1848-49, London, 1851.
FORD, MATTHEW WILLIAM (d. 1841), an Englishman who started his career in 1804 as an ensign in a West India regiment. He successively served with the 7th Foot, the 70th Foot, the 1st Royal Scots and the 22nd Light Dragoons. In 1823, he was appointed paymaster to the 16th Foot. While stationed at Karnal in 1837, he embezzled large sums of money and deserted the British troops. He came to Lahore towards the end of the year and joined the Sikh army as a battalion commander on Rs 800 per month, later commuted for jagir of three villages near Rawalpindi.
GOBINDJAS, RAI (d. 1846) served, like his father Rai Anand Singh, as a vakilor agent of the Sikh kingdom, first at Ludhiana and then at Delhi. His despatches from Ludhiana contain reports concerning various political matters such as the Indus navigation scheme, the Ropar meeting, Alexander Burncs` mission to Kabul, the Tripartite treaty, Lord Auckland`s visit to Firozpur, and the passage of British troops across the Punjab to Kabul. He was one of Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s most wellinformed counsellors on Anglo Sikh affairs. Gobind Jas died in 1846.
GURBACHAN SINGH KHALSA BHINDRANVALE, SANT GIANI (1903-1969), holy man, preacher and exponent of the Sikh sacred texts, was born on 12 February 1903, the son of Rur Singh of the village of Akhara, 6 km south of Jagraori, in Ludhiana district of the Punjab. He learnt to read and write Gurmukhi at the village gurudwara and helped his father in farming. He was married at the age of 18 and had two sons born to him, but his dedication to Sikh lerarning led him to join Gurdwara Sri Akhand Prakash, a seminary established by Sant Sundar Singh at the village of Bhindar Kalan, 15 km north of Moga. In due time he came to be known as the best among Sant Sundar Singh`s pupils.
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GURMUKH (gur = Guru; mukh = face), a word employed in Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, in several distinct shades of signification. The gurmukh is, for instance, the Primordial Guru (God) who created all forms; it is He, too, who strings them into one thread oan gurmukhi kio akdrd ekahi suli provanhdrd (GG, 250). Gurmukh is also the Guru who instils the awe of the Fearless One, and through the Word shapes the misshapen (minds).
HARI LAL, BHAI, and his brother, Bhai Krishan Lal, Brahmans of Kashi who, disregarding caste prejudice and pride, joined the Sikh faith in the time of Guru Arjan. According to Bhai Kahn Singh, Gurushabad Ratandkar Mahdn Kosh, slokas in SahaskritT, a contemporary variety of Sanskrilized diction, were composed by the Guru for their instruction. The main point of this composition is that, of all gifts of God, the gift of His name is the most precious. Hari Lal and his brother dedicated themselves to spreading the message of Guru Nanak and established sangats in the region of KashI (present Varanasi).
HIRA SINGH DARD, GIANI (1889-1965), journalist and author, who in his early youth began writing religious and patriotic poetry in Punjabi under the pseudonym of "Dard", later absorbed into his name, was born on 30 September 1889 in the village of Ghaghrot, in Rawalpindi district, now in Pakistan. His father Hari Singh, who belonged to a Brahman family of Punchh, had come to settle in Rawalpindi and embraced the Sikh faith. Hira Singh attended the Christian Mission School at Rawalpindi and was in 1907 appointed an octroi clerk in the local Municipal Committee which employment he resigned to become a teacher at the Singh Sabha school at Chakk No 73J.B., in Lyallpur district.
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INDAR SINGH, BHAI (1881-1921), one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs, was born on 27 January 1881, the son of Bhai Sarmukh Singh and Mai Sukhdel of Pandori Nijjharari in Jalandhar district. He learnt reading and writing Punjabi in the village gurudwara, and grew up into a strongly built young man, tall and sturdy. He seemed ideally suited for a career in the army which he did join (36th Sikh Battalion), but took out his discharge in two years` time. He participated in the historic Sikh gathering at Dhavovali on 13 October 1920. He had his name registered as a volunteer in the batch led by Bhai Sundar Singh, Jathedar of his own village, for the liberation of the Nankana Sahib shrine. He fell a martyr in the compound of Gurdwara Janam As than in the raining bullets on 20 February 1921. See NANKANA SAHIB MASSACRE
