AHLUWALIA, JASBIR SINGH Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia,(1935 - ) born in 1935, is a leading radical Punjabi poet. He had a post-graduate degree in English and got his doctorate for his thesis on New conception of Reality, and got into the Punjab Civil Service. He came on deputation to Punjabi University, Patiala for some time as Director, Planning and Development (Punjabi). He worked as Director, Punjab State University Text Book Board, and Secretary, Punjab Education Board for brief terms. He knocked his way into the field of experimentalist as a departure from the dominant school of Punjabi poetry, the Progressives, the leaders of which, Mohan Singh and Amrita Pritam, received his particular attention.
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BAMBELI (also referred to locally as DuggBambeli because of its proximity to another village called Dugg), 12 km north of Phagwara (31°, 14`N, 75° 46`E) in the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Har Rai who visited here during one of his journeys between Kartarpur and Kiratpur. Gurdwara Chaunta Sahib Patshahi VII, near the confluence of two chos or seasonal streams to the northwest of the village, marks the site where the Guru had halted and sat on a platform of earth work (chaunta in the local dialect of Punjabi).
BHAGAT (BHAKTA) BANI The Sikh Holy Book, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, comprises writings coming from two sources the sayings of the Gurus and those of the Bhagats (Bhaktas). The term Bhagat here broadly covers, besides some of the saints of medieval India whose compositions occur in the Guru Granth Sahib, those outside of the Guru line whose compositions were entered in the holy book by Guru Arjan (1563-1606) who compiled the Granth. All these contributors are in common parlance collectively called Bhagats. Under this rubric bhagat is included Shaikh Farid, the Sufi.
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BHAROVAL, village 15 km east of Tarn Taran (31°27`N, 74°56`E) along the Tarn TaranGoindval road, is sacred to Guru Angad (1504-52), who stayed here awhile on his way back from Khan Chhapri to Khadur Sahib. The commemorative shrine formerly known as Guruana is now called Gurdwara Guru Angad Sahib. The present complex, reconstructed during the 1980`s, includes a marblefloored, rectangular divan hall, with the sanctum at the far end and a verandah around it.
BISHAN SINGH, GIANI (1875-1966), cleric and exegete, was a granthi or priest at the Khalsa College at Amritsar for 30 years. The Khalsa College was then a premier Sikh college excelling in research and publication in the field of Sikh studies. Four of the foremost Sikh scholars of this period, namely Bhai Jodh Singh, Prof. Asor Teja Singh, Bhai Sahib Singh and Dr Ganda Singh, were members of the college faculty and between them they brought about a major enlightenment in Sikh letters.
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BHAI: Bhai, literally means brother. In the Sikh culture this term is used to show respect for a person. A saintly person, an intellectual, a humanitarian, a leader may be addressed as Bhai. The British adopted conferring the title of Sardar Bahadur to the persons loyal to their regime.
CHATTHIAN DI VAR is a Punjabi ballad describing the battle between Mahan Singh, father of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, and Ghulam Muhammad Chattha, a Muslim chieftain of the Chattha clan of the Jatts. The poet is some Pir Muhammad, whose name appears in some verses of the poem. The Var was first published in Persian script by Qazi Fazal Haq, a teacher at Government College, Lahore. According to his statement, Pir Muhammad, the poet, was a resident of Gujrat district, and he composed this ballad in the early years of the British occupation of the Punjab.
DAL KHALSA is the term used to describe the militia which came into being during the turbulent period of the second half of the eighteenth century and which became a formidable fighting force of the Sikhs in the northwestern part of India. The first Khalsa army formed and led by the creator of the Khalsa, Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708), had broken up at the time of the evacuation of Anandpur in December 1705. Another force, at one time 40,000 strong, raised by Banda Singh Bahadur (1670-1716) was scattered after the caputre and execution of its leader.
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DIVAN SINGH, BHAI (d. 1924), one of the martyrs of Jaito Morcha, was born around 1874, the son of Sahib Singh of the village of Mahingarval in Hoshiarpur district of the Punjab. As he grew up, he joined government service in the railways and was an assistant engineer when he resigned in protest against the deposition by the British of Maharaja Ripudaman Singh, ruler of the princely state of Nabha, in July 1923, and became an activist in the Akali movement for the reformation of the management of Sikh shrines.
ENGAL SECRET AND POLITICAL CONSULTATIONS (1800-1834), a manuscript series of Indian records at the India Office Library, London. This series contains, in full, correspondence and despatches on the early British relations with the Sikhs.
