KIRTAN (from Skt. kirii, i.e. to praise, celebrate or glorify), a commonly accepted mode of rendering devotion to God by singing His praises, is a necessary part of Sikh worship. Music plays a significant role in most religious traditions. In Sikhism it is valued as the highest form of expression of adoration and counts as the most efficacious means of linking the soul to the Divine Essence. Kirtan in the Indian tradition can be traced back to the Vedic chant in the second millennium B.C., the impulse behind it being the realization of the effect on the individual of joining the sound of music to the religious text.
MASANDS were, in early Sikhism, local community leaders who looked after the ^an^a^in their diocese and linked them to their spiritual mentor, the Guru. They led Sikhs, preached the word of the Guru and transmitted to him their offerings, escorting occasionally batches of them to his presence. The first such masands were appointed by Guru Arjan. The word masand is from Persian masnad, meaning a throne or a cushion to recline. As appropriated into the Sikh tradition, it further advanced the concept of wan;?(cot)on which the preachers sat, reclining against a cushion, as they expounded to the people GuruNanak`sgospel.
NIHANGS or Nihang Singhs, originally known as Akalis or Akah Niharigs, are endearingly designated the Guru`s Knights or the Guru`s beloved, for the military ambience they still carry about them and the heroic style they continue to cultivate. They constitute a distinctive order among the Sikhs and are readily recognized by their dark blue loose apparel and their ample, peaked turbans festooned with quoits, insignia of the Khalsa and rosaries, all made of steel. They are always armed, and are usually seen mounted heavily laden with weapons such as swords, daggers, spears, rifles, shotguns and pistols.