sikh

SUNDARI, by Bhai Vir Singh, first published in 1898, is commonly acknowledged to be the first novel written in the Punjabi language. The story, set in the eighteenth century, depicts the trials and heroism of an imaginary character, Sundar Kaur (Sundari for short) who, born in a Punjabi Khatri Hindu family, embraces the Sikh faith in unusual circumstances and spends her short, eventful life in prayer and service of the crusading Khalsa. Sundari`s tribulations begin with her catching the local Mughal chief`s attention as the latter, out hunting with a body of retainers one day, passes through her village.

TAPIYA SINGH, MAHANT (1892-1980), was a master of the Sikh scholarly texts besides being learned in Ayurveda and Sanskrit grammar. He was born into a Saraojatt family of Lehal Kalan in Sangrur district. He was a descendant of ^ Baba Ark who had been blessed by Guru Tegh Bahadur himself. One of his ancestors, Bhai Mall Singh, was the founder Mahant of Dhamtan Sahib also known as the Deori (gateway) of Hazur Sahib, Nanded. 

TEJA SINGH, BABU (1867-1933), leader of the Bhasaur school of fundamentalism, was born on 20 January 1867, the son of`Subadar Sudh Singh and Jion Kaur of the village of Bhasaur in present day Sangrur district of the Punjab. His original name was Narain Singh. Having received his preliminary education in Punjabi and gurbam or the Sikh sacred texts under Baba Fateh Singh Virakt of Bhasaur (d. 1875), he studied in Government Primary School, Lang, near Patiala, and matriculated from City High School, Patiala, in 1882.

UDASI, an ascetical sect of the Sikhs founded by Sri Chand (1494-1629), the elder son of Guru Nanak. Udasi is derived from the Sanskrit word udasin, i.e. one who is indifferent to or disregardful of worldly attachments, a stoic, or a mendicant. In Sikh tradition, the term iidasi has also been used for each of the four preaching tours of Guru Nanak ; in this sense, udasi meant a prolonged absence from home. Some scholars, including many Udasis, trace the origin of the sect back to the Puranic age, but, historically speaking, Sri Chand was the founder.

VERKA, township 9 km northeast of Amritsar (31°38`N, 74°53`E), is sacred to Guru Nanak (1469-1539) who once came and stayed here near a pond, west of the village. The pond so consecrated came to be known as Nanaksar, Nanak`s pool. The pond was converted into a sarovarin 1899 with funds donated by a Sindhi lady, Birji Bai of Shikarpur. The building of Gurdwara Nanaksar, marking the spot where the Guru had stayed, reconstructed in 1926, was replaced in 1973 by the present complex within a walled compound. It includes a threestoreyed structure topped by a lotus dome and a goldplated pinnacle.

ZORAWAR SINGH (1786-1841), military general who conquered Ladakh and Baltistan in the Sikh times and carried the Khalsa flag as far as the interior of Tibet. About Zorawar Singh\'s place of birth authorities differ. Major G. Carmichael Smyth, A Reigning Family of Lahore, says that he was a native of Kussal, near Riasi, now in Jammu and Kashmir state. Hutchison and Vogel have recorded that he was a native of Kahlur (Bilaspur) state, now in Himachal Pradesh. A modern writer Narsing Das Nargis, on the basis of information supplied to him by a great grandson of Zorawar Singh, stales in his book Zorawar Singh that he was born in a Rajput family about AD 1786 in the village of Ansora, in Kangra district.

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.