sikh

SIKH CALENDAR or system of reckoning chronology or dates of events in Sikh history is generally based on the Vikrami Samvat (Bikrami Sammat, in Punjabi), a system mostly in vogue in northern India, although other systems the Hijri during the Muslim period and Christian since the advent of the Britishhave also been used by some (usually nonSikh) chroniclers and historians. Nanakshahi and Khalsa eras are exclusively Sikh in origin and follow the Bikrami system except in reckoning the years. The Shaka calendar adopted by Government of India for official purposes has not gained common currency. Etymologically, calendar is from Latin claends or kalends, the first day of the month in the ancient Roman calendar, and calendarium, account book showing when debts were due.

SINGH, from Sanskrit sinha for lion, is an essential component of the name for a Sikh male. Every Sikh male name must end with `Singh`. Historically, this was so ordained by Guru Gobind Singh on the Baisakhi day, 30 March 1699, when he inaugurated the Khalsa. introducing a new form of initiatory rites, khande di pahul.

SRIJASSA SINGH BINOD, manuscript dealing with the career of Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluvalia (1718-83), a prominent Sikh warrior of the eighteenth century and founder of the erstwhile state of Kapurthala in the Punjab, was written by Ram Sukh Rao at the instance of Sardar Fateh Singh, ruler of Kapurthala from 1801 to 1836. The manuscript, formerly the property of Kapurthala state, is now held in the Punjab State Archives, Patiala, at MS. accession No. M/772. It consists of 250 folios, size 22x16 cm, each containing 16 lines. Not much is known about the author, Ram Sukh Rao, except that he was a Brahman, who had worked as a tutor in the Kapurthala family and who was rewarded with a.jagir, i.e. land grant, after his ward Fateh Singh`s accession to the throne.

SOBHA SINGH, a grandson of Divan Singh who had built the village of Qila Divan Singh in Gurdaspur district during the early days of Sikh power. Divan Singh was a follower of Chatthas of Rasulnagar. Sobha Singh`s father, Hukam Singh had served under Mahan Singh Sukkarchakkia and afterwards under Maharaja Ranjit Singh in their various campaigns of conquest and died while fighting against the Yusafzais. Sobha Singh was granted the villages of Qila Divan Singh and Kotgarh on the death of his father.

TARA SINGH, BHAI, the eighteenth century Sikh martyr, was a Buttar Jatt of the village Van, popularly known as Dallvan because of its proximity to another village called Dall, in present day Amritsar district of the Punjab. His father, Gurdas Singh, had received the rites of the Khalsa in the time of Guru Gobind Singh, and had taken part in the battle of Amritsar (6 April 1709), in which Bhai Mani Singh led the Sikhs and in which Har Sahai, a revenue official of Patti, was killed at his (Gurdas Singh`s) hands.

THAKAR SINGH, GIANI (1838-1943). learned in Sikh sacred texts which he expounded with exceptional virtuosity, was born on 10 November 1838 at the village of`Jandiala in Hoshiarpur district of the Punjab, the son of Bhai Mahan Singh, a soldier in Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army. Mahan Singh was a follower of Bhai Maharaj Singh of Naurangabad under whose care Thakar Singh had his early lessons in the Sikh Scriptures and at whose hands he received the Sikh initiatory rites. After the arrest by the British of Bhai Maharaj Singh in December 1849, Thakar Singh and his father fled roaming from place to place.

UMDAT UTTWARIKH, lit. the choicest of histories, by Sohan Lal Suri, is a chronicle, in Persian, primarily of the reigns of Ranjit Singh and his successors. The original manuscript, in five volumes in shikastah hand, consisted of some 7,000 pages. A lithographed edition of the work was brought out, in 1880, by the author`s descendants, under the auspices of the Panjab University College, Lahore. The Registrar of the College, G.W. Leitner, had in fact taken the manuscript with him to the International Congress of Orientalists (1879) held at Florence where it was put on display :the manuscript was then returned to Harbhagvan Das, the grandson of the author, from whom it had been borrowed.

VIR SINGH. BHAI (1872-1957), poet, scholar and exegete, was a major figure in the Sikh renaissance and in the movement for the revival and renewal of Punjabi literary tradition. His identification with all the important concerns of modern Sikhism was so complete that he came to be canonized as Bhai, the Brother of the Sikh Order, very early in his career. For his pioneering work in its several different genres, he is acknowledged as the creator of modern Punjabi literature. Born on 5 December 1872, in Amritsar, Bhai Vir Singh was the eldest of Dr Charan Singh`s three sons.

AJIT SINGH, SAHIBZADA (1687-1705), the eldest son of Guru Gobind Singh, was born to Mata Sundari at Paonta on 26 January 1687. The following year, Guru Gobind Singh returned with the family to Anandpur where Ajit Singh was brought up in the approved Sikh style. He was taught the religious texts, philosophy and history, and had training in the manly arts such as riding, swordsmanship and archery. He grew up lato a handsome young man, strong, intelligent and a natural leader of men. Soon after the creation of the Khalsa on 30 March 1699, he had his first test of skill.

AKHBAR LUDHIANA, a weekly newspaper in Persian sponsored by the British North-West Frontier Agency at Ludhiana in November 1834. The paper, a four page sheet initially, but doubling its size within two years, started printing at the American Missionary Press, Ludhiana, shifting to the Pashauri Mall Press, Ludhiana, in June 1841. Three years later it ceased publication. It had a small circulation mainly determined by the requirements of the East India Company\'s government. The name of the editor or subscription rates were nowhere mentioned. The Akhbar carried news furnished by English news printers from various parts of the Punjab.