TARA CHAND, BHAJ, was a masand or a batch leader of the Sikhs in Kabul. He once led a sarigat of those parts to the presence of Guru Hargobind. Travelling through Lahore, Amritsar and Khadur, they reached Kangar, now in Bathinda district of the Punjab, where the Guru then

THACKWELL, SIR EDWARD JOSEPH (1781-1859), commander of cavalry division of the army of the Sutlej under Lord Hugh Gough in the first Anglo Sikh war was born on 1 February 1781, the son of John Thackwell. A veteran of Peninsula and Waterloo, he assumed command of the army of the

UJJAL SINGH, SARDAR (1895-1983), parliamentarian, expert in finance and governor, was the younger of the two sons of Sujan Singh and Lakshmi Devi, a family that traced their ancestry back to Bhai Sangat Singh, one of the Chamkaur Sahib martyrs dying with two of Guru Gobind Singh`s elder sons

VIDIA SAGAR GRANTH, lit. the book (granth) of the ocean (sagar) of wisdom {vidia), is the title given to a legendary literary corpus created at Anandpur under the patronage of Guru Gobind Singh. The volume, also known as Vidiasar Granth, Vidiadhar Granth and Samund Sagar Granth, was supposed to comprise

\'ABDULLA BHAI\', Abdul according to some Sikh chroniclers, was a Muslim minstrel who recited heroic balladry at Sikh congregations in the time of Guru Hargobind (1595-1644). Abdul was born in the village of Sursingh, now in Amritsar district of the Punjab. He first came to Amritsar in 1606 at the

AKALI, THE, a Punjabi daily newspaper which became the central organ of the Shiromani Akali Dal, then engaged in a fierce struggle for the reformation of the management of the Sikh gurdwaras and a vehicle for the expression of nationalist political opinion in the Punjab in the wake of the

ALLAHDAD KHAN (d. 184.9) was the last ruler of Khattekhel family of Tonk, situated in Bannu district, on the northwest frontier. When Maharaja Ranjit Singh conquered this region in 1821, Allahdad Khan became a tributary of the Sikh government. As the tribute had fallen in arrears, an expedition was

ARATI, from Sanskrit aratrik, meaning the light or the vessel containing it which is waved before an idol, generally in the clockwise direction, accompanied by the chanting of mantras. This is also the name given the ceremony which for the Hindus is a mode of ritual worship to propitiate

ARDAMAN SINGH, BHAYEE (1899-1976), of pious lineage was born on 20 September 1899 (father: Bhayee Arjan Singh; mother: Devinder Kaur) at Bagarian, in present day Sarigrur district of the Punjab. The family traces its descent from Bhai Rup Chand, a devout Sikh of the time of Guru Hargobind (1595-1644)

AYODHYA (26° 45`N, 82° 10`E), on the right bank of the River Saryu, also known as Ghaghara, is sacred to the Hindus as the birthplace of Lord Rama. This ancient town has Sikh shrines in memory of the First, the Ninth and the Tenth Gurus. All three are located

BAHORA, BHAI, a goldsmith, who once came to Goindval to see Guru Arjan and seek his blessing. He confessed to the Guru that he cheated his customers skimping their gold, and asked what other calling he should turn to. The Guru said, "Do not cheat, do not steal and

BARAH MAHA or BARAH MASA, in Hindi, is a form of folk poetry in which the emotions and yearnings of the human heart are expressed in terms of the changing moods of Nature over the twelve months of the year. In this form of poetry, the mood of Nature