BHAI, of Indo Aryan origin (Sanskrit bhratr, Pali bhaya), means brother in its literal sense and is employed as an honorific as well as in the dominant familial sense and as a title of affection between equals. It has been used in the Guru Granth Sahib in the latter sense

BUDDH SINGH (d. 1816), son of Khushhal Singh, nephew of the leader of the Dal Khalsa, Nawab Kapur Singh, succeeded his father as head of the Singhpuria misl. He inherited territories in the Bart Doab, the Jalandhar Doab and in the province of Sirhind. He built a fort at

DAKKHANI SIKHS or Sikhs of the Deccan, a distinctive ethnic community scattered in parts of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, are the descendants of Punjabi Sikhs who went to the South during the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries and permanently settled in what was then the princely state of Hyderabad.

DIVALI, festival of lights (from Sanskrit dipamala or dipavali meaning row of lamps or nocturnal illumination), is observed all over India on amavasya, the last day of the dark half of the lunar month of Kartika (October-November). Like other seasonal festivals, Divali has been celebrated since time immemorial. In its

GOUGH, SIR HUGH (1779-1869), commander of the British armies in the first and second Sikh wars, was born on 3 November 1779, at Wood town, Limerick, Ireland. He joined British army service in 1793 and served at the Cape of Good Hope, and in the Peninsular wars under the Duke

HIMMAT SINGH, BHAI (1661-1705), one of the Parij Piare, or the Five Beloved, celebrated in Sikh history, was born in 1661 at Jagannath in a low caste family of water suppliers. He came to Anandpur at the young age of 17, and attached himself to the service of Guru

ITIHAS GURU KHAIA, by Sadhu Gobind Singh, whose earlier name was Pandit Ganda Singh, is a historical account, in Hindi, of the Sikhs, beginning with Guru Nanak (1469-1539) and terminating with the post Banda Singh period of much turbulence and trial. Sadhu Gobind Singh, a Nirmala scholar, was born in

KALGIDHAR DlWAN MALAYA, a socioreligious body of the Sikhs in Malaya (Malaysia), and an offshoot of Khalsa Diwan Malaya, was first formed in January 1918 as Khalsa Diwan, Sclangor (3"20`N, 101°15`E), by those elements of the Khalsa Diwan Malaya who were dissatisfied with the parent body`s affiliation witli the Chief

KESADHARI, a term defining a Sikli as one who carries on his head ihc full growth of his kes (hair) whicli he never trims or cuts for any reason. Anyone, Sikh or non Sikh, may keep the hair unshorn, but for a Sikh kes, unshorn hair, is an article

KOMAGATA MARU, a Japanese tramp steamer, renamed Guru Nanak Jahaz, launched from Hong Kong by Baba Gurdit Singh (1860-1954), an adventurous Sikh businessman, to take a batch of Indian emigrants to Canada. This was done to circumvent the new Canadian Immigration Ordinances which, aiming to stop the influx of

MAILAGAR SINGH or Mailagar Singh, one of the Sikhs who rallied round Guru Gobind Singh during his travels in the Malva region after the battle of Chamkaur (7 December 1705), earned the Guru\'s appreciation for his spirit of contentment. According to Malva Des Ratan di Sakhi Pothi, as Guru

MISLS. Misi is a term which originated in the eighteenth century history of the Sikhs to describe a unit or brigade of Sikh warriors and the territory acquired by it in the course of its campaign of conquest following the weakening of the Mughal authority in the country. Scholars trying