KARAM SINGH, MAHARAJA (1798-1845), who ascended the throne of Patiala on 30 June 1813, was born on 16 October 1798 at Patiala, the son of Raja Sahib Singh and Rani As Kaur. He was married to Rup Kaur, daughter of Bhariga Singh of Thanesar. Maharaja Karam Singh helped the

PATIALA AND EAST PUNJAB STATES UNION, popularly known as PEPSU, formed on 5 May 1948 by merging together of eight East Punjab princely states of Patiala, Jind, Nabha, Kapurthala, Faridkot, Kalsia, Malerkotia and Nalagarh, was formally inaugurated on 15 July 1948 by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Deputy Prime Minister of

SAHIB SINGH, RAJA (1773-1813), born on 18 August 1773 to Raja Amar Singh and Rani Raj Kaur, ascended the throne of Patiala after his father`s death in February 1781. In 1787 he was married, at Amritsar, to Ratan Kaur, daughter of Ganda Singh, the Bhangi chief. Five years later,

VAR AMAR SINGH KI is a versified account of a battle fought in AD 1774 between Raja Amar Singh, the ruler of Patiala and the neighbouring Bhatti Rajput chiefs. The writer is Kavi (poet) Kesho Das, a Brahman bard at the court of the Raja of Patiala. He was

BHAVANI DAS, DlWAN (1770-1834), was the son of Diwan Thakur Das, revenue and finance minister of the Afghan king, Ahmad Shah Durrani. Bhavani Das succeeded to the position after the death of his father and served successively Shah Zaman, Shah Mahmud and Shah Shuja` until 1808 when Maharaja Ranjit

FATEH SINGH, SANT (1911-1972), who enjoyed wide religious esteem among the Sikhs (sant, lit. a holy man) and who during the latter part of his career became a dominant political figure, was born, on 27 October 1911, the son of Bhai Channan Singh, a resident of Badiala in present

KESAR SINGH (d. 1935), a Sikh virtuoso of the Qur\'an. How Arabic sat upon Sikh lips will be a fascinating question to ask. Arabic when she came to India made good friends with the languages of India. They took note of its sonorous periods and resonant style of recitation.

PINGALVARA. A unique institution of its kind in the Punjab enlisting a wide variety of humanitarian work is the creation of a single, dedicated individual, Bhagat Puran Singh. Born into a Hindu family of modest means in 1904, Puran Singh was led in his early youth for self discovery by

WATHEN, GERARD ANSTRUTHER (1878-1958), a British educator who came by much applause and friendliness at the hands of his Sikh pupils and their parents during his time as principal of the Khalsa College at Amritsar in the early part of the twentieth century. By his helpfulness and natural affability and

BHUPINDER SINGH, LIEUTENANTGENERAL MAHARAJA SIR (1891-1931), Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India, Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire, Knight of the Order of the British Empire, ruler of the Sikh state of Patiala, was one of the most colourful and

GHANAUR JATTAN, locally called Tall Ghanaur, village on the left bank of the Ghaggar Branch of the Sirhind canal, about 30 km southeast of Sangrur (30°14`N, 75°50`E) in the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Hargobind and Guru Tegh Bahadur. A small domed Manji Sahib commemorates the visits of the

KHALSA DARBAR RECORDS, official papers in Persian, written in a running shikasid hand, pertaining to the civil, military and revenue administration of the Punjab under the Sikhs covering a period of 38 years, Samvat 1868 to Chet 1906 (AD 1811 to March 1849). These documents, which came into the hands