CHANDI DJ VAR (the Ballad of goddess Chandi) or, to give it its exact title, Var Sri Bhagauti Ji Ki, by Guru Gobind Singh and included in the Dasam Granth, is the story of the titan tic contest between Chandi and other gods on the one hand and the

DEG TEGH FATEH, a Sikh saying which literally means victory (fateh) to kettle (deg) and sword (tegh). All the three words have been taken from Persian which was the State language in the formative period of Sikhism. The word deg, i.e. a large sized kettle or cauldron having a

FIVE SYMBOLS, a set of five distinctive features or elements of personal appearance or apparel that set off Sikhs from the followers of any other religious faith. Any study of religious symbols involves a dual task: first, to explain the meaning of symbols not only in terms of their

HUMAYUN, NASIR UDDIN MUHAMMAD (1508-1556), Mughal emperor of India, was born at Kabul on 6 March 1508, the eldest of the four sons of ZahTr udDin Muhammad Babar. Humayuri succeeded Babar to the throne of Delhi in December 1530 at the age of 23, but his reign was beset with

KALHA, RAI, feudatory chief of Raikot in Ludhiana district of the Punjab, was a contemporary of Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708). Converted from Hinduism to Islam, the Rai`s family were still among the admirers of the Gurus. When Guru Gobind Singh, after his escape from Chamkaur, was passing through his

PAINDA KHAN (d. 1635), spelt Painde Khan in Sikh chronicles, was the son of Fateh Khan. an Afghan resident of the village of `Alimpur, 7 km northeast of Kartarpur in the present Jalandhar district of the Punjab. His parents died while he was still very young, and he was brought

PANJ PIARE (lit. the five beloved), name given to the five Sikhs, Bhai Daya Singh, Bhai Dharam Singh, Bhai Himmat Singh, Bhai Muhkam Singh and Bhai Sahib Singh, who were so designated by Guru Gobind Singh at the historic divan at Anandpur Sahib on 30 March 1699 and who formed

SASTRA NAM MALA PURAN is a versified composition, included in the Dasam Granth. It is acknowledged to be the work of Guru Gobind Singh. The poem lists weapons of war, which are praised as protectors and deliverers. It runs to 1318 verses and covers 98 pages in the Dasam

TILOKA, BHAI, a Suhar Khatri officer in the Mughal army at Ghazni, once waited on Guru Arjan and said, "Soldiering being my profession, violence is my duty. How shall I be saved ?" The Guru spoke, "Remain firm in your duty as a soldier, but let not your mind

VAR SRI BHAGAUTlJI Kl, a short anonymous poem describing an unnamed battle in which Guru Gobind Singh emerged a victor. The poem consists of eight stanzas only. It begins with a dohra, followed by six savaiyyas, and ends with another dohra. It panegyrizes Bhagauti (sword) as the source of

BACHAN SAIN LOKA KE, a book of morals in Punjabi prose belonging to the Sevapanthi sect. There is no internal evidence to establish its date or authorship, but several of the bachans or sayings in this work are identical with those in Sahaj Ram\'s Pothi Asavarian. A manuscript copy of

BHADAUR, a small town 25 km northwest of Barnala (30°22`N, 75°32`E) in Sangrur district of the Punjab, is sacred to. Guru Gobind Singh, who came here from Dina in December 1705 following the chase. The area was then an uninhabited jungle land, and it was only after the village