AKIL DAS, an eighteenth century head of the Handali sect of Jandiala in Amritsar district of the Punjab, also known as Haribhagat Niranjania, was an inveterate enemy of the Sikhs. Giani Gian Singh, Shamsher Khalsa, describes him as "Akul Das who basked in the name of Haribhagat." He was

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

MARTYRDOM or voluntarily laying down of one`s life for one`s faith or principles, considered a noble death in any society, is especially prized in Sikhism which has a long and continuous tradition of such adherence to religious belief and sacrifice for it. Etymologically, "martyr" is derived from the Greek

PRARTHANATITADAN, poem in Bengali by Rabindranath Tagore on the Sikh martyr Bhai Taru Singh. Written on 2 Agrahayan, 1306 BS/1819 November 1899 and included in Kathd, a collection of Tagore`s poems published in October-November 1899, the poem refers to Bhai Taru Singh`s arrest along with some other Sikhs "who had

TARU POPAT is listed in Bhai Gurdas, Varan, XI. 13, among prominent Sikhs of the time of Guru Nanak (1469-1539). Bhai Mani Singh, Sikhan di Bhagat Mala, elaborating the reference in Bhai Gurdas says that Taru Popat was only a young boy often when he presented himself before the

TARU SINGH, BHAI (1720-45), the martyr, was a Sandhu Jatt of Puhia village, now in Amritsar district of the Punjab. He was a pious Sikh who tilled his land diligently and lived frugally. Whatever he saved went to his Sikh brethren forced into exile by government persecution. Spied upon by