JOTI BIGAS is the joint title of two poetic compositions, one in Persian and the other in Punjabi, by Bhai Nand Lal Goya, a devoted Sikh of Guru Gobind Singh, much revered in Sikh piety and in letters. Bhai Nand Lal`s verse is classed as approved Sikh canon and can

MUNDAVANI (lit. a seal or riddle), the concluding hymn of the Guru Granth Sahib composed by Guru Arjan as an epilogue to the Scripture which he had himself compiled and the first copy of which was transcribed under his guidance. The hymn comprises two parts; in the first part,

PARAMARTHA, a combination of param, i.e. the highest or the supreme, and artha, i.e. meaning or objective or purpose, is, in literature, the title generally applied to a work of exposition of a scriptural text. Unliked which deals with the text in an elaborate and comprehensive way, the paramdrtha, in

RAHRASI is the name given to the main evening prayer of the Sikhs. The word itself implies supplication, though some traditionalist scholars have interpreted it as rahirdst which, in Persian, means the straight path, the path of faith and devotion as against that. of mere ritual practices or yogic

SAU SAKHI (lit. a book of one hundred anecdotes) is the popular name of Gur Ratan Mal (lit. a string of the Guru`s gems), a work esoteric and prophetic in nature : also problematic as regards the authenticity of its text. Its writer, one Sahib Singh, describes himself only as

TIKA, derived from the root tik, a loan word from the aboriginal languages, meaning `to mark` or `to explain`, signifies commentary, exegesis or explanation, especially of a scriptural text. Originally meant to provide a simple paraphrase of the spiritual and mystical revelations, a tika may now embrace an exhaustive analysis