VAHIGURU JI KA KHALSA VAHIGURU JI KI FATEH, form of Sikh salutation, was made current among the Sikhs by command of Guru Gobind Singh at the time of the manifestation of the Khalsa in 1699. The salutation used in the days of Guru Nanak was Sati Kartar (Hail 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

ZAFARNAMAH SAHIB - It is a Gurdwara, at village Dialpura Bhai Ka, built in the memory of the visit by Guru Gobind Singh Sahib. According to a local tradition, it is here that Guru Sahib wrote Zafarnamah (literally: letter of victory); hence the name of the Gurdwara.

GANDHUAN, a village 20 km southwest of Sunam (30°7`N, 75°48`E) in Sangrur district of the Punjab, has a historical shrine dedicated to the memory of Guru Tegh Bahadur who visited it in the course of his travels in these parts. According to local tradition, a resident of the village, Bhai

GHARUAN, a village 8 km east of Morinda (30°47`N, 76°29`E), is sacred to Guru Har Rai. He visited the place during his travels in these parts. Several people accepted" his teachings. They established a dharamsald in the village. This was replaced by a doublestoreyed building with a high gateway during

GURMANTRA, Punjabi Gurmantar, is that esoteric formula or term significant of the Supreme Being or the deity which the master or teacher confides to the neophyte to meditate on when initiating him into his spiritual discipline. The concept of mantra goes back to the pre-Vedic non Aryan tradition and to

NADAR (Arabic nazar: glance, favourable regard, favour), implying Divine grace, is a concept central to Sikh religious tradition affirming its faith in a Transcendental Being responsive to human prayer and appeal for forgiveness and mercy. It reiterates at the same time a belief in the sovereignty of Divine Will

ADI SAKHIAN (adi = first; sakhian, plural of sakhi = anecdotes, stories, discourses, parables) is one of the early compilations but not the first of the extant janam sakhi traditions to evolve. The manuscript, dated 1758 Bk/ AD 1701, and copied by Shambhu Nath Brahman was first located by Dr

NAMDEV (1270-1350), saint of Maharashtra who composed poetry of fervent devotion in Marathi as well as in Hindi. His Hindi verse and his extended visit to the Punjab carried his fame far beyond the borders of Maharashtra. Sixty-one of his hymns in fact came to be included in Sikh Scripture,

AMAR KATHA, of unknown authorship, comprises a mixture of diverse hagiographic traditions bearing on the life of Guru Nanak. The work remains unpublished, but several manuscripts are known to exist: for instance, two of them, dated AD 1818 and 1872, respectively, are preserved in the Guru Nanak Dev University Library

PURATANJANAM SAKHI is considered to be the oldest extant Janam Sakhi. The term `Purdtan,` is used to designate an early Janam Sakhi tradition, rediscovered in 1872 after more than a century of oblivion. By the mid eighteenth century the Bald Janam Sdkht tradition had won general acceptance as the