PAL SINGH ARIF, SANT (1873-1958), mystic and poet, was born on Maghar sudi 15, 1930 Bk/4 December 1873, the son of Gurdit Singh Sandhu and Sahib Kaur of the village of Paddhari, now in Amritsar district of the Punjab. He learnt to read and write Punjabi from the village granthi

A veteran political activist, Santokh Singh \'Dheer\' is bold, outspoken, down-to-earth and yet essentially poetic. He was born in Bassi Pathana, Punjab in 1920. He is a whole-time and his prolific contribution to literature includes nine short story collections, four novels, eleven books of verse, two edited volumes of

AKAL USTATI (In Praise of the Timeless Being) is a poetical composition by Guru Gobind Singh in the Dasam Granth. This is the only major composition in the Tenth Master\'s Book which is without a title. The title by which it is known is made up of its first

Singh \'Josh\', Sohan writes under the pen name of \'Josh\'. He is adept in both Punjabi and Urdu. He has already published four collections in Punjabi. They are Dhup Chhan (Sunshine and Shade), Samen di Mang (Need of the Hour), Goongi Dharti (The Mute Earth) and Balde Bujde Akkar

Bhagwan Singh (1850 - 1902) born in the village of Marajh, now in district Bhatinda in 1850,has given the story of Heer a popular rural colour characteristic of the Malwa or the southern region of Punjab. It is written in the classical Kabit form in the Hindu tradition. Sohni

Singh, Karanjit, a University teacher, has authored two collections of poems. These are Rishte (Relations) and Phul Vi Angare Vi (Both Blossoms and Sparks) besides a collection of sketches called Kalam di Akh (Pen Portraits) a critique of Mohan Singh\'s poetry ”Mohan Singh Kavya Adhyan (A Study of Mohan

CHANDRA SAIN SAINAPATI, commonly referred to as Sainapati and counted among the "fifty-two poets" of Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708), was the son of Bal Chand, an educated Man Jatt of Lahore. His original name was Chandra Sain, Sainapati being the pseudonym he had taken. Chandra Sain, taught by one

Singh \'Sehrai\', Piara is a contemporary of \'Safeer\' and several other better known poets of today. His verse has an altogether different flavour from the rest of Punjabi poetry that is being written today. It does not have the lyricism of Mohan Singh or the subtlety of \'Safeer\' or

CHAUBIS AVTAR, a collection of twenty-four legendary tales of twenty-four incarnations of the god Visnu, forms a part of Bachitra Natak, in Guru Gobind Singh`s Dasam Granth. The complete work contains a total of 4,371 verseunits of which 3,356 are accounted for by Ramavtar and Krishnavtar. The shortest is

TANKHAHNAMA, by Bhai Nand Lal, is a Sikh penal code laying down punishments and fines for those guilty of religious misconduct. Tankhah, a Persian word, actually means salary, reward or profit, and nama, also Persian denoting an epistle, a code or a catalogue. In Sikh usage, however, tankhah stands for

GURBANSAVAU, by Saundha (variously Saundha Singh), is a chronology in verse of the Gurus and of their families. The author, a contemporary and for some time an employee of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was a Sandhu Jattofthe Lahore district. His father was Chaudhari Hem Raj, and his elder brother, Hira Singh,

ZAFARNAMAH, Guru Gobind Singh\'s letter in Persian verse addressed to Emperor Aurangzib included in the Dasam Granth. The word zafarnamah is a compound of Arabic zafar, meaning victory, and Persian namah, meaning letter. Zafarnamah thus means a letter or epistle of victory. Pressed by a prolonged siege, Guru Gobind