WOMEN IN SIKHISM. Women who had many equal privileges with the menfolk in Vedic India were reduced to a position of utter subordination during the time of the lawgivers. In the codes and institutes laid down in the dharmasastras they were given the status of sudras. They were declared

ASA KI VAR, as recorded in the index to the Guru Granth Sahib, but commonly designated Asa di Var, lit. an ode (var) in the musical measure Asa, is a composition by Guru Nanak sung by musicians at Sikh congregations as part of the early morning service. Asa is

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

CAMPBELL, WILLIAM (d. 1866), a Scotsman, who came to Lahore in September 1828 and was employed in the Sikh cavalry and given command of a regiment of 1200 horse. He soon gained the favour of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, but was dismissed from the service in August 1829 on a

GILLMORE, an English deserter from British army who came to Lahore in 1833 and entered the Sikh service. He attained the rank of colonel and commanded a regiment. He married a Kashmir! Muslim woman and had children by her. He died of cholera at Lahore and was buried in

GUNVANTI, lit. a woman of becoming qualities, is the title of one of Guru Arjan`s compositions, in measure Suhi, in the Guru Granth Sahib (GG, 763). It follows Guru Nanak`s Kuchajl (lit. an awkward, illmannered woman) and Suchaji (lit. a woman of good manner). The term gunvanti is figuratively used

KUBJA Ganika, deformed Kubja and the sinner Ajamila were emancipated. (Gauri Cheti Namdev, p. 345) Kubja was a deformed young female servant of Kansa. She met Krishna and Balarama on the highway of Mathura, carrying a pot of perfumed ointment. Krishna sportively asked her about the contents of the

PATIT, an adjective formed from patan meaning fall, decline or degradation, with its roots in Sanskrit pat which means, variously, "to fall, sink, descend; to fall in the moral sense; to lose caste, rank or position," usually denotes one who is morally fallen, wicked, degraded or out caste. It is

SACHCHAN SACHCH, a simple Brahman so nicknamed for his habit of responding with "sachch, sachch (true, true)" to anything said to him, was a devoted Sikh of the time of Guru Amar Das. Leaving his native village, Mandar, now in Sheikhupura district of Pakistan he came to stay at

Sethi, Surjit Singh (1928 - ) was born at Gujarkhan, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He did his M.A. in English and submitted his thesis on Ibsenism (Dramatics) for Ph.D. Primarily a playwright, he writes short stories and novels also. His first full-length play, Coffee house (1958), is a portrayal of \'hollow

TULASI O Brahmin! worship the Lord as Salagrama and consider the good actions as the rosary of Tulasi leaves. (Basant Hindol M. l, p. 1170) Episode: A woman named Tulasi, after having been engaged in religious austerities for a long time, wanted the boon of becoming the wife of