Alphabetical Index

GATHA, title of Guru Arjan`s composition comprising twenty-four verses included in the Guru Granth Sahib. In Sanskrit writings, gdthd stands for a religious verse of non Vedic origin, a stanza or a song. In Prakrit and Buddhist traditions, the term signifies averse, a line of poetry, song, stanza or aphorism. The language of the Buddhist Sanskrit texts has also been referred to by some scholars as gdthd. According to Sikh commentators, gdthd, in the context of the verses of Guru Arjan, denotes the language used in these verses which is a mixture of Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit.

GAUHAR SINGH (d. 1763), a Siddhu Jatt, was founder of the famous village of Atari in Amritsar district. Dhira, son of Jagmal, an ancestor of Gauhar Singh, was the first of the family to migrate to Mehraj Phul area, in present day Bathinda district, from Jaisalmer about the year 1580. About 1735 the family scattered; some of them settled in Jagraon area, whereas Gauhar Singh and his brother Kaur Singh moved on to the interior of the Punjab with twenty-five horsemen.They reached Amritsar, took pahul or the vows of the Khalsa and entered the service of Gurbakhsh Singh Roranvala of the Bhangi misi.

GAURA, BHAI, the elder son of Bhai Bhagatu (d. 1652), a devout and leading Sikh since the time of Guru Arjan, was a brave warrior who had carved out an extensive estate for himself around his native village Vinjhu, 14 km north of Bathinda (30"14`N, 74°59`E). Owing to a misunderstanding, Bhai Bhagatu, while on his last visit to Kartarpur to see Guru Har Rai in 1651, had made a young peasant girl believe that he had vowed to make her his wife. The girl considered herself the wife of the old Bhai, who had died soon after the incident, and would not remarry. When Gaura came to know this, he brought the girl to his house and ever treated her as his mother.

GAURI KI VAR, by Guru Ram Das, is one of his seven vars in a total of twenty-two in the Guru Granth Sahib. As the title indicates, the Vdr is cast in the Gauri musical measure a rdga commonly sung in the evening. In Sikh Scripture, Gaun is the third of the thirty-one ragas. Gaun ki Vdr comprises thirty-three pauns and sixty-eight slokas. Except pawns 15 and 20 which are preceded by three slokas each, the rest have two slokas prefixed to each.

GAUTAMA Indra seeing Ahalya, the wife of ascetic Gautama was allured. But (with the curse of Gautama) he had a thousand disgraceful marks on his body; then he repented in his mind. (Prabhati M. l, pp. 1343-44) Because of the punishment of a thousand disgraceful marks, Indra wept..... (Var RamkaU M. 3, Shalok M. l, p. 953) The wife of Gautama, who was tumed into a stone, •was liberated. (Gond Namdev, p. 874) It is recorded in Ramayana that Indra was guilty of the seduction of his Guru Gautama\'s wife Ahalya. He visited the Guru\'s house during his absence and assumed the form of Gautama. Ahalya suspected that it could not be her husband, who had gone to take a bath in the early hours of the morning.

GAYA The visits to Ganga, Gaya and Godavari are only worldly works. (Basant Namdev, p. 1196) He goes to Gaya and offers rice-balls. (Gond Namdev, p. 873) It is one of the seven sacred puris (places of religious merit) of Hindus. It is a famous pilgrim station not only of Hindus, but also of Buddhists. It was here that Buddha attained Nirvana. The Hindus have to pass through a narrow passage here in order to destroy all their sins. According to Hindu belief, that if the rice-balls are offered here on behalf of the manes, the manes attain salvation.

GAYATRI O, Pundit! Your Gayatri was grazing in the fields of a Lodha Jat. With a staff, the owner broke her leg and she was liinping. (Gond Namdev, p 874) Satarupa, Savitri, Sarasvati, Gayatri and Brahman are said to be the names of Sarasvati, the wife o Brahma. One myth speaks of Gayatri as the second wife of Brahma. At the time of a Yajna Csacrifice) Sarasvati was absent. She was called, but could no reach back in time as she was in her toilet.

GHADR MOVEMENT. Ghadr, commonly translated as "mutiny," was the name given to the newspaper edited and published for the Hindustani Association of the Pacific Goast which was founded at Portland, United States of America, in 1912. The movement this Association gave rise to for revolutionary activity in India also came to be known by the designation of Ghadr. As land holdings were becoming uneconomical in the Punjab, the farmers started, by the turn of the century, going abroad to seek new pastures. East Asian countries where new opportunities were opening up offered attractive prospects

GHAL KALAN, village 9 km west of Moga (30°48`N, 75°10`E) in Faridkot district, has a historical gurudwara dedicated...

GHANAULA, an old village 10 km north of Ropar (30°58`N, 76°3rE) in the Punjab, used to be the headquarters of a parganuh in Mughal times. It claims a historical shrine which commemorates the visit of Guru Gobind Singh in 1688 while he was returning from Paonta to Anandpur. He again passed through Ghanaula on 6 December 1705 while proceeding to Kotia Niharig Khan en route to Chamkaur. The Gurdwara, a modestlooking singleroom structure on the top of a mound near an old fortress, is looked after by the village sangat.

GHANAUR JATTAN, locally called Tall Ghanaur, village on the left bank of the Ghaggar Branch of the Sirhind canal, about 30 km southeast of Sangrur (30°14`N, 75°50`E) in the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Hargobind and Guru Tegh Bahadur. A small domed Manji Sahib commemorates the visits of the Gurus. Two karir trees, one in the circumambulatory passage and the other in the compound, believed to have sprouted from the wooden posts to which Guru Hargobind had tethered his horse, are held in veneration by the villagers.

GHANI KHAN and his brother Nabi Khan, Pathan horse dealers of Machhivara in present day Ludhiana district of the Punjab, were admirers of Guru Gobind Singh whom they had visited at Anandpur and to whom they had sold many good animals. When they learnt that, travelling in a lonely state after the battle of Chamkaur (1705), the Guru had come to Machhivara, they at once turned out to meet him and offered their services. They provided him with a blue coloured dress and carried him out of Machhivara in a palanquin disguised as a Muslim divine. They declared him to be Uchch da Pir, the holy man of Uchch, an old seat of Muslim saints in south-west Punjab.

GHARIBDAS IAS, followers of` Sant Gharibdas (1717-78), also known as Satsahibias for their peculiar form of greeting which is `Sat Sahib,` i.e. eternally existent (satya) is the Lord (sahib). The founder of the sect, Gharib Das was born in 1717 in the small village Chhudani, in Rohtak district. He got married, had six children four sons and two daughters, and lived a normal worldly life until he came under the influence of Dadupanthis. His sincere and persistent devotion won him many followers who sought initiation from him.

GHARU, pronounced ghar, is a term used in the titles of many of the hymns in the Guru Granth Sahib. The final "u" is only of grammatical significance indicating masculine gender and singular number. Gharu appears after the name of the rdga (musical measure) and the indication with regard to the author, and is followed by a numeral. For instance, the first hymn in the Siri Raga is entitled "Ragu Siri Ragu Mahala Pahila 1 Gharu I". As in the case of Mahala the numeral following Gharu is pronounced as first, second, third, and so on, and not as one, two, three, etc.

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 the nineteenth century. A part of this building is being used for residential purposes. The other portion has been demolished and a new hall, with prakdsh aslhdn in the centre, has been built. The Gurdwara is managed by a village committee.

GHAUS KHAN (d. 1814) was an artillery officer under Mahari Singh Sukkarchakkia, and after his death, under his son, Ranjit Singh. He knew something about casting guns, was skilful in his profession, and was rewarded with jdgirs at Van and Bharoval in Amritsar district, with a large house in Lahore which was later occupied by the Mission School. When, in 1812, the Maharaja reorganized the artillery wing of his army into Topkhanai Khas and Topkhanai Mubarak, Ghaus Khan was put in charge of both, with the designation of Daroghai Topkhana. Ghaus Khan distinguished himself in several of the Maharaja`s early campaigns.