Alphabetical Index

GILBERT, SIR WALTER RALEIGH (1785-1853), divisional commander of the British army under Lord Hugh Gough in the first and second Anglo Sikh wars, son of the Rev Edmund Gilbert, was born in Bodmin, England, in 1785. In 1801, he joined the Bengal infantry as a cadet. He rose to be a major general in 1841, and lieutenant general in 1851. He commanded a division of the army under Sir Hugh Gough in the first Anglo Sikh war, in the battles of Mudki and Ferozeshah in December 1845, and at Sabhraori on 10 February 1846. Hugh Gough eulogized Gilbert`s services in his despatches.

GILL KALAN, village 3 km east of Rampura Phul (30°16`N, 75°14`E) in Bathinda district of the Punjab, has...

GILL, TEJWANT SINGH THE most promising moderncritic is Tejwant Singh Gill (1928 -). His viewpoint is rather para-Marxist, but he is cautious enough not to lose his dialectic materialist moorings. In his essay, "Lekhak Te Raj Satta" (The Writer and the State) included in his collection titled Punjabi Sabhyachar, 1985, he has sought to prove that the writer has to embrace in his view both the social microcosm of the individual and the macrocosm of the State. He has seen his attempt made in Guru Nanak, but the Guru, according to his, integrates the two on a rather metaphysical level.

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 the Gol Bagh.

GILLOT or Quilette, a Frenchman, who had served in the French navy before joining the Khalsa army in 1842. He was entrusted with the task of training artillery recruits. He secured his discharge after two years` stay in Lahore.

GIRANTH is the title of the religious book of the Divana sect. The authorship of the book is...

GIRDHAR LAL or Girdhari Lal, a poet in Guru Gobind Singh`s retinue at Paonta, was the author of Pingal Sdr, a treatise in verse on Hindi prosody. According to its autobiographical stanzas 716, Girdhar Lal was the son of Gaj Mall, a Khatri of Gadiyal clan. The family came originally from Multan but after a stay at Sadhaura, now in Yamunanagar district of Haryana, had settled at Lahore. From there Dvarka Das, great great grandfather of Girdhar Lal, had shifted to Agra at the in stance of Muzaffar Khan, an Afghan noble.

GIRDHARI, BHAI, a wealthy but childless shopkeeper from southern districts, who hearing of how a certain goldsmith had got offspring as a result of Guru Amar Das`s blessing, made a pilgrimage to Goindval to see the Guru. The Guru uttered a sloka (couplet) as he saw him: "None can erase what is writ on the forehead. What is written happeneth. He who hath spiritual insight understandeth this" (GG. Ml 3).He advised Girdhari to rejoice in God`s will, repeat the Name and do good deeds. Girdhari withdrew from the Guru`s presence crestfallen.

GOBIND RAM, BHAI (d. 1845), son of Bhai Harbhaj and a grandson of Bhai Vasti Ram, had, like his brother Bhai Ram Singh, an honoured position at the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. A good scholar of Sanskrit and Persian, Gobind Ram, was of a retiring nature and more interested in spiritualism and medicine. According to Sohan Lal Suri, the court historian, Maharaja Ranjit Singh was highly impressed by Gobind Ram`s knowledge of metaphysics and often had long discussions with him. Bhai Gobind Ram, who suffered a paralytic stroke in 1840, died at Lahore on 23 March 1845.

GOBIND SINGH, GURU (1666-1708), the tenth and the last Guru or Prophet teacher of the Sikh faith, was born Gobind Rai on Poh sudi 7, 1723 Bk/22 December 1666 at Patna, in Bihar. His father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, the Ninth Guru, was then travelling across Bengal and Assam. Returning to Patna in 1670, he directed his family to return to the Punjab. On the site of the house at Patna in which Gobind Rai was born and where he spent his early childhood now stands a sacred shrine, Takht Sri Harimandar Sahib, one of the five most honoured scats of religious authority (takht, lit. throne) for the Sikhs.

GOBINDGARH or Mandi Gobindgarh, an industrial township 9 km west of Sirhind (30°38`N, 76°23`E) has a historical shrine...

GOBINDGARH FORT, raised in the lime of Maharaja Ranjit Singh on the ruins of an old fortress built at Amritsar by Guj[jar Singh (d. 1788) of the Bharigi clan, was named in honour of Guru Gobind Singh. The Fort took four years, 1805-09, to build. According to Lepel Griffin, Shamir Singh Thethar (d. 1824), one of the army commanders, was entrusted by Maharaja Ranjit Singh with the task of building the Fort. He was also appointed its first qiladar (commandant).The Fort, an imposing structure with a gilded dome, was surrounded by a high wall. It had eight towers.

GOBINDJAS, RAI (d. 1846) served, like his father Rai Anand Singh, as a vakilor agent of the Sikh kingdom, first at Ludhiana and then at Delhi. His despatches from Ludhiana contain reports concerning various political matters such as the Indus navigation scheme, the Ropar meeting, Alexander Burncs` mission to Kabul, the Tripartite treaty, Lord Auckland`s visit to Firozpur, and the passage of British troops across the Punjab to Kabul. He was one of Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s most wellinformed counsellors on Anglo Sikh affairs. Gobind Jas died in 1846.

GOBINDPURA, village 7 km west of Bareta (29°52`N, 75°42`E) in Mansa district of the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Tcgh Bahadur as well as to Guru Gobind Singh. Guru Tcgh Bahadur, says the Sdkhi Polhi, arrived here from Bachchhoana on his way to Gaga and further east. Guru Gobind Singh passed through it on his way back from Akbarpur Khudal to Sirsa in 1706. Separate Mariji Sahibs in the form of platforms dedicated one each to them were built in a single hall.

GOD, a term used to denote any object, of worship or evocation, signifies the belief of most modern religions in the existence of a Supreme Being who is the source and support of the spatio temporal material world. Theologians remember Him by the name of God. The fundamental belief of Sikhism, too, is that God exists, not merely as an idea or concept, but as a Real Being, indescribable yet not unknowable. The Gurus, however, never theorized about proofs of the existence of God. For them He is too real and obvious to need any logical proof.

GODARIA, BHAI, a saintly person with usually carried a godan or padded wrapping around his person (from which he derived his name), was always repeating God`s name and was ever ready to do any act of selfless service. According to Mdlvd Desk Ralan di Sdkhi Pothi, a legend grew that whatever he casually uttered came to pass. After serving Bhai Gaura, son of the celebrated Bhai Bhagatu for some time, Godaria became a wandering sddhu, a godan and a gandhdid, a spear like digging tool, his only possessions, and his favourite pastime being the planting of shady trees. He met Guru Gobind Singh at Bhuchcho, now in Bathinda district, in 1706 and became a disciple. He presented himself again at Talvandi Sabo in October 1706 when the Guru was preparing to leave for the South.