Alphabetical Index

GODAVARI Going to Ganga, Gaya and Goda van are mere worldly rituals. (Basant Namdev, p. 1196) Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari and Sarasvati all long for the dust of the feet of the saint. (Malar M. 4, p. 1263) Godavari is a river, originating from the hills of! Nasik, Bombay. Though the Arabian Sea is at a distance of about 55 miles from its source, but it flows towards the Eastern coast and passing through Tamil Nadu, it merges in the Bay of Bengal. The town of Nander, where Guru Gobind Singh passed the last days of his life, is situated on its banks. According to the Sikh Scripture the rivers like Ganga and Godavari have achieved eminence because of the visits of great saints.

GOIND KUKK, BHAI, and Bhai Gola and Bhai Mohan, also Kukk Jatts, sought refuge at the feet of Guru Arjan and asked to be instructed in the path of righteousness and liberation. The Guru gave them twofold advice: "Repeat the Name of God and remember death. By remembering death, you will desist from committing sin, and by repeating God`s Name the effect of your past sins will be erased." Bhai Goind and his two companions became Sikhs and, according to Bhai Santokh Singh, Sn Gur Pratdp Sura] Granth, ever remained in the service of the Guru.

GOIND, BHAI, a Ghei Khatri of Sultanpur Lodhi, embraced the Sikh faith in the time of Guru Amar Das. He took part in sevd for the digging of the sacred pool at Amritsar under Guru Arjan. Bhai Gurdas describes Bhai Goind in his Varan, XI.20, as one of the leading disciples of the Guru. GOIND, BHAI, also known as Bhai Gonda (1569-1649), head of a dhudn, seat or branch of Udasi Sikh preachers, was born on 27 July 1569 in a Khatri family of Srinagar in Kashmir.

GOINDVAL (31°22`N, 75"9`E), the first ever place of Sikh pilgrimage so designated by its founder, Guru Amar Das. This in fact was the spot where the ancient eastwest highway crossed the River Beas. With the renovation of the highway by Sher Shall Sur, the Afghan ruler of north India (1540-45), this ferry site became an important transit point. This led one Goinda or Gonda, a Marvaha Khatri trader, to plan establishing an habitation at the western end of the ferry. Thwarted in his endeavour by natural calamities which Goinda attributed to evil spirits, he repaired to Khadur to seek Guru Angad`s blessing.

GOKHU MAHITA, BHAI, Bhai Toda Mahita. Bhai Tota and Bhat Maddu, all devoted Siklis who performed dedicated service at the time of the excavation of the sacred tank at Amritsar, once came to Guru Arjan and begged to be instructed. The Guru told them to sit in the sangal and recite gurbum. The Guru spoke: "Recitation of the sacred hymns cleanses the mind of sinful thought. To the listeners it gives comfort.

GOLA, BHAI, a Kukk Jatt, was initiated into Sikhism by Guru Arjan. The Guru taught him to devote himself to the remembrance of God. See GOIND KUKK, BHAI

GOLAK or GURU KI GOLAK (the Guru`s own till). Golak (Sanskrit golak; Persian gholak) means, in Punjabi, a till, cash box or any other container used for keeping money especially one used for receiving contributions for charitable purposes. It is a time honoured Indian custom to carry an offering when going to make obeisance to one`s deity. In gurdwdrus, i.e. Sikh places of worship, a receptacle, golak, is usually kept in front of the sanctum into which the devotees drop their cash offerings. Besides, the Sikhs are enjoined to keep apart for communal sharing one-tenth of their earnings.

GOMATI My Haj (Muslim Pilgrimage) is on the banks of Gomati, where lives my Pir (Guru) of yellow garments (i.e Krishna). (Asa Sri Kabir, p. 478) Gomati is a river in Uttar Pradesh. The Sikh Gurus and radical saints do not believe in religious rituals. Kabir, in the reference given above, is critical of going on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Wherever the Name of the Lord is uttered and His Praises are sung, that is only the pilgrim station for him. In this reference he måkes a mention of the Gomati river and Lord Krishna, rising above the communal prejudices.

GOMEZ, also known as Lawrence Goniez Allard, was a Portuguese. Hejoined the Khalsa army in 1842. After the Anglo Sikh wars, he was taken by the British as adjutant in one of the police battalions raised from the disbanded Sikh soldiery. He retired in 1862.

GONDA, BHAI, a devoted Sikh of the time of Guru Har Rai (1630-61). He was sent to Kabul to Dreach Guru Nanak`s word and he esiabhshed there a dharamsal. According to Sarup Das Bhalla. Mnhimd Prakdsh, one day as he sat in contemplation concentrating his mind on the Guru`s feet, he fell into a trance.

GONDA, CHAUDHARI, one of the headmen of the village of Muloval, now in Sarigrur district of the Punjab, was converted to the Sikh faith by Guru Tegh Bahadur. According to local tradition supported by old chronicles, when Guru Tegh Bahadur visited Muloval, he stopped near the village well to find it covered with bushes. The villagers explained that its water was brackish. The Guru told them to remove the bushes covering it, and declared the water to be sweet. Not only was the old well sweetened, the Guru persuaded the villagers to sink nine more wells.Everyone present was impressed and asked for the Guru`s blessing, but Gonda in his pride declined to receive the Guru`s benediction.

GONDPUR, village 22 km south of Hoshiarpur (31°32`N, 75°55`E), in the Punjab, claims a historical shrine, Gurdwara Tahli Sahib, dedicated to Guru Hargobind, who came here from Pur Hi ran on his way to Kiratpur and stayed in a grove of tdhfi trees. A platform was raised on the site amid the grove as a memorial which came to be called Guru kian Tahlian. The platform was later replaced by a gurudwara. The present building, constructed in 1930, is a rectangular hall, with a sanctum at the northern end. A square room with a lotus dome above it tops the sanctum. In the adjoining compound are the Guru ka Langar and rooms for the grantht.

Baba Kalu, the father of Guru Nanak, had worldly ambitions for his only son and wished that he should learn how to read and write and one day take his own place as the revenue superintendent of the village. So when Nanak was seven he was led to Gopal, the pdndhd, who felt happy to have with him a pupil so well spoken of in the village. He gave Nanak a place among his other pupils seated in a row reverentially on the ground in front of him. On a wooden slate he wrote down the first few letters of the alphabet of Sidhongdid or Sindhangdid script then in vogue among the commercial class, and gave it to Nanak to learn from.

GOPAL SINGH (1883-1941), an Akali reformer, was born in November 1883 at the village of Sagari, in Rawalpindi district, now in Pakistan. His father, Sundar Singh (d. 1895) was a small shopkeeper. Within three years of Gopal Singh`s father`s death, his two elder brothers also passed away and the responsibility of looking after the family fell on him. He worked hard to see the family business flourish, and simultaneously started participating in the Singh Sabha activity in the district.

GOPAL SINGH Gopal Singh (1917-1990), an eminent punjabi poet, journalist and critic, was born to Bhai Atmaram Singh in Amritsar in 1917 who belonged to a respectable Sikh family, well established in trade. He did his M.A. (English) from Khalsa College, Amritsar and for some time edited the weekly magazine Mauji of S.S. Charan Singh \'Shahid\' after his death. While working as a lecturer in D.A.V. and Khalsa Colleges at Rawalpindi, he began to take interest in politics and founded an English weekly paper Liberator.

GOPAL, RAJA (Raj Singh according to some sources), of Guler, mentioned in Sikh chronicles as well as in Guru Gobind Singh`s Bachitra Ndtak, was one of the hill chieftains who fought against the Guru in the battle of Bharigam in 1688. After the defeat of the rajas, Gopal seems to have sought peace and friendship with Guru Gobind Singh. When Husain Khan was despatched in 1696 by Dilawar Khan, the Mughal chief, towards the hills to chastise the recalcitrant princes, Raja Gopal, not being able to pay the heavy tribute levied upon him, prepared to fight.