Alphabetical Index

GUJARI KI VAR, a composition in the form of folk balladry or a vdr, by Guru Arjan included in the Guru Granth Sahib under Gujari rdga, one of the thirty-one musical measures into which hymns in the Scripture are cast. The poem comprises twenty-one pauns or stanzas, with two slokas preceding each. The pauns as well as the slokas are of the composition of Guru Arjan. Whereas all the pauns, except the 20th which comprises five lines, are of eight lines each, the slokas except those preceding paun 1 and 20 and the first of the two slokas added to paun 2, are of two lines each.

GUJARI KI VAR MAHALA 3 is one of the four vdrs composed by Guru Amar Das structured in the form of a vdr or folk poem adapted to a spiritual theme. The Vdr, as the title indicates, falls in the Gujari musical measure, fifth of the thirty-one rdgas in the Holy Book. This rdga is usually sung a little after dawn, though in the Sikh tradition considerable freedom is exercised in choosing the hour for reciting this and other rdgas. At the head of the Vdr is given the direction as to the tune to which it had best be sung.

GUJARI, MATA (1624-1705), was the daughter of Bhai Lal Chand Subhikkht and Bishan Kaur, a pious couple of Kartarpur, in present day Jalandhar district of the Punjab. Lal Chand had migrated from his ancestral village, Lakhnaur, in Ambala district, to settle at Kartarpur where his daughter Gujari was married to (Guru) Tegh Bahadur on 4 February 1633. The betrothal had taken place four years earlier when Tegh Bahadur had come to Kartarpur in the marriage party of his elder brother, Suraj Mall. Bishan Kaur, the mother, had been charmed by the handsome face of Tegh Bahadur and she and her husband pledged the hand of their daughter to him.

GUJJAR SINGH (1879-1975), prominent Ghadr leader, was born in 1879, the son of Sham Singh of Bhakna Kalan, in Amritsar district. He served in the 4th Cavalry for six years. In 1909, he migrated to Shanghai (China) and got himself enlisted in the police. In 1913, the Ghadr party`s weekly, the Ghadr, came to Shanghai through the granthi of the local Gurdwara, who handed over the packet to the police. Somehow a copy came into Gujjar Singh`s hands. He read it avidly and he read it repeatedly to his friends.

GUJJAR SINGH BHANGI (d. 1788), one of the triumvirate who ruled over Lahore for thirty years before its occupation by Ranjil Singh, was son of a cultivator of very modest means, Nattha Singh. Strong and well built, Gujyar Singh received the vows of the Khalsa at the hands of his maternal grandfather Gurbakhsh Singh Rorarivala, who presented him with a horse and recruited him a member of his band. As Gurbakhsh Singh was growing old, he made Guijar Singh head of his band. Soon the band was united to the force of Hari Singh, head of the Bharigi misi or chief ship. Gujjar Singh set out on a career of conquest and plunder.

GUJJAR, BHAI, a blacksmith by profession, was a devoted Sikh of the time of GuruArigad. Once he came to see the Guru and said, "Lord, I am a workman, always busy with my trade. How shall I be liberated?" The Guru advised him to recite the Japu (fi) early in the morning and work for the poor in the name of the Guru. Bhai Guj[jar, says Bhai Man! Singh, Sikhdn di Bhagat Maid, not only engaged himself in the service of other Sikhs, but also reiterated to them the tenets of the faith.

GUJJARVAL, village in Ludhiana district, 30 km from the city (30°44`N, 75°43`E), has an historical shrine called Gurdwara Guru Sar Mariji Sahib Chheviri Patshahi. Guru Hargobind, during his tour of the Malva country in 1631, halted here and put up camp near a pool. Chaudhari Phatuhi of Gujjarval served him with devotion. But he became proud of the service he had rendered, and returned to the Guru in state, attended by servants and richly attired, with a hawk on his hand, and asked the Guru if he could do anything for him. The Guru asked him to give him his hawk.

GUJRAT (32°34`N, 7405`E). a district town in Pakistan, is sacred to Guru Hargobind, who stayed here for some time on his way back from Kashmir in 1620. Here he was met by the famous Muslim divine Shah Daula, well known to a local Sikh, Bhai Garhia, who also served as a masand in Kashmir preaching Guru Nanak`s word.

GUKBILAS CHHEVIN PATSHAHl, lit. the (life)play of the Sixth Guru, is a versified biography of Guru Hargobind in language more akin to Braj, written in the Gurmukhi script. The author is anonymous, though the colophon mentions 1775 Bk/AD 1718 as the year of the completion of the work. The task, says the poet, took him fifteen months to accomplish. Certain anachronistic references to events ofpost1718 period make this date suspect. Another date suggested by a modern scholar is AD 1843.

GUL BAHAR BEGAM (d. 1863), a dancing girl from Amritsar, was married to Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1832. Gul Begam had danced before the Maharaja`s English guests at the time of his meeting with British Governor General, Lord William Bentinck, at Ropar in October 1831. Ranjil Singh there after grew very fond other, and eventually admitted her into his harem as a wedded wife. He subsequently visited the Golden Temple in an act of contrition for marrying a lady whose status did not match his own. 

GULAB CHAND, son of Bhai Sadhu of village Malla, in Faridkot district of the Punjab, and Bibi Viro, daughter of Guru Hargobind (1595-1644), fought along with his four brothers in the battle of Bharigani (18 September 1688), near Paonta in present day Himachal Pradesh, in which two of his brothers, Sarigram Shah and Jit Mail, were killed. Guru Gobind Singh describes Gulab Chand, in his account of the battle in his poetical work, Bachitra Ndtak, as a mighty hero "whose face lightened up at the prospect of joining action on the field of battle."

GULAB KAUR, RANI (d. 1838), daughter of a landlord of Jagdeo in Amritsar district, was married to Maharaja Ranjit Singh by the rite of chddar anddzi, marriage by permanently knotting lady`s scarf. Ram Gulab Kaur died in 1838.

GULAB RAI and his brother Shyam Singh, sons of Dip Chand, grandsons of Suraj Mall and great grandsons of Guru Hargobind, resided with Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) at Anandpur. At the time of the evacuation of Anandpur in 1705, the Guru sent them with a letter of introduction to the Raja of Nahan, who gave them a village for their maintenance. When the situation so permitted, they returned to Anandpur, Gulab Rai purchasing the town from the Raja of Bilaspur. Gulab Rai restored the place to its former position as a centre of Sikh faith, but he started pretending to be the Guru.

GULAB SINGH (d. 1759), founder of the Dallevalia clan, was born the son of Shardha Ram at the village of Dalleval, near Dera Baba Nanak on the left bank of the River Ravi, 50 km northeast of Amritsar. In his younger days, he ran a grocery shop in his village and was known as Gulaba Khatri. Having heard tales of heroism of the Sikhs, he came to Amritsar, waited upon Nawab Kapur Singh, and volunteered to become a Sikh. He was advised to grow long hair, practise horsemanship, archery and the use of sword and to come again after an year.

GULAB SINGH ATARIVALA (d. 1887), the second son of Chatar Singh Atarivala, was appointed, along with his brother Raja Sher Singh, to look after, during his minority, Maharaja Duleep Singh who had been betrothed to their sister, Tej Kaur, and to manage the palace household. In 1848, when Raja Sher Singh had moved out of Multan to join his father against the British, Gulab Singh was at Lahore. As he was suspected of preparing to leave Lahore with a view to joining his father and brother, he was arrested on 17 September 1848 and detained in custody up to the end of the second AngloSikh war.

GULAB SINGH BAKHSHI (d. 1716), originally a tobacco seller Bania known by the name of Gulabu, impressed with Banda Singh`s armed victories, converted a Sikh, joined him as a soldier and rose to be paymaster of his army. He took part in various battles under his command. In the siege of Lohgarh in December 1710, Gulab Singh decided to sacrifice his life to save the life of Banda Singh. Since he had a striking physical resemblance with him, he dressed himself in his fine garments and seated himself in his place.