Alphabetical Index

GULAB SINGH GHOLIA, SANT (1853-1936), Sikh saint and scholar, was born in 1853 to Bhai Dal Singh and Dharam Kaur of Bhattivala, a village 6 km south of Bhavamgarh, in the present Sarigrur district of the Punjab. He received his early education in the village dharamsald, and then spent five years at the derd of Bhai Ram Singh, at Manuke, in Faridkot district, learning kirtan and studying the Sikh texts. Realizing that, to properly comprehend and interpret certain theological terms used in the Scripture, knowledge of Sanskrit was essential, he shifted, in 1873, to the village of Dhapali (now in Sarigrur district), where he apprenticed himself to Giani Anokh Singh. He studied Sanskrit and Vedanta with him for ten long years.

GULAB SINGH PAHUVINDIA (d. 1854), a general in the Sikh army, was the son of Karam Singh, who along with his three brothers had taken possession of the country between the rivers Satluj and Beas in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Karam Sirigli`s brothers dying heirless, the estate passed on to his only son Gulab Singh. When in 1806 Maharaja Ranjit Singh took possession of the Doab, Gulab Singh entered his service as an adjutant, soon becoming commandant. After the capture of Multan in 1818, he was promoted colonel and in this rank he took part in various actions that took place against the Afghans in the Peshawar valley.

GULAB SINGH, PANDIT, was a Nirmala scholar, the prefix pandit denoting his preeminence in Sanskrit letters rather than his caste. He was born in a peasant family in 1789 Bk/AD 1732 in the village of Sekham, in Lahore district, now in Pakistan. He was initialed into Sanskrit studies by Pandit Man Singh Nirmala to whom he has expressed his indebtedness at many places in his writings. As a small boy, he learnt Gurmukhi from a sdclhu in his own village and read with him the Guru Granth Sahib. 

GULABA, a former masand or local sangat leader who, after the abolition of the office by Guru Gobind Singh in 169899, had settled at Machhivara in present day Ludiriana district of the Punjab, faithfully served tlie Guru and his three companions coming out after the battle of Chamkaur (December 1705). Gulaba, finding them in the forest outside Machhivara, brought them to his house inside the village and put them up in his chubdrd, room on the first floor. He served them food and arranged their escape further abroad with the help of two Palhans (See GHANI KHAN). The site of Gulaba`s house is now marked by Gurdwara Chubara Sahib at Machhivara.

GULABDASIAS, a sect subscribing to epicurean ethics, were the followers of one Pritam Das, originally an Udasi sddhu. Pritam Das`s principal disciple was Gulab Das after whom the members of the sect came to be known as Gulabdasias. Gulab Das, son of Hamira, was born in 1809 at the village of Rataul, near Tarn Taran, in Amritsar district. He had served as a trooper in the army of Maharaja Sher Singh. On the abrogation of the Sikh rule, he became a follower of Pritam Das, succeeding him on his death as the head of the sect.

GULERIA, JAGJIT SINGH Guleria, Jagjit Singh (1917 - )is a well-known poet writing in a mystic strain. He has thus kept up the tradition established by Bhai Vir Singh and Puran Singh in Punjabi poetry. Some of his famous works include Jharnatan, Annsian, Sanjhiwal and Punarmilan. Guleria served in the Army from 1942 to 1973 and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

GULZAR SINGH, BHAI (d. 1737), a devoted Sikli, received the vows of the Khalsa at the hands of Guru Gobind Singh. He was among the five Sikhs sent along with Bhai Mani Singh to Amritsar in 1700 to manage the shrines there. In the days of severe persecution by the Mughal authority, Bhai Gulzar Singh was skinned to death at Lahore at the same time as Bhai Man! Singh was hacked to pieces (1737). A samddh or memorial shrine in his lion our was raised in Lahore near that of the latter.

GUNIKE, village 12 km south of Nabha (30°22`N, `76°9`E), in Patiala district, has a historical Gurdwara, dedicated to...

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 for a true, meritorious devotee. Like the hymns of Guru Nanak, this one too is uttered in the first person, and by implication, it sums up qualities characteristic of a true and pious Sikh.

GUPALA, BHAI, a learned Sikh of the time of Guru Arjan who distinguished himself also as a warrior under his successor, Guru Hargobind. Once, as Guru Hargobind was encamped at Ruhela, renamed Sri Hargobindpura, a Sikh, Sabhaga by name, presented him with five handsome horses. The Guru immediately distributed three of them, one each to Baba Gurditta, Bhai BidhT Chand and Painda Khan. The remaining two were retained in the Guru`s personal stables. While sitting among the sangat one day, Guru Hargobind asked the question; "Who among you can recite gurbdm faultlessly, pronouncing perfectly every vowel and consonant?" Many said with folded hands that they had learnt a large portion of gurbdm which they regularly recited.

GUR KIRAT PRAKASH, by Vir Singh Bal, is a versified account of the lives of the first nine of the ten Gurus or spiritual teachers of the Sikh panth. Written in Braj, Gurmukhi characters, the work was completed in 1891 Bk/ AD 1834. The manuscript, two copies of which are available one each in the Punjab State Archives at Patiala (No. 682) and the Punjabi University at Patiala, has since been published (Punjabi University, 1986). The work is divided into ten chapters, here called hulas, each dealing with the life of one of the nine Gurus. The opening chapter on Guru Nanak comprises 414 chhands or stanzas, followed by one on Guru Angad (135 stanzas).

GUR SEVAK SABHA, a society formed at Amritsar on 29 December 1933 by some Sikh intellectuals and educationists to restate Sikh moral and religious values and have these reinstated in the public life of the Panth,` then severely riven by rivalries and personal ambitions of the leaders. Bava Harkishan Singh, Principal of the Guru Nanak Khalsa College at Gujranwala, Tcja Singh and Niranjan Singh, both professors at the Khalsa College at Amritsar and Narain Singh, a professor at the Khalsa College at Gujranwala, were amongst the sponsors.

GURBACHAN SINGH KHALSA BHINDRANVALE, SANT GIANI (1903-1969), holy man, preacher and exponent of the Sikh sacred texts, was born on 12 February 1903, the son of Rur Singh of the village of Akhara, 6 km south of Jagraori, in Ludhiana district of the Punjab. He learnt to read and write Gurmukhi at the village gurudwara and helped his father in farming. He was married at the age of 18 and had two sons born to him, but his dedication to Sikh lerarning led him to join Gurdwara Sri Akhand Prakash, a seminary established by Sant Sundar Singh at the village of Bhindar Kalan, 15 km north of Moga. In due time he came to be known as the best among Sant Sundar Singh`s pupils.

GURBACHAN SINGH SANDHANVAUA (b. 1855), the eldest of the four sons of Thakur Singh Sandharivalia, the prime minister of the emigre government of Maharaja Duleep Singh at Pondicherry, was born in 1855 and was adopted by his uncle Partap Singh Sandharivalia. Gurbachan Singh was nominated to the Statutory Civil Service and was in 1886 working as an assistant commissioner in the Punjab. In October of that year, he accompanied his father, Thakur Singh, with a small retinue of servants on a pilgrimage to Nanded, sacred to Guru Gobind Singh. From there the party proceeded to Pondicherry, a French possession near Madras, where Thakur Singh started a campaign for the restoration of Maharaja Duleep Singh to the throne of the Punjab.

GURBACHAN SINGH TALIB (1911-1986), scholar, author and teacher, famous for his command of the English language. He was master equally of the written as well as of the spoken word. He was born in a small town, Munak, in the present Sarigrur district, on 7 April 1911, the son of Sardar Kartar Singh and MataJai Kaur. His father was an employee of the princely state of Sarigrur.

GURBAKHSH, an Udasi saint contemporary with Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708), who was at the time of the evacuation of Anandpur directed by the Guru to stay behind to look after the local sangat and the sacred shrines. Years later, when Gulab Rai, a great grandson of Guru Hargobind (1595-1644), occupied the seat where Guru Gobind Singh used to hold assembly and, pretending to be Guru, started accepting offerings from Sikh devotees, Gurbakhsh remonstrated with him and finding him adamant and unrepcntcnt cursed him with an early death, with no progeny to continue his line. Gulab Rai soon died childless and it was the descendants of his brother, Shyam Singh, who flourished in Anandpur.