Alphabetical Index

HARIDAS, BHAI, a Soini Khatri, was the superintendent of the State jail in Gwalior Fort during the reign of Emperor Jahangir (1605-27). When Guru Hargobind was detained in Gwalior Fort under the orders of the Emperor, Haridas treated him with great veneration and devotion.

HARIJAS GRANTH, by Bhai Darbari, is a collection of verse the first part (ff. 1530) of which is, in imitation of the Guru Granth Sahib, cast in rdgas, totalling thirty-four in number, adding Malkauns, Malva and Hindol to the thirty-one employed in the Sikh Scripture. The only known manuscript of the Harijas Granth, comprising 918 folios, which has so far remained unpublished and which was, according to internal evidence (f. 760), completed on Thursday, Jeth vadi 13, 1860 Bk/20 May 1803, is preserved in the Gurdwara Bhai Darbari at the village of Vairoke in Faridkot district. Bhai Darbari was a follower of Bhai Abhai Ram who was fifth in the line from Baba Miharban, leader of the schismatic Mina group of the Sikhs, and who later received the rites of Sikh baptism at the hands of Guru Gobind Singh and came to be known as Abhai Singh. The Harijas Granth begins with the Sikh Mul Mantra, here recorded in a somewhat changed order.

HARIJI, SODHI (d. 1696), a great grandson of Guru Ram Das (1534-81) and head of the schismatic Mma sect from 1640 to 1696, was the second son of Baba Manohar Das, better known as Sodhl Miharban (1581-1640), the author of Sachkhand Polhi, janam. sakhi or life story of Guru Nanak. The exact date of Hariji`s birth is not known, but indirect evidence available would place it in the second decade of the seventeenth century. After Guru Hargobind left Amritsar in 1635 and took up abode at Kiratpur in the Sivaliks, the control of the sacred shrines in the town fell into the hands of tins line of the family with Hariji retaining charge of them for several decades`.

HARIMANDAR (lit. the House of God; hari = Visnu, or God; mandar = temple, house), Golden Temple to the English speaking world, is the Sikhs` most famous sacred shrine. Also called Sri Darbar Sahib (the Exalted Holy Court), it lies in the heart of the city of Amritsar in the Punjab. The city in fact grew around what initially stood as the temple portal. The present structure could well be described as a golden beauty amid a glittering pool of water.

HARIPURA, an old village 15 km west of Abohar (30°8`N, 74°12`E) in Firozpur district of the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh. A deep pool of water to the north of the village was an ancient place of pilgrimage known as Bad Tirath. Guru Nanak had visited it during his travels in the region. So did Guru Gobind Singh in 1706 soon after the battle of Muktsar. Gurdwara Charan Pak Patshahi I on the bank of the Bad Tirath was established in 1876. The present building was constructed in FebruaryMarch 1947 when the pool was also lined. The Guru Granth Sahib is scaled on a platform at the far end of a flatroofed rectangular hall. The Gurdwara is affiliated to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. There arc very few Sikh families in Haripura itself, but Sikh and nonSikh devotees from the surrounding villages gather on every new moon to have a dip in the sacred pool and hold a divan. Larger gatherings take place on the newmoon day in Phagun (JanuaryFebruary) and on the fullmoon day of Kattak to mark the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak.

HARKISHAN DAS, a purohit or family priest of Maharaja Dulcep Singh, who in 1883 went on a visit to the Maharaja in England and stayed there as his guest for nearly two years. When he returned to India in 1885, he brought with him offerings from the Maharaja for the Golden Temple at Amritsar and for the samddh of Maharaja Ranjit Singh at Lahore and that of Sardar Mahari Singh (Duleep Singh`s grandfather) at Gujrariwala.

HARKISHAN SINGH, BAWA (1892-1978), educationist, lover of poetry and intellectual, was born at Dera Isma`il Khan on 26 July 1892, the son of Bawa Dasaundha Singh. After taking his Master`s degree in English literature from Forman Christian College, Lahore, in 1912, he joined the Khalsa College at Amritsar, as a lecturer in English. Later, he had a long spell at Khalsa College, Gujrariwala, where he remained Principal for many a long year. Bawa Harkishan Singh was among the pioneers of the Sikhs` Gurdwara Reform movement of the 1920`s. He attended the divan of the Khalsa Baradan in Jalliarivala Bagh, Amritsar, on 12 October 1920, and accompanied the group to the Harimandar and the Akal Takht, which event ushered in the movement for Panthic control of the Sikhs` sacred shrines.

HARl DAS, BHAI, along with Bhai Lalu and Bhai Balu, Vij Khatris, once visited Guru Arjan and requested to be initiated. Before initiation, the Guru, according to Bhai Santokh Singh, Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth, instructed them thus: "Shed pride, attachment and malice, and do not think ill of others. Meet other Sikhs with a cheer and greet them with affection. Remember the fivefold path speak politely; be humble; eat only out of what you earn by your honest labour; treat others with love; and share your victuals with them.

HARLAN, JOSIAH (1799-1871), adventurer and medical practitioner who served the British, the Sikhs and the Afghans, was born in Philadelphia, U.S.A., in 1799. At the age of 24, he arrived at Calcutta and was employed as an assistant surgeon by the East India Company and attached to the British army then operating in Burma (1824). After the war, Harlan proceeded towards the Punjab to try his luck there. At Ludhiana, he met Shah Shuja`, the deposed king of Kabul, then a pensionary of the English, who engaged him as his secret agent and despatched him to Kabul to stir up a revolt in Afghanistan.

HARNAM KAUR, BIBI (1882-1906), a pioneer in the field of women`s education, was born on 10 April 1882 in a Siddhu Jatt family of Chand Purana, a village in Firozpur district of the Punjab. Her father`s name was Bhagvan Das and mother`s Ram Dei. Her own original name was Jiuni. Bhagvan Das, a religious minded person, had become a disciple of an Udasi sadhu, Ram Das, of Ftrozpur, after whose death he became the head of his derd or seminary. 

HARNAM SINGH TUNDILAT (1882-1962), a Ghadr revolutionary, was born, in March 1882, the son of Gurdit Singh, a farmer of modest means, of Kotia Naudh Singh, in Hoshiarpur district of the Punjab. He learnt to read Gurmukhl in the village dharamsald and joined the Indian army as he grew up. On 12 July 1906, he emigrated to Canada and thence to California in the United States of America in December 1909. There he worked in a lumber mill at Bridalville, Oregon. He attended a meeting of Indian immigrants at Portland in the beginning of 1912 which led to the formation of Hindustani Workers of the Pacific Coast, later renamed Hindi Association of the Pacific Coast, but popularly known as the Ghadr Party.

HARNAM SINGH, BABA (d. 1927), an ascetic saint widely respected in the southern districts of the Punjab, was born the son of BhaT BTr Singh and Pradhan Kaur of the village of Mansurval in Kapurthala district. His original name was Nihal Singh. Leaving his home at the age of 13, he came in contact with a Nirmala scholar, Sant Ram Singh, under whom he learnt to read the Sikh Scripture and studied Sanskrit texts of the Nyaya and Yoga schools. It was his wont to recite the Japu 101 times a day.

HARNAM SINGH, BHAI (1897-1921), son of Bhai Sundar Singh and Mai Uttam Kaur, was among those who fell martyrs at Nankana Sahib on 20 February 1921. The traditional occupation of the family was weaving, but Harnam Singh`s father and grandfather took to peddling cloth. Harnam Singh was hardly five years old when the family migrated to and permanently settled as drapers at Shahkot, an upcoming market town in Sheikhupura district.

HARPALPUR, a village in Patiala district about 20 km south of Rajpura, (30°28`N, 76°37`E), has a historical shrine called Gurdwara Sri Mariji Sahib Patshahi IX, dedicated to Guru Tegh Bahadur who, according to local tradition, visited the site on Magh sudi 7, 1731 Bk/23 January 1675. The Guru is said to have stayed under a banyan tree, about 100 metres north of the village. A modestlooking shrine was established here later.

HARSA SINGH, GENERAL (d. 1887), son of Sham Singh, was a soldier in the Khalsa army, and commanded one of the regiments of the French brigade. He had the rank of general under Maharaja Sher Singh. In 1848, he fought on the side of Diwan Mul Raj at Multan. He was deprived of his jdgirs by the British after the Punjab was annexed in 1849. During the uprising of 1857, he enlisted in the llth Bengal Lancers as a Risaldar.

HARSARAN DAS was news writer of the British government at the Sikh capital of Lahore who sent his reports to the political agent at Ludhiana. His despatches cover the period of political turmoil at Lahore from the death of Karivar Nau Nihal Singh, 8 November 1840, to the assassination of Maharaja Sher Singh, 15 September 1843. He refers to the differences that arose between the Sikh Darbar and the British government, particularly on account of the Darbar`s plans to occupy the two frontier territories of Swat and Buner. Harsaran Das had reported in his diaries that Sikhs had received a secret agent from Nepal and that the Gorkha general, Matabar Singh, had paid a clandestine visit to Lahore.