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 The only known manuscript of the Harijas Granth, comprising 918 folios, which has so far remained unpublished and which was, according to internal evidence (f. 760), completed on Thursday, Jeth vadi 13, 1860 Bk/20 May 1803, is preserved in the Gurdwara Bhai Darbari at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.
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.
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.
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.
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.