Alphabetical Index

HARSUKH RAI, GENERAL (d. 1867), son of Gurdit Singh served in Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army and was in the first instance attached to a cavalry unit under Prince Kharak Singh. His next appointment was as Adalatt or judge at Multan under the Sikh governor of the province, Diwan Savan Mall, but he soon returned to the army. In 1836, he secured a ranked position in the Sikh court which he held until 1839, when he was sent again to Multan to take charge of the salt customs.

HART SINGH, BHAI (1889-1921), one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs, was born at Pandori Nijtjharari in Jalandhar district in November 1889, the son of Bhai Seva Singh and Mai Afar Kaur. On the opening of the Lower Chenab Canal Colony, the family migrated in 1897 to Chakk No. 91 Dhannuana in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad) district, in Pakistan. Hari Singh enlisted in the 36th Sikh Battalion where he look the Khalsa pdhul and fought in the World War, 191418. A bullet wound tore apart his foot, incapacitating him. He was discharged with a pension of Rs 6 per month.

HARU. BHAI, Vij Khatri, a Sikh of Guru Arjan\'s time known for his devotion and humility. He received instruction from the Guru himself and learnt how individual effort was necessary to self realization even though God`s grace was the final arbiter. The name figures in Bhai Gurdas, Varan, XI. 20.

HARVEY, an English physician who was employed by Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1838, as a medical officer in the army. In the latter half of 1839, he fell sick and left the Punjab.

HASANPUR QABULPUR, twin villages separated only by a narrow lane, in Patiala district, about 15 km southeast of Rajpura (30°28`N, 76"37`E), arc sacred to Guru Tegh Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh. Guru Gobind Singh is said to have come here as a child from Lakhnaur in 1670, and Guru Tegh Bahadur during his tour of the Malva in 1672-74. According to local tradition, two Muslim Shaikhs, Azmat and Bahra, served the Gurus with devotion and were rewarded with special letters of appreciation.

Hasrat, Sukhpal Vir Singh was born in 1938 at Khanewal (now in Pakistan), in a Sikh family of Bajwas. His father, Harcharn Singh, migrated to India at the time Partition of Punjab in 1947 and settled in village Vasarke (Batala), district Gurdaspur. Hasrat did his M.A. in Punjabi from Punjab University, Chandigarh and joined The Public Relation Department of the Public Government where he is still continuing. For some years he edited the Punjab Government monthly journal, Jagriti, beginning with l971. The first collection of Hasrat\'s poems entitled Sarsabaz patjharhan, was publishdl in 1966.

HASSU, BHAI, a blacksmith, was a devotee of Guru Nanak. According to Purdtan Janam Sdkhi, he and Bhai Sihari, a washerman, accompanied the Guru during his travel through Kashmir. They reduced to writing hymns uttered by Guru Nanak during this journey.

HATHI SINGH (d. 1783) was the son of Ajit Singh, adopted son of Guru Gobind Singh`s widow Mata Sundari. When Mata Sundari disowned Ajit Singh for his profligacy and moved from Delhi to Mathura, she took with her Hathi Singh and his mother, Tara BaT. As he grew up, Hathi Singh, too, like his father, became a pretender to guruship. He used to substitute his own name for Nanak in scriptural hymns and claim them as his own. Disgusted with his behaviour, Mata Sundari discarded him and came back to live at Delhi.

HATHUR, village 20 km south of Jagraon (30°47`N, 75°28`E) in Ludhiana district of the Punjab, has a historical...

HAUMAI is a term which recurs frequently in the Guru Granth Sahib in reference to the spiritual state of those who .have not discovered the way of liberation and peace. Literally, the word means `I am`, implying egoism reckoned as a spiritual and moral disease. It is, says Guru Amar Das, a filth which clings to man, a polluting presence which torments its victims while resisting all attempts on their part to wash it away: "jagi haumai mailu dukhu paid malu Idgi dujai bhdi; malu haumai dholi kivai na utaraije sou firath ndi in this world the filth of haumai, the clinging dirt of worldly affection, bring suffering.

HAYAT KHAN (d. 1688), one of the disbanded officials of the Mughal army who, along with five hundred Pathan soldiers, was recruited by Guru Gobind Singh at Paonta Sahib, on the recommendation of Pir Buddhu Shah of Sadhaura. On the eve of the battle of Bharigani, he however deserted the Guru and joined the hill chiefs against him. Hayat Khan was challenged in the battle by Kirpal, the m,ahant or head of the Udasi sddhus. Kirpal killed Hayat Khan with his heavy club. The feat is described by Guru Gobind Singh in a vivid image in his Bachitra Natak.

HAZARA SINGH, BHAI (1902-1921), one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs, was born on 15 Poh 1958 Bk/27 December 1901, the son of Bhai Lal Singh and Mai Nand Kaur, farmers of Chakk No. 64 Bandala Nihaloana, in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad) district, in western Pakistan. Hazara Singh was drawn into the Sikh movement for the reform of Gurdwara management, then raging in the Punjab. He joined Ac jalhd (corps of volunteers) of Bhai Lachhman Singh of Dharovali which, on 20 February 1921, met with a savage fate at the hands of the assassins hired for the purpose by the custodian of the Sikh shrine of Nankana Sahib.

HAZARA SINGH, GIANI (1828-1908), scholar and educator, was born in Amritsar in 1828. He also used to inscribe his name as Bhai Hazara Singh Giani as well as Hazur Hari. His father, Bhai Savan Singh, was employed in the Golden Temple as a store keeper. The family had migrated from Harappa, now in Pakistan, to settle in Amritsar.

HAZARNAMAH, an apocryphal composition in verse attributed to Guru Nanak. The work is a discourse on the control...

HEHRAN is a village in Ludhiana district, on the Guru Gobind Singh Marg, 11 km north of Raikot (30°39`N, 75°37`E). Gurdwara Patshahi VI ate X at Hehran commemorates the visits of Guru Hargobind and Guru Gobind Singh. The former visited it during his tour of the Malva at the request of Bhai Hamira, a devoted Sikh. When Guru Gobind Singh came here after the battle of Chamkaur in 1705, a Sikh dharamsald was in existence here, with Kirpal Das Udasi, a veteran of the battle of Bharigani, as its head priest.

HEM KUNT SAHIB, GURDWARA SRI, lit. Receptacle of Ice, situated in the Himalayas at a height of about 15,210 feet above sea level and located in Chamoli district of Uttar Pradesh, is dedicated to Guru Gobind Singh. Guru Gobind Singh in his autobiographical work, Bachitra Ndtak, has said that before his birth he had been meditating on the Maha Kal (God) at a place which he described as "Hemkunt Parvat adorned with seven peaks where earlier the king Panduraj (a character in the epic Mahdbhdratd) had practised austerities."