Alphabetical Index

ISHAR SINGH MAJHAIL (1901-1977), politician and legislator, was born in January 1901, the son of Bhai Asa Singh and Mat Basant Kaur, an agriculturist couple of Sarai Amanat Khan village, in Amritsar district. He was only about two and a half years old when his father went abroad to Indonesia in search of a better living. He died in Indonesia soon after and Ishar Singh was brought up by his widowed mother, a deeply dedicated and religious minded woman. He completed his high school by fits and starts owing to narrow financial circumstances. He graduated from school in 1922 from Malva Khalsa High School, Ludhiana.

ISHAR SINGH MARHANA (1878-1941), Akali activist and Ghadr revolutionary, was born on 1 January 1878, younger of the two sons of BhaIJind Singh, a SandhuJatt, and Mai Chand Kaur, of farming stock of the village of Marhana, near Tarn Taran, in Ainritsar district of the Punjab. He learnt Gurmukhi in the village gurudwara and recited avidly his daily hymns every morning and helped his father and elder brother, Asa Singh, with farming. As he came of age, he was married to Bibi Har Kaur, daughter of Bhai Hira Singh, of Khanpur village in Nakodar tahsil of Jalandhar district.

ISHAR SINGH, BHAI, one of the Five Muktas, fell a martyr in the battle of Chamkaur (7 December 1705). See DEVA SINGH, BHAi ISHAR SINGH, BHAI (1888-1921), one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs, was born at Rupovali in Gurdaspur district on 13 Savan 1945 BK/27July 1888, the elder son of Bhai Vadhava Singh and Mai Lachhmi. Around 1906, the family migrated to Chakk No. 33 Dharovali in Sheikhupura district in search of a better living. At Dharovali contact with Lachhman Singh, who was a devout Sikh, changed the course of his life.

ISHVAR from Sanskrit Isvara isa = ruler, master, ord+vara = environing, enclosing, ie. the allpervasive Lord) is one of the several names used in Indian philosophy for God, the Ultimate Reality, also known as Brahman. There is however a subtle conceptual difference between Isvara and Brahman as interpreted by Sarikaracharya, philosopher ofVcdanta. Brahman, he holds, is the Ultimate Reality or Pure Consciousness devoid of all attributes {nirguna) and all categories of the intellect {nirvisesd), while isvara is the personal aspect of the impersonal Brahman.

ISRU, village 13 km southwest of Khanna (30°42`N, 76″13`E), in Ludhiana district, has a historical shrine, Gurdwara Palshahi...

ITIHAS GURU KHAIA, by Sadhu Gobind Singh, whose earlier name was Pandit Ganda Singh, is a historical account, in Hindi, of the Sikhs, beginning with Guru Nanak (1469-1539) and terminating with the post Banda Singh period of much turbulence and trial. Sadhu Gobind Singh, a Nirmala scholar, was born in Amritsar district sometime in the third or fourth decade of the nineteenth century. Quite early in life, he became the disciple of Pandit Nihal Singh. He was at Kashi for many years studying Sanskrit language and literature, philosophy, history and the Puranas being his favourite subjects. It was there that lie did all his creative writing. He passed away in AD 1899.

IYALI KALAN, village in Ludhiana district, about 12 km west of the city, is sacred to Guru Hargobind....

JACQUEMONTS JOURNAL is an account of the travels of Victor Jacquemont who had been sent out by the French Natural History Museum on the recommendation of Cuvier whose pupil he had been "to study the botany and geology of India, together with liberty to conduct any other investigation that he might deem of importance."Jacquemont landed in India, at Calcutta, on 6 May 1829 and died at Bombay on 7 December 1832 as a result of abscess of liver. On his arrival at Calcutta, he was received by Lord William Bentinck, then Governor General of India, and it was with his help that he was able to visit both the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the Sikh province of Kashmir.The Journal is divided into four main divisions.

JADAVA (YADAVA) By cutting joke with Durbasa, Jadavas obtained the fruit (punishment). (Dhanasari Namdev, p. 693) Yadavas are the descendants of Yadu, the eldest son of Yayati and Devayani. They were mainly cowherds. When Krishna was bom, they seem to have settled in the neighbourhood of Mathura on the banks of river Yamuna. Krishna belonged to this tribe, which migrated with Krishna to Dwarka. See : Durbasa , Krishna

JAGADHRI (30°10`N, 77"18`E), an old town, in presentday Yamunanagar in Ambala district of Haryana, has a historical gurudwara situated in the interior. The shrine is named after Guru Hargobind, although it is not certain whether he visited Jagadhri at all. Guru Gobind Singh, however, is said to have travelled this way from Kapal Mochan in 1688. A small gurudwara existed here before the present building was raised in 1945. The new building consists of a rectangular hall with a verandah in the front.

JAGANA, BHAT, was a pious, learned Sikh of the lime of Guru Arjan. He lived in Agra. Once he, along with Bhai Nanda and Bhai Bhana Suhar, also of Agra, waited on the Guru to have some of their doubts resolved. The Guru, as says Bhai Man! Singh, Sikhdn di Bhagat Maid, taught them always to repeat Vahiguru and practise the sabda and thus end their uncertainty. Bhai Jagana was also skilled in the use of arms. He showed his prowess in the battle of Ruhela during the time of Guru Hargobind.

JAGANNATHA Jagannatha (The Lord of the •world), Madhva, who is the life of the world, the Remover of Fear, remember Him in the heart. (Ramkali M. 5, p. 897) Jagannatha (The Lord of the world has created all beings; He hath Perforated the noses of all and hath stitched the nose-string. (Nat M. 4, p. 981) What is the use ofbathing (in the Jagannatha temple) in Orissa... (Bibhas Prabhati Kabir, p. 1349) Ordinarily, the word Jagannatha means the Lord of the world.

JAGAT SINGH alias Jai Singh (1883-1915), a leading Ghadr revolutionary, was born about 1883, the son of Arur Singh, at Sursirigh, a village in Lahore (now Amritsar) district. He was a hefty, sturdy man and joined the Indian army when twenty. Leaving the army, he migrated to Shanghai and to Canada and settled in Vancouver where he found employment in a sawmill. There he was drawn into the Ghadr revolutionary movement. As the World War broke out in 1914, he returned to India by a Japanese ship with a view to joining the uprising against the British.

JAGAT SINGH MAN, (d. 1860), son of Hari Singh, belonged to the Mughal Chakk family of Man yarrfary of Gujrariwala district. He was attached to Raja Hira Singh in 1843 as orderly officer. He rose to be a colonel of a cavalry regiment which formed a part of the bodyguard of Maharaja Dulccp Singh. Jagat Singh died in 1860.

JAGAT SINGH NARAG (1883-1942), businessman and legislator of North-West Frontier Province, was the son of Lala Kanhaiya Lal, a practising lawyer of Peshawar. As he grew up, Jagat Singh went into business and started taking interest in social and civic affairs. On 7 January 1924, he was arrested in connection with the Gurdwara Reform movement. He became a member of the Municipal Committee of Peshawar in 1925 and was appointed an honorary magistrate in 1929.

JAGATA, a Brahman Sikh appointed masand to look after the Sikhs in Lahore, presented himself at Anandpur in 1698 in response to the general summons from Guru Gobind Singh for all sangat leaders in different parts to come and explain their conduct in view of complaints received against them.Jagata humbly pleaded innocence and apologized for any inadvertent lapse. The Guru trusted his word and asked him to continue serving thenceforth under the direction of Bhai Pheru.