71. AKAL BUNGA SAHIB GURUDWARA, ANANDPUR

AKAL BUNGA SAHIB GURUDWARA, ANANDPUR This Gurdwara is situated exact opposite to Gurdwara Sis Ganj. Here, Guru Sahib addressed the Sikhs after the cremation of the head of Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib. Guru Sahib asked the Sikhs to bow before the Will of the Almighty. He told them to be prepared for struggle for freedom of faith and war against tyranny and injustice.

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72. AKAL MURATI

AKAL MURATI, a composite term comprising akal (non temporal) and murati (image or form), occurring in the Mul Mantra, the root formula or fundamental creed of the Sikh faith as recorded at the beginning of the Japu, composition with which the Guru Granth Sahib opens, literally means `timeless image`. Elsewhere, in the compositions of Guru Ram Das (GG, 78), and Guru Arjan (GG, 99, 609, 916 and 1082), the expression Akal Murati reinforces the original meaning of Divine Reality that is beyond the process of time, and yet permeates the cosmic forms. The non temporal Being transcends the space time framework and, as such, is Formless. However, in its manifest aspect, the same Being assumes the cosmic Form.

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73. AKAL TAKHT

AKAL TAKHT is the primary seat of Sikh religious authority and central altar for Sikh political assembly. Through hukamnamas, edicts or writes, it may issue decretals providing guidance or clarification on any point of Sikh doctrine or practice referred to it, may lay under penance personages charged with violation of religious discipline or with activity prejudicial to Sikh interests or solidarity and may place on record its appreciation of , outstanding services rendered or sacrifices made by individuals espousing the cause of Sikhism or of the Sikhs.

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74. AKAL USTATI

AKAL USTATI (In Praise of the Timeless Being) is a poetical composition by Guru Gobind Singh in the Dasam Granth. This is the only major composition in the Tenth Master's Book which is without a title. The title by which it is known is made up of its first word, Akal (The Timeless One), and its last word, Ustati (praise). In the beginning is the note: utar khase daskhat ka Patshahi 10 (a copy of the Tenth Guru's own handwriting). After four lines comes the next note: agai likhari ke daskhat (henceforth is the scribe's writing).

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75. AKAL, BHAI

AKAL, BHAI, a carpenter resident of Vadda Ghar in present day Fandkot district of the Punjab and, according to Gurbilas Chhevin Patshahi, maternal grandfather of the celebrated Bhai Rup Chand, became a devotee of Guru Ram Das. He also served Guru Arjan and Guru Hargobind. He was a man of devotion and piety.

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76. AKAL-PURAKH

AKALPURAKH stands in Sikh religious literature for the Divine Being, i.e. God. Like Akal, Murati, it is composed of two units, viz. akal (non temporal) and purakh (person). The latter figures in Mul Mantra, the preamble to Guru Nanak`s Japu, in conjunction with Xarta (Creator), the whole expression implying the Creator Divine Person. In the Sikh tradition, the expression Akal Purakh has gained common currency like the terms Vahiguru and Satinam, equivalently used.

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77. AKALI

AKALI, a term now appropriated by members of the dominant Sikh political party, the Shiromani Akali Dal, founded in 1920, and groups splitting from it from time to time, was earlier used for Nihangs (q.v.), an order of armed religious zealots among the baptized Sikhs. The word Nihang is from the Persian nihang meaning crocodile, alligator, shark or water dragon, and signifies qualities of ferocity and fearlessness. The term Akali is originally from Akal, the Timeless One.

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78. AKALI DAL KHARA SAUDA BAR

AKALI DAL KHARA SAUDA BAR, an organization of Akali reformers working for the liberation of Sikh shrines from the control of conservative Udasi priests or mahants. The organization was originally called Khalsa Diwan Khara Sauda Bar set up in 1912 and comprised volunteers mostly from a cluster of villages inhabited by Virk Jatt Sikhs in the Lower Chenab Canal Colony in Sheikh upura district, now in Pakistan. Canal colonies in West Punjab were usually called bars, lit. semi forests, which these areas really were before the introduction of canal irrigation.

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79. AKALI DAL, CENTRAL

AKALI DAL, CENTRAL, a political organization of the Sikhs set up in March 1934 as a parallel body to the Shiromani Akali Dal. The latter was formed on 14 December 1920 to assist the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in its campaign for the reformation of the management of the Sikh places of worship and, under pressure of the agitation it had launched, the Punjab Legislative Council passed on 7 July 1925 the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, providing for a Central Board elected by the Sikhs to take over control of the shrines.

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80. AKALI DAL, SHIROMANI

AKALI DAL, SHIROMANI (shiromani= exalted, foremost in rank; dal = corps, of akali volunteers who had shed fear of death), the premier political party of the modern period of Sikhism seeking to protect the political rights of the Sikhs, to represent them in the public bodies and legislative councils being set up by the British in India and to preserve and advance their religious heritage, came into existence during the Gurdwara reform movement, also known as the Akali movement, of the early 1920`s. Need for reform in the conditions prevalent in their places of worship had been brought home to Sikhs by the Singh Sabha upsurge in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

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