NESTA, village 2 km south of Atari in Amritsar district of the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Hargobind (1595-1644) who stayed here for a while during his journey from Lahore to Amritsar. According to local tradition, at the villagers` complaint that the water of their well was brackish, the Guru had them dig another well close to it. The water of this well was sweet (mittha, in Punjabi). Both these wells still exist side by side. The shrine established here came to be called Mitthasar.
NICHOLSON, JOHN (1821-1857), political assistant at Firozpur (1844-45), was born in Dublin on 11 December 1821, the son of Dr Alexander Nicholson. He obtained cadetship in Bengal Infantry in 1839 and in December the same year was posted to the 27th Native Infantry at Firozpur. In 1844, he became political assistant at Firozpur in which capacity he was found indulging in intrigues against the Sikh State and Lord Hardinge felt inclined to remove him from the frontier.
NIHALU CHADDHA, BHAI, was a devoted Sikh who lived in Agra. Once he, accompanied by Bhai Saktu Mahita, visited Amritsar to pay obeisance to Guru Arjan. According to Bhai Mani Singh, Sikhdn di Bhagat Maid, they sought instruction saying, "Some believe that liberation is not possible without virtuous actions; there are others who assert that all action is merely temporal and that spiritual knowledge or insight, gidn (jndna), alone is the means of attaining liberation.
