PARCHI (plural parchtdn), Punjabized form of the Sanskrit noun parichaya which means introduction, evidence or an anecdote bearing witness to the miraculous powers of a prophet or seer. The term was applied to the form of Punjabi writing developed in the seventeenth century to present the life stories of the

ZAFARNAMAH-I-RANJlT SINGH, subtitled Ranjhnamah, by Kanhaiya Lal is an account in Persian verse of the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his successors, covering the period 1799-1849. The manuscript copies of the work are preserved in Panjab University Library, Lahore ; Panjab Public Library, Lahore ; Khalsa College, Amritsar

WAQI`AIJANGISIKKHAN, by Diwan Ajudhia Parshad, is a chronicle in Persian prose of the events of the first Anglo Sikh war (1845-46). The narratives of the battles of Pherushahr and Sabhraon have in fact been taken from two separate manuscripts. The work was translated into English by V.S. Suri and published

VIJAI VINOD, also called Bijay Binod, is an account of the events at Lahore Darbar after the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. This work was composed in 1844 by Gval, the court poet at Lahore Darbar, at the orders of Pandit Jalla, the mentor and most influential adviser of

TWARlKHIPANJAB, by Ghulam Muhaiy ud Din Ludhianavi, popularly known as Bute Shah, is an unpublished Persian work on the history of the Punjab from ancient times to the end of Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s reign. Copies of the manuscript are preserved in the British Library, London ; India Office Library;

TRAVELS IN CASHMERE AND THE PUNJAB, "containing a particular account of the government and character of die Sikhs," is an English translation by T.B.Jervis of Baron Charles Hugel`s travelogue written originally in German. The German edition was published at Stuttgart, in four parts, at distant intervals, and the English

TAZKIRAH (lit. memoir) by Anand Ram Mukhlis, a manuscript of much historical value containing an account of events that took place in North-West India during the second quarter of the eighteenth century. The manuscript deals mainly with the Punjab, Nadir Shah`s invasion (1739), Zakariya Khan`s governorship of Punjab (1726-45),

SOLDIER AND TRAVELLER: MEMOIRS OF ALEXANDER GARDNER, edited by Major Hugh Pearse, with an introduction by Sir Richard Temple, was first published in 1898 by William Black wood and Sons of Edinburgh and London, and was reprinted by the Languages Department, Punjab, in 1970. Alexander Gardner (1785-1877), a European

SADDA SINGH was the son of Hazuri Singh, an Uppal Khatri owing allegiance to the Karorsinghia misi, who lived at Panjgarh in Amritsar district. Sadda Singh, whose father was the first in the family to receive the rites of the Khalsa, took up military service under Raja Amar Singh

PUNJAB, A HUNDRED YEARS AGO, THE, translated and edited by H.L.O. Garrett, and first published in 1935 by the Punjab Government Record Office, Lahore, is a compendium of two travelogues. The first part comprises the portion of Victor Jacquemont`s Journal which deals with his travels through the Punjab and Kashmir.

PRACHIN PANTH PRAKASH, by Ratan Singh Bharigu, a chronicle in homely Punjabi verse relating to the history of the Sikhs from the time of the founder, Guru Nanak (AD 1469-1539), to the establishment in the eighteenth century of principalities in the Punjab under Misi sarddrs. The work, which was completed

PARCHI MANSUR JI KI is a versified account, in an episode mould, of the life of Mansur, the famous Sufi saint. The authorship of the work is not known for certain, though it is generally attributed to Bhai Sahaj Ram, a Sevapanthi saint. A manuscript copy of this still