AKAL BUNGA, lit. the abode of the Timeless One, is the building that houses the Akal Takht in the precincts of the Darbar Sahib at Amritsar. The term is also used sometimes synonymously with Akal Takht. Strictly speaking, while Akal Takht is the institution possessing and exercising

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

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

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

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

BOLE SO NIHAL, SATI SRI ARAL is the Sikh slogan or jaikara (lit. shout of victory.triumph or exultation). It is divided in two parts or phrases. The first, bole so nihal orjo bole so nihal, is a statement meaning "whoever utters (the phrase following) shall be happy, shall be fulfilled,"

CHAUNKI or Chauki, lit. quarter, a four footed wooden platform upon which sat the holy choir to recite the sacred hymns in a gurdwara or at a gathering of the devotees. The term chaunki also refers to a session of kirtan or hymn singing, the number of singers at such

GUKBILAS CHHEVIN PATSHAHl, lit. the (life)play of the Sixth Guru, is a versified biography of Guru Hargobind in language more akin to Braj, written in the Gurmukhi script. The author is anonymous, though the colophon mentions 1775 Bk/AD 1718 as the year of the completion of the work. The task,

KIRPAL SINGH, SINGH SAHIB GIANI (1918-1993), theologian and writer, was born on 10 June 1918, the son of Bhai Mall Singh and Bibi Rani Kaur, a Brar Jatt family of the village of Vairoke in Moga tufis`il of Firozpur district (now in district Faridkot). He passed his middle school

NISHAN SAHIB is the name for the tall Sikh flag which marks all gurudwaras and other religious premises of the Sikhs. Nishdn is a Persian word with multiple meanings, one of these being a flag or standard. Sahib, an Arabic word with the applied meaning of lord or master, is

PRATAP SINGH, GIANI (1904-1984). preacher, journalist and author, was the son of Bhai Makkhan Singh and Mat Mathura Devi of the village of Nara in Rawalpindi district of the Punjab (now in Pakistan). Born on 3 January 1904, he learnt Gurmukhi and scripture reading at home and passed his

\'ABDULLA BHAI\', Abdul according to some Sikh chroniclers, was a Muslim minstrel who recited heroic balladry at Sikh congregations in the time of Guru Hargobind (1595-1644). Abdul was born in the village of Sursingh, now in Amritsar district of the Punjab. He first came to Amritsar in 1606 at the