BILASPUR, a small town 16 km from Jagadhri (30°10`N, 77°18`E) in Ambala district of Haryana, is close to Kapal Mochan, a well known place of Hindu pilgrimage. Guru Gobind Singh is said to have sojourned at Kapal Mochan for 52 days in 1688. During this period, he made a brief visit to Bilaspur. A small shrine now honours his memory. It is a single 12cornered domed room, inside a quadrangle enclosed by a low wall. The shrine is administered by the Shiromam Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee through a local committee.
CHHAJJU, BHAI, a Bhalla Khatri of Sultanpur Lodhi, whose name figures in Bhai Gurdas, Varan, XI. 21, and who had embraced the Guru`s precept at the hands of Guru Amar Das. He once visited Amritsar with the sarig`at of Sultanpur and received instruction from Guru Arjan. See AKUL, BHAI, and BHIKHA, BHATT
DHILLI MANDAL, BHAI, was a devoted Sikh of the time of Guru Arjan. Once, as says Bhai Mani Singh, Sikhan di Bhagat Mala, he reported to the Guru that he had come across verses using the pseudonym Nanak, but which did not seem genuine at all. Guru Arjan, continues Bhai Mani Singh, undertook thereupon the task of preparing an authorized volume sifting the genuine from the counterfeit. Thus emerged the Holy Granth which was installed in the Harimandar at Amritsar in 1604. See GOPI MAHITA, BHAI
DIVALI, festival of lights (from Sanskrit dipamala or dipavali meaning row of lamps or nocturnal illumination), is observed all over India on amavasya, the last day of the dark half of the lunar month of Kartika (October-November). Like other seasonal festivals, Divali has been celebrated since time immemorial. In its earliest form, it was regarded as a means to ward off, expel or appease the malignant spirits of darkness and ill luck. The festival is usually linked with the return to Ayodhya of Lord Rama at the end of his fourteen year exile. For the Hindus it is also an occasion for the worship of Laksmi, the goddess of good fortune, beauty and wealth.
EMINABAD (32°2`N, 74°16`E), an ancient town in Gujranwala district of Pakistan, is sacred to Guru Nanak (1469-1539) in whose day it was called Sayyidpur. According to Bhai Bala Janam Sakhi, after leaving Sultanpur and before setting out on his long travels, Guru Nanak, accompanied by Bhai Mardana, first visited Eminabad where Bhai Lalo, a carpenter by profession, became his Sikh. A hymn of Guru Nanak in the Guru Granth Sahib suggests that he was in Eminabad when the town was sacked by Babar in 1521.
