HOLA MAHALLA or simply Hola, a Sikh festival, takes place on the first of the lunar month of Chef which usually falls in March. This follows the Hindu festival of Holi. The name Hola is the masculine form of the feminine sounding Holi. Mahalla, derived from the

CHANDRA SAIN SAINAPATI, commonly referred to as Sainapati and counted among the "fifty-two poets" of Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708), was the son of Bal Chand, an educated Man Jatt of Lahore. His original name was Chandra Sain, Sainapati being the pseudonym he had taken. Chandra Sain, taught by one

KANHAIYA, BHAI (1648-1718), founder of the Sevapanthi or Addanshahi sect of the Sikhs, was born in a Dhamman Khatri family of Sodhara near Waxirabad in Sialkot district (now in Pakistan). His father was a wealthy trader, but he himself being of a religious bent of mind left home when

WAZIRKHAN, NAWAB (d. 1710), a resident of Kuhjpura, near Karnal, now in Haryana, was the faujdar of Sirhind under the Mughals in the opening years of the eighteenth century. The hill chiefs who held territories in the Sivalik ranges often sought his help against Guru Gobind Singh, then living in

DAYA SINGH, BHAI (1661-1708), one of the Panj Piare or the Five Beloved celebrated in the Sikh tradition, was the son of Bhai Suddha, a Sobti Khatri of Lahore, and Mai Diali. His original name was Daya Ram. Bhai Suddha was a devout Sikh of Guru Tegh Bahadur and

KESARI CHAND, Raja of Jasvan, a tiny hill state situated in the foothills of the Sivaliks. Besides being a close relation, he was a confidant and ally of Raja Bhim Chand of Kahlur, who once deputed him to Anandpur to seek from Guru Gobind Singh the loan of an

ZORAWAR SINGH PAUT (d. 1708), generally known as Guru Gobind Singh\'s adopted son, was born to Bhai Natthu, a carpenter of Bassi Pathanan, near Sirhind. His mother, Mai Bhikkhi, served in the Guru`s household at Anandpur, where the boy spent his early childhood, too. He was about the same age

DHARAM SINGH, BHAI (1666-1708), one of the Pan] Piare or the Five Beloved, the forerunners of Khalsa, came of farming stock. He was the son of Bhai Sant Ram and Mai Sabho, of Hastinapur, an ancient town on the right bank of the Ganges, 35 km northeast of Meerut

KIRPA RAM, PANDIT or Kripa Ram (d. 1705), was the son of Bhai Aru Ram, a Sarasvat Brahman of Matan, 65 km east of Srinagar, in Kashmir. Aru Ram had met Guru Har Rai and sought his blessing at the time of the latter`s visit to Kashmir in 1660. In

DAMDAMA SAHIB GURUDWARA, ANANDPUR It is known as Gurdwara Takht Sahib as well. Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib used to perform the functions of Akal Takht Sahib from this place. It was Diwane-i-Khas. It was also the court of Guru Sahib. Here, Guru Sahib used to receive representatives of different States

MADAN SINGH, BHAI (d. 1705), one of the martyrs of Chamkaur (7 December 1705), was, according to local tradition popular in and around Bhagrana in Fatehgarh Sahib district of the Punjab, the son of Bhai Diala, a weaver of that village. Bhai Diala had received instruction from Guru Tegh Bahadur