RAKHI SYSTEM, the arrangement whereby the Dal Khalsa during the middecades of the eighteenth century established their sway over territories not under their direct occupation. Rakhi, lit. `protection` or `vigilance,` referred to the cess levied by the Dal Khalsa upon villages which sought their protection against aggression or molestation in those disturbed times. The establishment of Dal Khalsa in 1748 coincided with the first of a series of invasions by Ahmad Shah Durrani which further weakened the already crumbling administration of the Mughals.
SINGHPURA, a village 5 km south of Baramula (34"13`N, 74"23`E) in Kashmir valley, claims a historical shrine, Gurdwara Chhevin Patshahl Tharha Sahib, dedicated to Guru Hargobind (1595-1644), whose visit it commemorates. According to local tradition, a Muslim Faqir, Bahlol, served the Guru here and received his blessing. A memorial platform (tharha, in Punjabi) established here was later developed into a gurdwara.
BELA, pronounced bella, means, in Punjabi usage, a jungle of tall grasses, reeds and assorted shrubbery along the banks of rivers and streams. The word also received a different connotation when an Udasi saint and preacher, Banakhandi, established in AD 1818 a preaching centre on an Island in the River Indus near Sakkhar in Sindh (now in Pakistan) and named it Shri Sadhubela Tirath. This created a new vogue and several other Udasi centres adopted the name Sadhu Bela although they were nowhere near a river.
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