WATHEN, GERARD ANSTRUTHER (1878-1958), a British educator who came by much applause and friendliness at the hands of his Sikh pupils and their parents during his time as principal of the Khalsa College at Amritsar in the early part of the twentieth century. By his helpfulness and natural affability and

ANAK SINGH. warrior son of Bhai Mani Ram, resident of the village of Alipur, district Multan (now in Pakistan), received baptismal rites at Anandpur at the time of the initiation of the Khalsa, on 30 March 1699, and took part in the battles of Nirmohgarh and Anandpur. As says

BHURIA, BHAI, a resident of Chunian now in Pakistan, was a pious Sikh contemporary of Guru Arjan (1563-1606). As the Guru was once touring the Nakka country, southwest of Lahore, succouring people then living through a severe famine, he according to Giani Gian Singh, Twarikh Guru Khalsa, came to

DEG TEGH FATEH, a Sikh saying which literally means victory (fateh) to kettle (deg) and sword (tegh). All the three words have been taken from Persian which was the State language in the formative period of Sikhism. The word deg, i.e. a large sized kettle or cauldron having a

GURBACHAN SINGH TALIB (1911-1986), scholar, author and teacher, famous for his command of the English language. He was master equally of the written as well as of the spoken word. He was born in a small town, Munak, in the present Sarigrur district, on 7 April 1911, the son of

JOGENDRA SINGH, SIR (1877-1946). scholar and statesman of old Sikh lineage, and counted among the politest and most accomplished men of his day, was born the second son of Javala Singh on 25 May 1877 at Aira Estate, in Kheri district of what then used to be the United

KHALSA MAHIMA, literally praise of the Khalsa, is a short poem by Guru Gobind Singh inserted at the end of the thirty-three Savaiyyc in the Dasam Granth. The language is Braj Bhasa, i.e. medieval Hindi of the Mathura Agra region. The setting is provided by an incident which occurred

MAZHABI SIKHS, commonly pronounced as Mazhbi Sikhs, is the name given to Sikh converts from the Chuhra community, among the lowest in the Hindu caste order. Chuhras in medieval Punjab, corresponding to Bharigis of the Hindi speaking regions, were the village menials who received customary payment in kind at

PAHUL or amrit sanskdr, the name given in the Sikh tradition to the ceremony of initiation. The word pdhulor pahulis a derivative from a substantive, pahumeaning an agent which brightens, accelerates or sharpens the potentialities of a given object. In the history of the Sikh faith, the initiation ceremony has

SANTA SINGH JATHEDAR, BHAI (1897-1921), shahid of Nankana Sahib, was the son of Bhai Nand Singh and Mat Prem Kaur of Darauli village in Jalandhar district. They were weavers by profession. Santa Singh`s grandfather, GuJjar Singh, as well as his father had received the vows of the Khalsa. The family

SINGH SABHA MOVEMENT, a reform movement among the Sikhs which assuming a critical turn in the seventies of the nineteenth century, became a vitally rejuvenating force at a time when Sikhism was fast losing its distinctive identity. Following closely upon the two successive movements, Nirankari and Namdhari, it was an

TATT KHALSA, lit. the Real or Pure Khalsa, as against the followers of Banda Singh Bahadur who came to be called Bandai Khalsa, was one of the factions in the schism which arose among the Sikhs after the passing away of Guru Gobind Singh. Guru Go bind Singh, while sending