GONDPUR, village 22 km south of Hoshiarpur (31°32`N, 75°55`E), in the Punjab, claims a historical shrine, Gurdwara Tahli Sahib, dedicated to Guru Hargobind, who came here from Pur Hi ran on his way to Kiratpur and stayed in a grove of tdhfi trees. A platform was raised on the site

GURU KA LANGAR (lit., langar or refectory of the Guru) is a community kitchen run in the name of the Guru. It is usually attached to a gurdwara. Langar, a Persian word, means \'an ahnshouse\', \'an asylum for the poor and the destitute\', \'a public kitchen kept by a

MAI DAS, a Vaisnavite sadhu of the village of Narli, now in Amritsar district of the Punjab, embraced Sikh faith at the hands of Guru Amar Das. As a wandering sadhu, he once visited Goindval and desired to meet the Guru, but since he was unable to comply with

NAGRA, village 16 km east of Sunam (30°7`N, 75°48`E) in the Punjab, was, according to local tradition, visited by Guru Hargobind and Guru Tegh Bahadur. A modest shrine built of baked bricks honoured the memory of the latter, but it is no longer in existence. The one dedicated to

NIDHAN SINGH, SANT (1882-1947), holy man popularly known as Hazur Sahibvale, was born the son of Bhai  Uttam Singh of the village of Nidalori in Hoshiarpur district of the Punjab. He received religious instruction at the hands of Sant Divan Singh, popular in the area for his holiness. He

PANGAT, from Sanskrit pankti (lit. a row, line, series, or a group, assembly, company), stands in Sikh terminology for commensality or sitting together on the ground in a row to partake of food from a common kitchen regardless of caste, creed, sex, age or social status. Pangat is thus a

RANI MAJRA, a village in Patiala district, 16 km northeast of Ambala city (30°23`N, 76° 47`E), claims a historical shrine dedicated to Guru Gobind Singh who, according to local tradition, came here as a child from Lakhnaur. A simple platform, constructed where the Guru had halted about 200 metres

BAZIDPUR, village 7 km southeast of Firozpur Cantonment (31° 55`N, 74° 36`E) along the FirozpurLudhiana highway, is sacred to Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708), who passed through here in 1706 after the battle of Muktsar. Gurdwara Gurusar, formerly known as Tittarsar after a legendary partridge (tittar, in Punjabi), marks the

BHANDARA from bhandar (Skt. bhandara = bhanda, vessel, implement, + agara, house, meaning storehouse, depository, treasure house) has been used in this literal sense in Guru Granth Sahib, the Holy Book of the Sikhs. In extended connotation the term stands for a feast given especially for yogis and sannyasins, or