LAILI or LAILA, a famous horse of superb beauty and grace, was originally owned by Yar Muhammad Khan Barakzai, the Sikh tributary governor of Peshawar. It was much coveted by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, whose love for horses was proverbial. With the romantic name given it, Laili was known throughout Central

SAMMAN BURJ, also called Musamman Burj, an octagonal tower commanding a wide range of buildings within the Lahore Fort, was built by Emperor Akbar, who made the city his capital for some time. Within the Fort was situated the royal palace which was enlarged by Jahangir and,

AMIR ULIMLA, also known as MUNTAKHAB ULHAQA`IQ, a collection of miscellaneous letters, in Persian script, mostly of Sikh chiefs of the Punjab addressed to one another on subjects relating to private and public affairs. Compiled by Amir Chand in A.H. 1209 (ADi 794-95), the manuscript comprises 127 folios and 247

BAHIR JACHCHH or Bahir Jakkh, a village in Samana tahsil of Patiala district, situated on the left bank of the Sarasvati, a small stream sacred to the Hindus, commemorates the visit of Guru Tegh Bahadur, who is believed to have stayed here with a devotee, Malla, a carpenter by

BUDDH SINGH (d. 1816), son of Khushhal Singh, nephew of the leader of the Dal Khalsa, Nawab Kapur Singh, succeeded his father as head of the Singhpuria misl. He inherited territories in the Bart Doab, the Jalandhar Doab and in the province of Sirhind. He built a fort at

CORTLANDT. HENRY CHARLES VAN (1814-1888), son of Colonel Henry Clinton Van Cortlandt of the British army, by an Indian wife, was born at Meerut in 1814, and was educated in England. In 1832, he returned to India and joined Maharaja Ranjit Singh`s army on a monthly salary of Rs 250,

ELECTRIFICATION OF THE GOLDEN TEMPLE, Whether or not electricity be inducted into the Golden Temple premises was a raging polemic in the closing years of the nineteenth century. There were views pro and con, and the debate was joined by both sides vehemently and unyieldingly. As was then the style

GHULAM MURTAZA, MIRZA, served the Lahore Darbar under Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his successors for several years. One of his ancestors, Hadi Beg, a Mughal migrant from Samarkand, had emigrated to the Punjab in 1530 during the reign of Babar and got appointment as qdzi or magistrate over seventy

GURMUKH SINGH GIANI, BHAI (d. 1843), a man of letters and an influential courtier in Sikh times, was the son of the celebrated scholar, Bhai Sant Singh, who had been the custodian of Sri Darbar Sahib at Amritsar. Gurmukh Singh was trained in Sikh religious lore at Amritsar under

HOTI, BAWA PREM SINGH (1882 - 1954) Bawa Kahan Singh, the grandfather of Bawa Prem Singh Hoti shifted to the North West Frontier Province after its annexation to the kingdom of Maharaja Ranjit Singh from Goindwal (Amritsar). He got his education from indigenous institutions and gained proficiency in Punjabi,

JAVAND SINGH, one of the five Siklis who administered pdhulov the vows of Khalsa to Maharaja Dulcep Singh at Aden, belonged to the village of Barki, in Lahore district. After serving for a while as a police constable, he had retired to his village to take to farming. When

KARAM SINGH CHAHAL (d. 1823) was, like his father Kattha Singh, in the service of the Bhangi sarddrst.a.hma. Singh and Gujjar Singh before he joined Ranjit Singh`s army after he had seized Lahore in 1799 from Lahina Singh Bhangi`s son, Chet Singh. Karam Singh rapidly rose in the Maharaja`s