DEVI DAS was, according to Bhai Santokh Singh, Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth, a devout Sikh of the time of Guru Hargobind (1595-1644), trained in martial skills. He took part in the battle of Amritsar (1629) in which the Sikhs worsted the attacking Mughal force led by Mukhlis Khan,

DULEY, village in Ludhiana district, 17 km southwest from the city (30° 54`N, 75° 52`E), claims a historical shrine called Gurdwara Phalahi Sahib Patshahi 10. Guru Gobind Singh halted here awhile under a phalahi tree, while travelling from Alamgir toJodhari at the close of 1705. An imposing new gurdwara building,

DAUDHAR DERA, a school for training Sikh musicians popularly known as Vadda Dera, was established in 1859 by Sant Suddh Singh (d. 1882) at Daudhar, village 22 km southeast of Moga (30° 48`N, 75° 10`E), in Faridkot district of the Punjab. Suddh Singh was a disciple of Thakur Didar Singh,

GAJJA SINGH, MAHANT (c. 1850-1914), maestro of Sikh classical devotional music, was born in a Jatt Sikh family of Vandar, a village in Faridkot district of the Punjab. He had a sensitive ear for music from his early childhood. His father, a pious Sikh himself, apprenticed him for religious

GURMAT SANGIT or sacred music of the Sikhs. The founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak (1469-1539), composed his religious verse to settings of Indian ragas mostly from the classical tradition. Successive Gurus followed his example and considered divine worship through music the best means of attaining that state which

HIRA SINGH RAGI, BHAI (1879-1926), eminent exponent of Sikh devotional music, was born in 1879 at Faruka, in Shahpur district, now in Pakistan. His father`s name was Bhai Bhag Singh and mother`s Satbharai. Bhag Singh was well versed in classical music and played string instruments such as sdraizgi and

JAVALA SINGH, BHAI SAHIB (1872-1952), a renowned exponent of the Sikh devotional music, was born in 1872 at the village of  Saidpur in Kapurthala district of the Punjab. His father, Bhai Deva Singh and grandfather, Parijab Singh were in their day celebrated rdgis or musicians who recited Sikh kirtan

KHUSHAL SINGH, BHAI (1862-1945), holy man with mastery of Sikh music, was the son of Bhai Gurmukh Singh, a Jatt Sikh of Daudhar, a village 22 km southeast of Moga (30°48`N, 75°10`E), in Faridkot district of the Punjab. Blind from birth, Khushal Singh received instruction in

KIRTAN (from Skt. kirii, i.e. to praise, celebrate or glorify), a commonly accepted mode of rendering devotion to God by singing His praises, is a necessary part of Sikh worship. Music plays a significant role in most religious traditions. In Sikhism it is valued as the highest form of expression

RAGMAIA, lit. a rosary of ragas or musical measures, is the title of a composition of twelve verses, running into sixty lines, appended to the Guru Granth Sahib after the Munddvam, i.e. the epilogue, as a table or index of ragas. In the course of the evolution of Indian music,

SAMUND SINGH, BHAI (1901-1972), a leading Sikh musicologist of the twentieth century, trained in music under leading maestros of the art, Sikhs as well as Muslims, was born on 3 March 1901, at the village of Mulla Hamza, in Montgomery district, now in Pakistan. He started his training so young