SRI GURU PANTH PRAKASH, popularly Panth Prakash, by Giani Gian Singh (1822-1921), is a history of the Sikhs in verse. As the title suggests, it is an account of the rise and development of the Guru Panth, i.e. the Klialsa or the Sikh community. The author, a theologian and preacher

TARA SINGH, BHAI, the eighteenth century Sikh martyr, was a Buttar Jatt of the village Van, popularly known as Dallvan because of its proximity to another village called Dall, in present day Amritsar district of the Punjab. His father, Gurdas Singh, had received the rites of the Khalsa in the

AI PANTH, one of the twelve sects of yogis, whose adherents worship Ai Bhavani, a tribal female deity, believed to be an extension of Sakti. Siva in the form of ardhanarisvara is said to have two forms represented by his own halves. His right side is the male whose followers

TARU SINGH, BHAI (1720-45), the martyr, was a Sandhu Jatt of Puhia village, now in Amritsar district of the Punjab. He was a pious Sikh who tilled his land diligently and lived frugally. Whatever he saved went to his Sikh brethren forced into exile by government persecution. Spied upon by

AKAL TAKHT is the primary seat of Sikh religious authority and central altar for Sikh political assembly. Through hukamnamas, edicts or writes, it may issue decretals providing guidance or clarification on any point of Sikh doctrine or practice referred to it, may lay under penance personages charged with violation of

TWARIKH GURU KHALSA, a voluminous prose narrative delineating the history of the Sikhs from their origin to the time when they lost the Punjab to the British. The author, Giani Gian Sihgh (1822-1921), claimed descent from the brother of Bhai Mani Singh, the martyr, who was a contemporary of Guru

AKIL DAS, an eighteenth century head of the Handali sect of Jandiala in Amritsar district of the Punjab, also known as Haribhagat Niranjania, was an inveterate enemy of the Sikhs. Giani Gian Singh, Shamsher Khalsa, describes him as "Akul Das who basked in the name of Haribhagat." He was

VADDA GHALLUGHARA, lit. major holocaust or carnage, so called to distinguish it from another similar disaster, Chhota (minor) Ghallughara that took place in 1746, is how a one day battle between the Dal Khalsa and Ahmad Shah Durrani fought on 5 February 1762 with a heavy toll of life is

ALI SINGH (d. 1716), a native of the village of Salaudi, near Sirhind, was in the service of Wazir Khan, the Mughal faujdar of Sirhind. According to Ratan Singh Bharigu, Prachin Panth Prakash, Wazir Khan, on learning of Banda Singh\'s advance from the South towards the Punjab under the

ARUR SINGH, BHAI (1872-1921), one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs, was born in November 1872 at Thothian village in Amritsar district, the son of Bhai Nihal Singh and Mat Jio. His education was limited to reading and writing the Gurmukhi script which he learnt in the village gurdwara. He

CHHOTA GHALLUGHARA, lit. minor holocaust or carnage, as distinguished from Vadda Ghallughara (q.v.) or major massacre, is how Sikh chronicles refer to a bloody action during the severe campaign of persecution launched by the Mughal government at Lahore against the Sikhs in 1746. Early in that year, Jaspat Rai, the

FATEH SINGH (d. 1716), an army commander under Banda Singh Bahadur, who was appointed administrator of Samana after the town was occupied by the Sikhs in 1709. Fateh Singh participated in several of Banda Singh`s battles against the Mughal rulers. In the battle of Sirhind fought at the nearby