BRAHAM GIAN (Knowledge of the Divine), by a Sevapanthi saint Gopal Das, is a treatise in Punjabi on theology. The work is unpublished and the only extant copy of the manuscript is preserved in the private collection of Dr Tarlochan Singh Bedi at Patiala. It contains 219 folios and was

WAQI`AIJANGISIKKHAN, by Diwan Ajudhia Parshad, is a chronicle in Persian prose of the events of the first Anglo Sikh war (1845-46). The narratives of the battles of Pherushahr and Sabhraon have in fact been taken from two separate manuscripts. The work was translated into English by V.S. Suri and published

DERA, a word of Persian extraction, has several connotations. The original Persian word derah or dirah means a tent, camp, abode, house or habitation. In current usage in rural Punjab, a farmhouse or a group of farmhouses built away from the village proper is called dera. Even after such an

ZAFARNAMAH-I-RANJlT SINGH, subtitled Ranjhnamah, by Kanhaiya Lal is an account in Persian verse of the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his successors, covering the period 1799-1849. The manuscript copies of the work are preserved in Panjab University Library, Lahore ; Panjab Public Library, Lahore ; Khalsa College, Amritsar

GURU GIRARATH KOS is a dictionary of the Guru Granth Sahib compiled by the Nirmala scholar Pandit Tara Singh Narotam. The kos, completed in AD 1889, is in two volumes printed at Rajendra Press, Patiala the first (pp. 702) in 1895 and the second (pp. 706) in 1898. The first

HIKAYAT is the title given to the eleven tales, in Persian verse but in Gurmukhi letters, in the Dasam Granth, immediately after the Zafamamah. The title `Hikayat` does not occur in the actual text, but most of the tales have a verse, coming after two or three invocational lines

IBRATNAMAH, a Persian work by Mufti All ud Din of Lahore, completed on 13 September 1854, deals with the history as well as with the social and economic life of the people of the Punjab. It also contains an account of the Sikhs from their origin to the battle

JOTI BIGAS is the joint title of two poetic compositions, one in Persian and the other in Punjabi, by Bhai Nand Lal Goya, a devoted Sikh of Guru Gobind Singh, much revered in Sikh piety and in letters. Bhai Nand Lal`s verse is classed as approved Sikh canon and can

NAND LAL, BHAI (c. 1633-1713), poet famous in the Sikh tradition and favourite disciple of Guru Gobind Singh. His poetry, all in Persian except for Joti Bigds, which is in Punjabi, forms part of the approved Sikh canon and can be recited along with scriptural verse at Sikh religious

PARI (FAIRY) (Plural—Parian) It seems that the jewel-like Ragas (musical modes) and the families of fairies (Parian) have come to sing the hymns of praise. (Ramkali M. 3, Anand, p. 917) Pari or Peri is a Persian word for fairy. All over the world, people have believed in fairies.

SIHARFISARDAR HARI SINGH NALVA, subtitled "Hari Singh Naive di Mahima ," by Qadar Yar, is a poem in Punjabi, Gurmukhi script, celebrating the valour of Hari Singh Nalva, a general in the army of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The poem is also popularly known as Var Sardar Hari Singh Nalva. Qadar

SOHAN LAL SURI, vakil or attorney at the Lahore court, is famous for his monumental work in Persian, `Umdat iitTwankh, a chronicle of Sikh times comprising five daftars or volumes. Little is known about Sohan Lal`s early life except that he was the son of Lala Ganpat Rai, a