ROHTAS (30° 55`N, 73° 48`E), town in Jehlum district of Pakistan had a historical Sikh shrine, Gurdwara Choha Sahib, commemorating the visit of Guru Nanak (1469-1539) during his western uddsi or preaching tour. Later in 1542, Sher Shah Suri raised around the habitation a strong fort which he named Rohtas

SRI SANT RATAN MAL by Bhai Lal Chand, containing biographical sketches in Punjabi of the Sevapanthi saints, completed in 1919 Bk/AD 1862 at Amritsar, was first published in 1924 and reprinted in 1954 by Bhai Hira Singh Mahant, Sevapanthi Addan Shahi Sabha, Patiala. The voluminous work, comprising 563 printed pages,

UDA, BHAl (d. 1688), a Sikh of the Rathaur Rajput clan, was among those who had witnessed Guru Tegh Bahadur`s execution at Delhi. He returned in distress to Dilvali Mohalla where Sikhs from the neighbourhood assembled in the house of Bhai Nanu, the calico printer, to consider how they could

BUDDHA DAL and Taruna Dal, names now appropriated by two sections of the Nihang Sikhs, were the popular designations of the two divisions of Dal Khalsa, the confederated army of the Sikhs during the eighteenth century. With the execution of Banda Singh Bahadur in 1716, the Sikhs were deprived of

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

MAHIMASHAHIAS, followers of Mohar Singh (AD 1758-1815), a holy Sikh who earned the honoured nickname of Mahima Shah for his constant muttering of a phrase (\'infinite is Thy praise\') in God\'s mahima or adoration. Mahima Shah claimed spiritual descent from Bhai Daya Singh, one of the Panj Piare or

SADHAURA, an old town 43 km east of Ambala (30"23`N, 76"47`E) in Haryana, has a place in Sikh piety, being the seat of Sayyid Shah Badr udDin, commonly known as Pir Buddhu Shah, a Muslim saint who became a devotee of Guru Gobind Singh. Pir Buddhu Shah took the

SUKHANFAKIRANKE, an eighteenth century work in Punjabi prose attributed to Bhai Addan Shah, a Sevapanthi saint. Two manuscript copies of it are known to existone (MS.No. 2196) in the Central Public Library, Patiala, and the other (MS. No. 11560) in the Pahjab University, Chandigarh. The latter has since been included

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

ADDAN SHAH, BHAI (1688-1757), third in succession to Bhai Kanhaiya, founder of the Sevapanthi sect, was born in 1688 in the village of Lau in Jhang district, now in Pakistan. His parents were of a devout temperament and he inherited from them a deeply religious bent of mind. He

BUDDHU SHAH, PIR (1647-1704), a Muslim divine whose real name was Badr udDIn and who was an admirer of Guru Gobind Singh, was born on 13 June 1647 in a prosperous Sayyid family of Sadhaura, in present day Ambala district of Haryana. Because of his simplicity and silent nature during

IMAM SHAH (d. 1846), who rose to be a colonel in Ranjit Singh`s army entered the service of Jodh Singh of Wazirabad in 1809 as an artillery Jamadar. He was of Persian descent and a grandson of Qamar udDin, an officer in the army of Nadir Shah. In 1810,