BRAHMAN MAJRA, an old village, about 11 km southeast of Ropar (30° 58`N, 76° 31`E), is sacred to Guru Hagobind and Guru Gobind Singh. Gurdwara Guru Garh Sahib commemorates the visit of Guru Gobind Singh on 6 December 1705 when he, with his two elder sons and 40 Sikhs, was

COMMUNAL AWARD was an official statement of British government policy in respect of the composition of provincial legislatures as a further step in the transfer of responsibility to the Indian people. The Secretary of State for India presented the terms of the Award to Parliament as command paper 4147, and

DHARAM SINGH, BHAI (1666-1708), one of the Pan] Piare or the Five Beloved, the forerunners of Khalsa, came of farming stock. He was the son of Bhai Sant Ram and Mai Sabho, of Hastinapur, an ancient town on the right bank of the Ganges, 35 km northeast of Meerut

GARIAL, BHAI, and Bhai Mathura Das, two poor Sikhs of Agra, earned their meagre living as porters carrying heavy loads. Yet they joyfully extended hospitality and assistance to needy Sikhs. They had instructed the members of their families that, even if they were not present, any Sikh visiting their

GUTKA, a small sized missal or breviary containing chosen hymns or barns from Sikh Scriptures. The etymology of the term gutka may be traced back to Sanskrit gud (to guard, preserve) or gunth (to enclose, envelop, surround, cover) through Pali gutii (keeping, guarding). A late eighteenth century scholar of UdasI

GURDWARA HOLGARH SAHIB stands on the site of Holgarh Fort, one and a half km north-west of the town across the Charan Gariga rivulet. It was here that Guru Gobind Singh introduced in the spring of 1701, the cel-ebration of hola on the day following the Hindu festival of colour-throwing,

JHANDA, BHAI, of the village of Dalla, now in Kapurthala district of the Punjab, was a devoted Sikh of the time of Guru Amar Das. He was among those who waited on the Guru when he visited Dalla. Among the visitors was also a learned Pandit. He undertook to serve

KARORA SINGH (d. 1761), founder of the Karorsirighia principality of the Sikhs, was a VirkJatt belonging to the village of Bark! in the district of Lahore. He had been forcibly converted to Islam during the lime of Nawab Zakariya Khan. He, however, rejoined the Sikh faith receiving the rites

KHALSA NAMAH, by Bakht Mall, a Persian manuscript prepared during 1810-14, is a history of the Sikhs from the time of Guru Nanak (1469-1539) to the beginning of the nineteenth century. Copies of the script, unpublished so far, are preserved in British Library; Royal Asiatic Society, London; Panjab University, Lahore;

LAWRENCE, SIR HENRY MONTGOMERY (1806-1857), elder brother of Governor General John Laird Mair Lawrence, was born on 28 June 1806 at Matura, in Ceylon. After education at schools in Londonderry and Bristol, he joined the Bengal Artillery, in 1823, as a Second Lieutenant. In 1833, lie was appointed an officer

MAZHABI SIKHS, commonly pronounced as Mazhbi Sikhs, is the name given to Sikh converts from the Chuhra community, among the lowest in the Hindu caste order. Chuhras in medieval Punjab, corresponding to Bharigis of the Hindi speaking regions, were the village menials who received customary payment in kind at

NANKANA SAHIB MASSACRE refers to the grim episode during the Gurdwara Reform movement in which a peaceful batch of reformist Sikhs was subjected to a murderous assault on 20 February 1921 in the holy shrine at Nankana Sahib, the birthplace of Guru Nanak. This shrine along with six others in