MARU VAR MAHALLA III, by Guru Amar Das, Nanak III, in the musical measure Maru is a poetical composition in the style of a vdr included in the Guru Granth Sahib. There are totally twenty-two such vdrs in the Guru Granlh Sahib in various musical moulds. A vdr is

VAR MAJH KI, by Guru Nanak occurs in the musical measure Majh, in the Guru Granth Sahib. The word majh, in Punjabi, means in the middle or midway, and the raga which goes by this name was a folk tune of Majha, the central country of die Punjab, which

TEGH BAHADUR, GURU (1621-1675), prophet and martyr, revered as the Ninth Guru or Revealer of the Sikh faith, was the youngest of the five sons of the Sixth Guru, Guru Hargobind, and his wife, Nanaki. He was born at Amritsar on Baisakh vadl5,1678 Bk/ 1 April 1621. The early years

SRI SATIGURU Jl DE MUHAIN DJAN SAKHIAN, i.e. witnesses or instructions from the lips of the venerable Guru himself, is the title of a manuscript, preserved in Gurdwara Manji Sahib at Kiratpur in the Sivaliks by the granthi, Babu Singh, who claims descent from Bibi Rup Kaur, adopted daughter of

SORATHI KI VAR, or Ragu Sorathi Var Mahale Chauthe KI as is the full title recorded at the head of the text in the Guru Granth Sahib contrasting the short title in the index, is one of the eight vars composed by Guru Ram Das. It comprises twenty-nine pauns, i.e.

SARBATT DA BHALA, literally. Weal to all... Weal to everyone. This is the concluding line which marks the finale or arc/as or supplicatory prayer, with which every Sikh service or ceremony concludes. The full couplet reads : Nanak nam charhdikala tere bhane sarbatt da bhala (May God`s Name, may the

SAN GAT, Punjabi form of the Sanskrit term sarigti, means company, fellowship, association. In Sikh vocabulary, the word has a special connotation. It stands for the body of men and women met religiously, especially in (lie presence of the Guru Granth Sahib. Two other expressions carrying the same connotation

SADHNA, one of the fifteen saints and sufis whose hymns are incorporated in the Guru Granth Sahib, was a qasai or butcher by profession who, by nis piety and devotion, had gained spiritual eminence. He is believed to have been born at the village of Sehvan, in Sindh. He was

RAVIDAS, poet and mystic, was born to Raghu and Ghurbinia, who lived near the city of Varanasi. Not much biographical information about him is available, but, from what can be made out of his own compositions, he belonged to a lowcaste (Chamdr) family. He followed the family profession of

RAMGARHIA MISL. See MISLS RAMKALI KI VAR, also known as Tikke di Var, lit. Coronation Ode, is the joint composition of the bards Balvand and Satta. In the caption given it by Guru Arjan in the Guru Granth Sahib, the former is particularized as a Rai, or panegyrist, and

RAMA TIRTHA, SVAMI (1873-1906), who, after Svami Vivekananda, by whose personality he was deeply influenced, created a powerful influence with his quiet spirituality, was born on 22 October 1873 at MuralIvala, a small village 5 km south of Gujrariwala, now in Pakistan. He came of a family of Gosvami

RAM DATT, a Brahman resident of Kurukshetra, who became a devotee of Guru Gobind Singh during the latter\'s visit to the town on the occasion of the solar eclipse in 1702. According to tradition preserved in Bhai Santokh Singh, Sri Crur Praldp Suraj Granth, while other Brahmans sought alms