SAMMAN BURJ, also called Musamman Burj, an octagonal tower commanding a wide range of buildings within the Lahore Fort, was built by Emperor Akbar, who made the city his capital for some time. Within the Fort was situated the royal palace which was enlarged by Jahangir and,

RAM TIRATH, SVAMI (1897-1977), also known as Dandi Sannyasi (different from Rama Tirtha, Svami), was a recluse who after a prolonged spiritual quest turned to the Guru Granth Sahib. Born on 31 August 1897 to Pandit Balak Ram and Hari Devi, a Gaur Brahman family of the village of

RANA SURAT SINGH, an epiclike poem by Bhai Vir Singh published in 1905. This poem of more than fourteen thousand lines is written in blank verse, tried for the first time in Punjabi. With all its protracted search and pang, it is ultimately a poem of complete spiritual certitude, of

RAM SINGH, BHAI, a descendant of Bhai Bhagatu, was a devout Sikh. He served Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) with devotion when the latter visited his village Chakk Bhai in Bathinda district of the Punjab during his travels through these parts in 1706. He again presented himself at Damdama Sahib,

RAM CHANDRA, PROFESSOR, born into a Kayastha family in 1821 at Panipat. Professor Ram Chandra became a distinguished teacher of mathematics. He joined the English school at Delhi in 1833 and earned a merit scholarship. At the age of 11, he was lured into marrying a girl who was completely

RAJAS OF THE PUNJAB, by Sir Lepel H. Griffin, first published in 1870 and reprinted in 1970 by the Languages Department, Punjab, Patiala, contains accounts of the principal Sikh princely states in the Punjab and of their political relations with the paramount power. The author admits that the title

RAI SINGH, son of Lakhmir Singh of Amritsar and a leader of the Bharigi family, captured, together with his brother Bagh Singh, 204 villages around Buria after the sack of Sirhind by the Sikhs in January 1764. Eighty-four of these villages including Jagadhari and Dialgarh fell to the share

PINGALA Ajamila Pingala, the bunter Lodia and the elephant went to the abode of the Lord; if such evil persons obtained salvation, O Ravidas, why do you not get emancipation ? (Kedara Ravidas, p. 1124) Pingala was a comely prostitute. One day she bedecked herself in order to attract

PUAT, is an old village in Ludhiana district, 8 km east of Machhivara (30°55`N, 76°12`E). Guru Gobind Singh passed through this village after quitting Chamkaur on the night of 7 December 1705. but there was no Sikh shrine constructed here. It was only after the migrations of 1947 that

PREM SUMARAG, lit. the true way to love (/w?w=love; 5M=good or true; warag^path) is an anonymous work in old Punjabi evoking a model of Sikh way of life and of Sikh society. Written probably in the eighteenth century, it is a kind of rahitndmd attempting to prescribe norms of behaviour,

PRATAP SINGH, MAHARAJA (1919-1995). Tall and handsome, His Highness Maharaja Sir Pratap Singh, Malvendra Bahadur, was the ruler of the princely state of Nabha. The state ceased to be in 1948 when a new and larger political unit called Patiala and East Punjab States Union, short PEPSU, came into