BAGHDAD (33° 20\'N, 44° 30\'E), capital of Iraq, situated on the banks of Dajala (Tigris) River, has a historical shrine dedicated to Guru Nanak, who visited here on his way back from Mecca and Madina early in the sixteenth century. Here he held discourses with some local

GURMANTRA, Punjabi Gurmantar, is that esoteric formula or term significant of the Supreme Being or the deity which the master or teacher confides to the neophyte to meditate on when initiating him into his spiritual discipline. The concept of mantra goes back to the pre-Vedic non Aryan tradition and to

ZAFARNAMAH SAHIB - It is a Gurdwara, at village Dialpura Bhai Ka, built in the memory of the visit by Guru Gobind Singh Sahib. According to a local tradition, it is here that Guru Sahib wrote Zafarnamah (literally: letter of victory); hence the name of the Gurdwara.

VAHIGURU JI KA KHALSA VAHIGURU JI KI FATEH, form of Sikh salutation, was made current among the Sikhs by command of Guru Gobind Singh at the time of the manifestation of the Khalsa in 1699. The salutation used in the days of Guru Nanak was Sati Kartar (Hail the

SURSURI The moon abides in the forehead of Shankra (Shiva) and batnes in Sursuri (Ganges). (Dhanasari Trilochan, p-695) If the water of Sursuri becomes wine, the saints even then do not drink it; the impure wine and other waters, when they mix with the waters of Sursuri, they do

SIKH TRADITION (HISTORIOGRAPHY) begins with Janam Sakhis, the life stories of Guru Nanak (1469-1539). There is hardly any evidence of the tradition of history writing in ancient India, though in modern times attempts have been made at different levels to show the existence of somewhat vague historio graphic elements particularly

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

SANT TRADITION comprises those medieval monotheistic and devout personalities belonging to different shades of Indian society who are supposed to have been quiet, tranquil nonsectarian, opposed to Brahmanical ritualism, piously tired of the duplicity of the world but otherwise deeply conscious and critical of the outrageous anamolies professed by certain

SANT, commonly translated as saint though not very exactly, for the English term, used in the adjectival sense `saintly` for a person of great holiness, virtue or benevolence, has a formal connotation in the Western culture, is a modified form of sat meaning lasting, real, wise and venerable. Sat

SAMARTH RAMDAS (1608-1681), Maharashtrian saint remembered as the religious preceptor of the Maratha hero Chhatrapati Shivaji (1627-80), was born, in 1608, the son of Suryaji Pant and Ranubai, a Brahman couple of the village of Jamb, near Aurangabad, in Maharashtra. His original name was Narayana. His father died when

PURATANJANAM SAKHI is considered to be the oldest extant Janam Sakhi. The term `Purdtan,` is used to designate an early Janam Sakhi tradition, rediscovered in 1872 after more than a century of oblivion. By the mid eighteenth century the Bald Janam Sdkht tradition had won general acceptance as the