PAL SINGH ARIF, SANT (1873-1958), mystic and poet, was born on Maghar sudi 15, 1930 Bk/4 December 1873, the son of Gurdit Singh Sandhu and Sahib Kaur of the village of Paddhari, now in Amritsar district of the Punjab. He learnt to read and write Punjabi from the village granthi

ZAFARNAMAH, Guru Gobind Singh\'s letter in Persian verse addressed to Emperor Aurangzib included in the Dasam Granth. The word zafarnamah is a compound of Arabic zafar, meaning victory, and Persian namah, meaning letter. Zafarnamah thus means a letter or epistle of victory. Pressed by a prolonged siege, Guru Gobind

AKAL USTATI (In Praise of the Timeless Being) is a poetical composition by Guru Gobind Singh in the Dasam Granth. This is the only major composition in the Tenth Master\'s Book which is without a title. The title by which it is known is made up of its first

TANKHAHNAMA, by Bhai Nand Lal, is a Sikh penal code laying down punishments and fines for those guilty of religious misconduct. Tankhah, a Persian word, actually means salary, reward or profit, and nama, also Persian denoting an epistle, a code or a catalogue. In Sikh usage, however, tankhah stands for

Singh \'Sehrai\', Piara is a contemporary of \'Safeer\' and several other better known poets of today. His verse has an altogether different flavour from the rest of Punjabi poetry that is being written today. It does not have the lyricism of Mohan Singh or the subtlety of \'Safeer\' or

Singh, Karanjit, a University teacher, has authored two collections of poems. These are Rishte (Relations) and Phul Vi Angare Vi (Both Blossoms and Sparks) besides a collection of sketches called Kalam di Akh (Pen Portraits) a critique of Mohan Singh\'s poetry ”Mohan Singh Kavya Adhyan (A Study of Mohan

Singh \'Josh\', Sohan writes under the pen name of \'Josh\'. He is adept in both Punjabi and Urdu. He has already published four collections in Punjabi. They are Dhup Chhan (Sunshine and Shade), Samen di Mang (Need of the Hour), Goongi Dharti (The Mute Earth) and Balde Bujde Akkar

A veteran political activist, Santokh Singh \'Dheer\' is bold, outspoken, down-to-earth and yet essentially poetic. He was born in Bassi Pathana, Punjab in 1920. He is a whole-time and his prolific contribution to literature includes nine short story collections, four novels, eleven books of verse, two edited volumes of

Pritam Singh Safir was born at Malikpur in Rawalpindi district, now in Pakistan. Safir\'s father, Sardar Mehtab Singh, who served as headmaster of Shri Guru Arjan Dev Khalsa High School, Tarn Taran, was one of the leading Sikh political activists. After graduation from Khalsa College, Amritsar, Safir qualified for

SAU SAKHI (lit. a book of one hundred anecdotes) is the popular name of Gur Ratan Mal (lit. a string of the Guru`s gems), a work esoteric and prophetic in nature : also problematic as regards the authenticity of its text. Its writer, one Sahib Singh, describes himself only as

Ravinder Singh Gill or just Ravinder Ravi, did his M.A. in Punjabi from the Punjab University. He opted for the teaching profession and taught in India and Kenya. Presently, he is settled in New Ayaush, British Columbia. Although he has published his book criticism Prayogshil kavya darpan (Mirror of

PREM AMBODH POTHI, lit. book of knowledge about loving devotion, attributed to Guru Gobind Singh, but not included in the Dasam Granth, comprises of the life stories in verse of some of the famous bhaktas or devotees. Written in AD 1693, the book has, besides the introductory chapter, sixteen sections,