ACROSTIC :At the age of seven Guru Nanak went to school and the schoolmaster wrote the alphabet on a wooden tablet for Nanak. After just one day Nanak copied the alphabet from memory and made an acrostic on the alphabet. The acrostic called the Patti or tablet in the

MAYYA, BHAI, a Khullar Khatri, is mentioned among the prominent Sikhs of the time of Guru Ram Das. According to Bhai Mani Singh, Sikhdn di Bhagat Maid, Bhai Mayya along with Bhai Japa and Bhai Nayya, both of the Khullar clan, and Bhai Tulsa, a Vohra Khatri, once waited

AVTAR SINGH AZAD Avtar Singh \'Azad\', (1906 - 1972) the minor Punjabi poet, is not deserving of notice. Before independence, he had published four collections of poems, Swant Bundan (Drops of Bliss), Savan Pinghan (The Swings of Savan), Vishva Vedna (Plight of the World) and Kansoan (Intimations), and published

MIAN MITTHA, a Muslim holyman living in a village which came to be called Kotia Miari Mittha in the present Sialkot district of Pakistan Punjab, met Guru Nanak as the latter was passing through his village. The two held a discourse. According to Purdtan Janam Sdkhi, Miari Mittha observed

BACHITRA NATAK (bachitra = marvellous, wondrous + natak = drama, play) is the name given a complex of compositions, commonly attributed to Guru Gobind Singh, the Tenth Guru or prophet teacher of the Sikh faith, assembled in his book, the Dasam Granth: hence, the name dasam (tenth) granth (book), i.e.

MOH, from Sanskrit root muh meaning "to become stupefied, to be bewildered or perplexed, to err, to be mistaken," stands in ancient texts for perplexity or confusion as also for the cause of confusion, that is, avidyd or ajndna (ignorance or illusion). In another context, it stands for "the

BAANA: Literally: dress. In Sikh cultural terminology it means all the five Kakaars (articles of faith) plus a Chola (a long shirt), a tight fitting trousers, a Kamarkassa (a belt to tighten Gaatra and like a sash around the waist) which make one very active. This was actually a dress

PANCHAMI, lit. the fifth day of either phase {vadior sudi) of the moon. Panchami of the sudi, i.e. the brighter, phase is considered an auspicious day in the Hindu tradition, with some ritualistic observances attached to it. In the three Sikh hymns entitled Thitin/ Thiti devoted to the lunar days

BIKRAMI SAMMAT: A Calendar named after a Hindu king Vikramaditya. In Punjabi Vikrami is pronounced as Bikrami. Its abbreviation is Bk. The Hindus calculate their dates as per the Hindu astrology. Some ignorant Sikhs too adhere to this calendar. For a Sikh all the calendars have the same significance.

QUDRAT (spelled qudrati in gurbani), a term adopted by Guru Nanak from the Arabic and given a philosophical signification and connotation which, to some extent but with different shades of sense, had till then been conveyed by the milenniaold Indian words prakriti and mdyd. Qudrat, in Arabic, literally means power,

BRAHMA Brahma bom in the navel lotus of Vishnu was called the son of Lotus. (Kama M. 4, p. 1309) Brahma manifested the hymns of the Veda but extended the attachment of maya. (Wadhans M. 3, p. 559) Only the maya of three modes came out from the mouth

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