PARCHI (plural parchtdn), Punjabized form of the Sanskrit noun parichaya which means introduction, evidence or an anecdote bearing witness to the miraculous powers of a prophet or seer. The term was applied to the form of Punjabi writing developed in the seventeenth century to present the life stories of the

Tiwana, Dalip Kaur is a foremost novelist and short-story writer of contemporary Punjabi literature. She has mostly written about the mind scape of the downtrodden women and her secondary position in society. Even if some of the women in her novels are educated and economically independent, they are unable

TIKA, derived from the root tik, a loan word from the aboriginal languages, meaning `to mark` or `to explain`, signifies commentary, exegesis or explanation, especially of a scriptural text. Originally meant to provide a simple paraphrase of the spiritual and mystical revelations, a tika may now embrace an exhaustive analysis

Singh, Narinderpal is one of the leading novelists of the Punjabi language. He was born at Kama Bungalow in District Lyallpur (now in Pakistan). Formerly in Defence Services, he retired as Brigadier in 1972. He was commissioned in 1942 and served in West Asia during World War II. He

SRIJASSA SINGH BINOD, manuscript dealing with the career of Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluvalia (1718-83), a prominent Sikh warrior of the eighteenth century and founder of the erstwhile state of Kapurthala in the Punjab, was written by Ram Sukh Rao at the instance of Sardar Fateh Singh, ruler of Kapurthala from

SAKHlAN BHAI ADDAN SHAH is a collection of sakhis or anecdotes concerning Bhai Addan Shah, a celebrated saint of the Sevapanthi sect. The extant manuscripts of the work are all undated, but the surmise is that these were written around the middle of the eighteenth century when Bhai Addan Shah

RISALAINANAK SHAH, a Persian manuscript by Buddh Singh Arora of Lahore, who was employed in the court of the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II (1759-1806) at Delhi, written in 1783 in collaboration with Lala Ajaib Singh Suri of Malerkotla. The work deals with the history of the Sikhs from the

RAHIT DARPAN, lit. a mirror or code of conduct, is one of the thirty-seven rahitndmds written by various authors and collected by Bhagvan Singh under the title Bar Bimal Bibekbdrdhi, popularly known as Bibekbdrdhi,. Rahit Darpan, written in Punjabi verse, is the work of Bhagvan Singh himself, which he completed

PARCHI BHAI SEVA RAM is a biographical sketch, in Punjabi verse, of Bhai Seva Ram who led the Sevapanthi sect after the death of its founder Bhai Kanhaiya, a disciple of Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708). Written by Bhai Sahaj Ram, himself a renowned Sevapanthi saint, the book was edited by

AKHBAR-I-DARBAR-I-MAHARAJA RANJIT SINGH, also called Akhbari Deorhi Sardar Ranjit Singh Bahadur, is a set of Persian manuscripts comprising 193 loose sheets of unequal size and containing, as the title indicates, news of the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780-1839). These sheets are believed to be newsletters sent from the Punjab

PARAS BHAG is an adaptation into Sadh Bhakha, in Gurmukhi script, of Abu Hamid Muhammad al Ghazzali`s Kimid iSa`ddat, an abridged edition in Urdu of his Ihyd ul Ulum, in Arabic. The work was first published in 1876. Several of the manuscript copies prior to that date are still in

NAND RAM, one of the poets who kept Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) company, was the son of a well known Siift poet, Vali Ram. He had been in the service of Dara Shukoh, who, having lost the struggle for succession to his father`s throne, was executed by his brother,