| Baba Khem Singh Bedi (right) was born on 21 February 1832 at Kallar, a small town in Rawalpindi district, now in Pakistan. He was a direct descendant, in the thirteenth place, of Guru Nanak Dev Ji. He received the rites of amrit at the hands of the celebrated Baba Bir Singh of Naurangabad. Baba Khem Singh Ji did much to guide the Sikhs in the turbulent times of the nineteenth century.
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Ashiq Ali Bhai Lal (on the left of the picture), 17th generation descendant of Bhai Mardana (the companion of Guru Nanak Dev on his udassis across the sub-continent and abroad) along with his brother Bhai Irshad (2nd from right) and two sons paying obeisance at Harminder Sahib Ji.
Bhai Lal, the 17th descendant of Guru Nanak's devoted companion Bhai Mardana, was invited by the Delhi government to perform at Gurbani Gaveh Bhai, a three-day event marking the 400 years of the Guru Granth Sahib here.
Ashiq Ali Bhai Lal from Pakistan entranced the predominantly Sikh audience by reciting verses from Gurbani at the Talkatora Stadium. Dressed in saffron robes and turbans with ends of their stoles hanging down their necks, Bhai Lal and his companions revived half-a-century-old memories of Muslim rabbis singing at Harminder Sahib as they rendered Sikh hymns in pure classical compositions.
From Bhai Nand Lal, a poet in the court of Guru Gobind Singh Ji to Bhai
Gurdas Ji , the first authority on Sikh traditions after the Gurus,
to Bhagats whose verses are included in the Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Bhai
Lal quoted them all.
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The singer supplemented each line of the main Shabad or hymn he was singing with numerous quotes from these sources, some in Persian, some in Sanskrit. |
Makhdoom Syed Chan Pir Qadri, the custodian of the shrine of and descendant of Hazrat Mian Mir Sahib. Mian Mir Ji was a devotee of Guru Arjun Dev Ji and was invited to lay the foundation stone of Harmindar Sahib.
