ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>VA&#7750J&#256R&#256 SIKHS</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="VAFJR,SIKHS"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279VA&#7750J&#256R&#256 SIKHS or Ba&#7751j&#257r&#257s, akin to Lab&#257&#7751&#257 Sikhs of the Punjab, are found scattered throughout Central and South India as well as in Uttar Pradesh and R&#257jasth&#257n. Although <i>va&#7751j&#257r&#257</i>, from Sanskrit <i>v&#257&#7751ij</i> (a merchant, trader), is now used as a generic term for peddlers in the Punjab, the Va&#7751j&#257r&#257s during the medieval times formed a class of travelling traders and carriers of merchandise in Central India, the Deccan and R&#257jp&#363t&#257n&#257 (now R&#257jasth&#257n). Organized in <i>&#7789&#257&#7751&#7693&#257s</i> or caravans, each headed by a naik or leader, they trekked between the Western ports and the trade centres of the interior. As the story of Makkha&#7751 Sh&#257h, a Lab&#257&#7751&#257 Sikh of Mo&#7789&#257 &#7789a&#7751&#7693&#257 village in Kashm&#299r, suggests, they were sufficiently armed for self-defence, and some of them were engaged also in maritime trade. Modern progress in rail and road communications destroyed their vocation reducing them to the status of peddlers selling bangles and trinkets.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Va&#7751j&#257r&#257s came into the Sikh fold quite early during the time of the Gur&#363s. Gur&#363 N&#257nak and other Gur&#363s whose compositions form part of the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib have often used the term <i>va&#7751j&#257r&#257</i> as referring to man who has come into this world with capital advanced by the <i>s&#257hu</i>, the financer, i.e. God. They call him <i>va&#7751j&#257ri&#257 mitr&#257</i> (O, my merchant friend!) and exhort him to put his borrowed capital to good use and earn merit. Some of the prominent Va&#7749j&#257r&#257 names in Sikh history are those of Makkhan Sh&#257h who identified Gur&#363 Te<u>gh</u> Bah&#257dur at Bak&#257l&#257 in 1664 as the true successor to Gur&#363 Har Krishan, N&#257nak VIII, Lakkh&#299 Sh&#257h who cremated at great personal risk the headless body of Gur&#363 Te<u>gh</u> Bah&#257dur at Delhi in 1675, and Man&#299 R&#257m, son of N&#257ik M&#257&#299 D&#257s, whose five sons, Ude Si&#7749gh, Bachittar Si&#7749gh and others took the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 <i>p&#257hul</i> in 1699 and laid down their lives fighting for Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Va&#7751j&#257r&#257s of Central and South India are, generally speaking, no longer Sikhs in external form, but most of them own the Gur&#363s and the Sikh tenets. They visit <i>gurdw&#257r&#257s</i> and are especially attached to Sr&#299 Ta<u>kh</u>t Sachkha&#7751&#7693 Abchalnagar Haz&#363r S&#257hib, at N&#257nde&#7693. They eat <i>jha&#7789k&#257</i>, meat of animal killed in the Sikh style with one blow, and hail other Sikhs with 'V&#257higur&#363 j&#299 k&#299 Fateh'. At marriage the couple takes four circumambulations round the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib. Many of them pay <i>dasvandh</i> or one-tenth of their income at Sr&#299 Haz&#363r S&#257hib. Measures are now in progress under the supervision of Gurdw&#257r&#257 Board of Ta<u>kh</u>t Sachkha&#7751&#7693 to integrate them more closely with the Sikh faith by spreading general and religious education among them, setting up Gurdw&#257r&#257 in their villages and administering to them <i>amrit</i> or the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 initiation.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"><i>&#346abad&#257rth Sr&#299 Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib</i>. Amritsar, 1959<BR> <li class="C1"> Rose, H.A., ed., <i>A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province</i>. Lahore, 1911-19<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Nirvair Si&#7749gh Arsh&#299<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>