Amritsar · Harmandir Sahib

Bank manager turned human rights investigator who found records of thousands of unidentified bodies secretly cremated by Punjab police. Abducted in 1995 and killed in custody.

Director General of Punjab Police who led Operation Black Thunder II and the counter-insurgency campaign of 1991–95. Credited by supporters with ending the insurgency and criticised by rights groups for its abuses.

Ninth Guru, 'Hind di Chadar', the shield of India. Founded Anandpur and was beheaded in Delhi in 1675 for defending the right of Kashmiri Pandits to keep their faith.

Sher-e-Punjab, the Lion of Punjab. United the misls into the Sikh Empire, ruled from Lahore for forty years and covered the Harmandir Sahib in gold.

Singer from a village near Amritsar who grew up in Lahore and became the voice of Hindi cinema.

The scripture of the Sikhs and their eternal, living Guru: 1,430 pages of hymns by six Gurus and some thirty other saints, set in 31 ragas.

Wrestler from a village near Amritsar who became a world champion of professional wrestling and then a film star.

Founder of the Afghan Durrani empire, who invaded Punjab eight or nine times between 1748 and 1767, crushed the Marathas at Panipat and twice destroyed the Harmandir Sahib.

Fifth Guru. Built the Harmandir Sahib, compiled the Adi Granth in 1604 and became the first Sikh martyr, tortured to death in Lahore in 1606.

Sixth Guru. Wore two swords, miri and piri, for worldly and spiritual authority, built the Akal Takht and fought the first Sikh battles against Mughal forces.

Scholar and warrior who led the Shaheed misl. In his seventies he marched to free the Harmandir Sahib after Afghan desecration and died near its precinct.

Fourth Guru and founder of Amritsar. Wrote the Lavan, the four marriage hymns of the Anand Karaj.

Left-arm spinner from Amritsar, one of the great Indian spin quartet and a captain of India.

Decorated Indian Army major general, dismissed shortly before retirement, who organised the defences of the Harmandir Sahib complex and was killed in Blue Star.

Student from Amritsar who shot Sir William Curzon Wyllie in London in 1909 and was hanged at Pentonville.

Father of modern Punjabi literature: poet, novelist and editor in the Singh Sabha movement, whose Rana Surat Singh is the first Punjabi epic in modern verse.

Disciple of Guru Nanak who lived to anoint five more Gurus and was the first granthi of the Harmandir Sahib.

Nihang leader and jathedar of the Akal Takht who once had Ranjit Singh flogged for a moral lapse. Killed leading the charge at Nowshera.

Leader of the Akali Dal for four decades, through the gurdwara reform movement, Partition and the campaign for a Punjabi-speaking state.

Scribe of the final Guru Granth Sahib at Damdama and later head granthi of the Harmandir Sahib, cut apart joint by joint in Lahore.

Founding president of the Ghadar Party in America in 1913. Sentenced to death after the failed rising, he spent sixteen years in prison.

Scribe of the Adi Granth and author of the Vaaran, which Guru Arjan called the key to understanding the Guru Granth Sahib.

Qadiri Sufi of Lahore and friend of Guru Arjan. Tradition holds he laid the foundation stone of the Harmandir Sahib.

A reformed bandit who became one of Guru Hargobind's boldest commanders, remembered for recovering two horses seized from the Guru's followers.

Lahore patron who founded The Tribune newspaper and was the first chairman of the Punjab National Bank, and left his fortune to a college and a library.

Founded Pingalwara in Amritsar, a home for the disabled and destitute, after carrying an abandoned disabled child on his back for years.

Built the Bhangi misl into the strongest of the confederacy, with lands from Lahore to Multan. The great Zamzama gun was captured by the Bhangis and long known as the Bhangian wali top.

Fourteenth head of the Damdami Taksal, who called a generation of Sikhs back to amrit and the Guru, led the Dharam Yudh Morcha and fell defending the Akal Takht on 6 June 1984.

The Akali leader who carried the Punjabi Suba campaign to victory in 1966, with fasts, mass arrests and a promise to burn himself alive.

First president of the SGPC, who led the 'Keys Affair' of 1921 forcing the British to return the keys of the Harmandir Sahib treasury.

A farmer of the village of Wan who sheltered Sikhs on the run; when Zakariya Khan's troops came for him in 1726 he and some two dozen companions fought them to the death.

Leader of the Ramgarhia misl, named after the Ram Rauni fort at Amritsar he rebuilt. Raided as far as Delhi in 1783.

Accepted a Mughal title in 1733 while fanning the horses of the sangat, then organised the Khalsa into the Budha Dal and Taruna Dal.

Head of the Kanhaiya misl and for a time the most powerful chief in Punjab. His daughter-in-law Sada Kaur arranged the marriage that allied the Kanhaiyas with Ranjit Singh.

President of the Akali Dal who led the Dharam Yudh Morcha and signed the 1985 accord with Rajiv Gandhi. Assassinated by militants weeks later.

Sikh veteran of the US Army whose citizenship case of 1923 led the Supreme Court to rule that Indians could not become Americans.

Farmer of California's Imperial Valley who in 1956 became the first Asian American elected to the US Congress.

Muslim minstrels at the Gurus' court whose Ramkali ki Var, a ballad on the unity of the Gurus, is in the Guru Granth Sahib.

Rode into Amritsar disguised as revenue officials in 1740 and beheaded Massa Ranghar, who was holding dances in the Harmandir Sahib.

Led thirty Sikhs out of the Akal Takht to face Ahmad Shah Abdali's army in December 1764 rather than leave the Harmandir Sahib undefended.

Sufi poet patronised by Ranjit Singh, best known for Sassi Punnu.

Wrestler of Amritsar and Lahore, undefeated in a career of more than fifty years and world champion in London in 1910.