Contributions of Sikh Scholars (Spreading the Sikh philosophy through the electronic medium) Important Notice: Please remember that SGPC is not responsible for any work done by scholars. We do not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any work done, and are not responsible for the contents of any work done. The opinions expressed in the work done by scholars are not necessarily (and in some cases not at all) those of SGPC. SGPC is not responsible for any materials provided by scholars which are deemed harmful or offensive to others. SGPC is not responsible in any way for any injury, loss, or damage which occurs as a result of an opinion expressed or information provided in these sections of the site. SGPC is not responsible for the content of any sites linked to an SGPC site. SGPC makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the content in the SGPC site or the accuracy or reliability of any information or statements contained therein.The idea is to acknowledge those few whose contributions we consider as unique in this regard. We will update this acknowledgement page as we feel the necessity to do.    Kulbir S. Thind, MD, 3724 Hacienda Street, San Mateo, CA 94403, USA Dr. Thind has been making and distributing, free of charge, Gurmukhi/Hindi fonts for computers (Macs & PCs) since 1984. Over the years, Dr. Thind has developed and distributed many varieties of Gurmukhi/Hindi fonts. Since 1994-95, his fonts have incorporated the special characters that are required to write Gurbani. He has also made special Gurmukhi/Hindi fonts for use on the Internet and those have made beautiful display of Gurbani so easy. Recently, he has made Unicode Gurmukhi fonts based on the international standard. Since early 1990’s, Dr. Thind has spearheaded the development of Gurbani-CD project that led to the computerization of text of Sri Guru Granth Sahib and over time, by his efforts, accuracy of text of Sri Guru Granth Sahib has been achieved to a level of perfection. For the use of Gurbani text on the internet and on the computer he developed databases relating to Sri Guru Granth Sahib and then developed many other specialized files of Sri Guru Granth Sahib text for the help of Sikh scholars. He also converted Sri Guru Granth Sahib files to Devnagri (Hindi) and did phonetic transliteration of text of Sri Guru Granth Sahib. He also organized sentence by sentence translation & phonetic transliteration of Sri Guru Granth available in Gurmukhi as well as Devnagri (Hindi), for use on the Internet and computer. He also created specialized files to allow easy searching and printing of Gurbani Kirtan. Dr. Thind has contributed to the making of web pages over many sites regarding Sri Guru Granth Sahib translation and phonetic transliteration. Dr. Thind has also made the translation text of Bhai Manmohan Singh available on the Internet in a true sentence by sentence format (something that has never been done before, and doing so has been labor intensive). He has also converted Gurbani related files into Unicode text based on the international standard. He also maintains http://www.gurbanifiles.org web-site that makes Gurbani-CD files available for downloading. The details of file types of Gurbani created by him are available on this site (the list of files is very large). The contributions of dedicated individuals who helped him in all this are also listed at this site. Dr. Thind has also collaborated with many other individuals in helping them work on Gurbani related projects. Thus Teeka of Sri Guru Granth Sahib by Professor Sahib Singh has been made available on the Gurbani-CD and on the Internet. The typing work of this Teeka was spearheaded by Avtar Singh Dhami of Union City, California, USA, and all expanses of typing were paid by him. Dr. Thind formatted the text of Teeka by Professor Sahib Singh to improve the use of text on the computer and for the Internet. He also made the web pages of Teeka that are available on http://www.gurugranthdarpan.com Kosh (dictionary) of Sri Guru Granth Sahib by Dr. Gurcharan Singh is formatted by Dr. Thind to make it easier to use the text on the computer. Dr. Thind has also collaborated with Bhai Baljinder Singh RaraSahib Wale, 16914 Lassen Street, Northridge, CA 91343 for the development of a Gurbani Search software called ‘Isher Micro Media’ the details of which are described below under his name. Dr. Thind has also collaborated with Jasjeet Singh Thind in the development of Gurbani-Search site: http://www.srigranth.org. On this site one can search Sri Guru Granth Sahib text in Gurmukhi, Hindi or English and Sri Guru Granth Sahib text can also be read in Gurmukhi, Hindi and English along with English translation. The search engine on this web-site allows quick searches of text of Sri Guru Granth Sahib with partial or complete words or with combination of words. There is also option to do searches for a particular Raag, Author, Page or Line. The text can be copied and pasted in an outside text editor. The copied/selected text will keep the reference attributes, such as Raag, Author, Page or Line. This site will soon be improved to include many more features. Dr. Thind has also collaborated with Khushdev Kaur Thind in the development of web pages for reading, displaying and printing Sri Guru Granth Sahib translation and Gurbani Kirtan on http://www.sikhnet.com All the above listed work that Dr. Thind has done has been without any monetary gain.   Bhai Baljinder Singh (Rara Sahib), 16914 Lassen Street, Northridge, CA 91343, USA. Bhai Baljinder Singh ji (Rara Sahib Wale) preaches the teachings of Sikhism all over the world, as expounded by Sant Isher Singh ji. He has been working for a number of years to make the important Sikhism literature resources available for use on the computer. He has thus been responsible for getting important Gurbani texts typed into the computer, the ones that were not already done. He has been instrumental in creating Gurbani Search Software named Isher Micromedia Software. This search tool can search text of Sri Guru Granth Sahib and Vaars/Kabits Bhai Gurdas ji in a hurry. Besides this, he has provided the basic and detailed source material about Gurbani, Sikhism & Sikh History. This is being offered free of cost as a humble service to the Sikh Community worldwide. Here are some of his accomplishments in this regard. He started the project of getting Mahankosh by Bhai Kahan Singh ‘Nabha’ typed into the computer in 1996 and it got completed in 1998. Mahankosh was then made available for downloading at: http://www.rarasahib.com Then he embarked on the Gurbani Search Software project, which was then completed with collaboration with Dr. Thind and Dr. Gurcharan Singh (Retd. Professor Punjabi University, Patiala). This project required many other Sikh scriptures to be typed into a computer and proof read and all that was completed. Some of the features of the Isher Micromedia Gurbani Search Software are as follows: (a)    Quick searches of text of Sri Guru Granth Sahib and Vaars and Kabit by Bhai Gurdas with utility to find a Word or Line. (b)    Software gives an option to do searches for a particular Raag, or Author/Authors or to separate Gurbani by these attributes. (c)    Option to copy/paste all searched text in an outside text editor. The copied/selected text will keep the reference attributes, such as Raag, Author, Page or Line. (d)    The software has unique feature to collect the complete information about a particular topic in Gurbani or Vaar/Kabits and copy all this information with a single click. (e)    It also has an option to copy the next/previous line/lines while you collect information about a particular topic from Gurbani or Vaars/Kabits. (f)     The software gives options to read following three TEEKAS of Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji simultaneously: (I)     Punjabi/English Translation of Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji by Bhai Manmohan Singh ji, (II)    Sri Guru Granth Darpan (Gurbani Teeka) by Prof. Sahib Singh and (III)  Fridkot Wala Teeka (Classical Teeka of Sri Guru Granth Sahib by the scholars of Nirmala Sect). (g)    A unique feature of this Search Engine is that it gives proper punctuation of Gurbani and Vaars of Bhai Gurdas ji, for any one interested in learning too read the text properly. (h)    Software has a feature that makes it possible to view the meaning of any selected Word from Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Vaars/Kabits Bhai Gurdas ji according to Mahankosh and Sri Guru Granth Kosh by Dr. Gurcharan Singh. (i)     There is also easy access to Mahankosh. (j)     The Gurbani Search software is dedicated to the 400th Anniversary of the Compilation of Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji and has been distributed on CDs to thousands of users, all free of cost. (k)    The latest version of this software ‘Isher Micro Media’ is also made available for free downloading at www.ik13.com. The web-site http://www.ik13.com is managed by Bhai Baljinder Singh and it has “Bhai Daya Singh ji Online Library” (named after Bhai Daya Singh ji, one of the Five Beloved 'PANJ PIARAY' of Sri Guru Gobind Singh ji). Following Acrobat PDF files are available on this library:  (1) Mahankosh by Bhai Kahan Singh ji 'Nabha'. (2) Fridkot Wala Teeka. (3) Sri Nanak Parkash by Bhai Santokh Singh ji. (4) Sri Gurpartap Suraj Granth, complete with 12 Rasses, 6 Ruts and 2 Ayans. (5) Relative Index of Sri Gur Partap Suraj Granth Edited by S. Harbans Singh M.A. These files have many hyperlinks to make it easy to read the desired text. Bhai Baljinder Singh is currently working on getting following Sikh texts typed into the computer: (1) ‘Twarikh Guru Khalsa’ (by Giani Gian Singh ji). (2) Text by Bhai Nand Lal ji. (3) The other original source materials about Sikh History and Philosophy (especially compiled in 18th, 19th and early 20th century).

Dr. Gurcharan Singh, Ph.D., Retired Prof. Punjabi University, Patiala, India.

Dr. Gurcharan Singh has been working on Gurbani related projects under the patronage of Prof. Sahib Singh Gurmat Trust, Patiala, since retirement from Punjabi University Patiala many years ago. Many other scholars also work with him under his guidance. Regarding computer related projects on Sikhism, he has made a major contribution by making a Kosh (Punjabi to Punjabi dictionary) as well as Tuk Tatkara of Sri Guru Granth Sahib. He has also been spearheading the digitization of many available old manuscripts of Sri Guru Granth Sahib. He is currently updating the Kosh by including Punjabi to English meanings. Here is list of some of the documents that he been spearheading. 1.      Guru Granth Kosh 2.      Dictionary of Persio-Arabic words in Guru Granth Sahib. 3.      Line Index of Sri Guru Granth Sahib (S.Amar Singh) 4.      Haumain Da Gurmat Parepekh (S.Amar Singh) 5.      Nadar Da Gurmat Parepekh (S.Amar Singh) 6.      Satsangat da Gurmat Parepekh (S.Amar Singh) 7.      Dictionary of Questions and Answers in Guru Granth Sahib (S.Parminderjit Singh) 8.      Relative Index of Suraj Prakash Granth (S.Harbans Singh)