The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (165 page)

 
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(P
li, ‘eel-wrigglers’). A name in the Buddhist
Nik
yas
for a school of sceptical philosophers who were contemporaries of the
Buddha
. They are supposed to have refrained from giving any categorical answers on questions relating to ethics and speculative knowledge. They adopted the stance that things are intrinsically unknowable, and that, as a consequence, the only remaining worthwhile goal is the pursuit of subjective states of tranquillity.

 
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(1479–1574 CE).
Third Sikh
Guru
. Gur
Amar D
s, the son of Tej Bh
n, was born into a Bhall
Khatr
family to Lachhm
in B
sarke village,
Amritsar
District,
Pañj
b
. In 1552 Amar D
s was installed as Gur
by
A
gad
.
As Gur
, Amar D
s was responsible for establishing practices distinctively Sikh yet reminiscent of Hindu custom:

(i) he instructed Sikhs to gather to worship the one God on the first days of the Hindu months,
Vai
khi
(April-May), M
gha (Jan.-Feb.) and on
D
v
l
;
(ii) he had a deep well dug at Goindv
l as a Sikh
t
rath
;
(iii) he provided distinctive rituals for birth and
death
, replacing the Sanskrit
aloks
with
hymns
of the Gur
s;
(iv) also ascribed to Gur
Amar D
s is the
Mohan Poth
, a two-volume collection of hymns (composed by himself, his two predecessors, and six bhagats,
Kab
r