Bhai Gurdas (1551 – 25 August 1636) was a Punjabi Sikh writer, historian, preacher and religious figure. He was the original scribe of the Guru Granth Sahib and a companion of four of the Sikh Gurus.

Bhai Gurdas was born in 1551 in Goindwal, a small village in the Punjab. His father was Bhai Ishardas who was a first cousin of Guru Amar Das (see family tree) His mothers name was Jivani and she died in 1554 when Gurdas was only three.

After being orphaned at the age of 12, he was adopted by his uncle Guru Amar Das. He learned Sanskrit, Brajbhasha, Persian and Punjabi (Gurmukhi) and eventually began preaching Sikhism. He spent his early years at Goindval and Sultanpur Lodhi. At Goindval he listened to scholars and swamis who kept visiting the town while traversing the Delhi-Lahore road. He later moved to Varanasi where he studied Sanskrit and Hindu scriptures. There, he was subsequently initiated into Sikhism. After Guru Amar Das died, his successor Guru Ram Das, appointed Gurdas as the Sikh missionary to Agra.

Baba Jaimal Singh Ji (1839–1903), also known as "Babaji Maharaj," was the first Satguru of Radha Soami Satsang Beas (RSSB) until his death in 1903. Baba Sawan Singh succeeded him as the second RSSB Satguru.

Jaimal Singh ji was born in village Lath Ghuman (Ghoman) near Batala, Distt. Gurdaspur, Punjab, India, in July, 1839. His father was Sardar Jodh Singh ji a farmer by trade, and his mother was Sardarni Daya Kaur ji. She was a devotee of Bhagat Namdev, and from the age of four Baba ji started visiting the local shrine dedicated to the memory of this Sant Mat Sant.

At the age of five he started his education with Baba Khem Singh ji, a Vedanti sage. Within two years he became a good reader of Guru Granth Sahib and read Dasam Granth also.

At the age of 12–13 years his studying of the Guru Granth Sahib brought him to the understanding that this scripture rejects Pranayama, Vairagya, Hatha yoga, Japa, places of pilgrimage, fasting and rituals as means to finding the absolute God described by Nanak and the other sikh gurus. He reached the conclusion that to follow its method of realising God, he must first find a perfect Master, a Satguru who practices Anhad Shabad, the meditation on the inner sound principle.

Bhai Mardana (Punjabi: ਭਾਈ ਮਰਦਾਨਾ) (1459–1534) was the first follower and longtime companion of Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism. He was with Nanak in all of his journeys across India and Asia. Mardana was a Muslim, born to a Mirasi couple, Badra and Lakkho, of Rai Bhoi di Talwandi, now Nankana Sahib of Pakistan.

It is said that Mardana first contacted Guru Nanak to seek help as many people in his family were dying at a young age. Guru Nanak gave him the assurance that henceforth people in his clan will not die early. It is said that the name Mardana came from this assurance- Mar- Da- Na meaning 'Does not die'.

Guru Nanak and Mardana were brought up in the same village. The Miharban Janam Sakhi says that Mardana was ten years elder to Guru Nanak and was his companion since his childhood days. It further states that Mardana sang hymns written by Kabir, Trilochan, Ravidas, Dhanna and Bern. According to Ratan Singh Bhangu, Prachin Panth Prakash, Guru Nanak as a small boy gave Mardana a string instrument improvised from reeds to play on while he sang the hymns.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh (13 November 1780 – 20 June 1839) was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire.

Ranjit Singh belonged to a Sikh clan of Northern India. He was born in Gujranwala, now in modern-day Pakistan. According to some historians, into a Jatt Sikh family and some that he was born into a Sansi Sikh family who were Sukerchakia misldars. As a child he suffered from smallpox which resulted in the loss of one eye. At the time, much of Punjab was ruled by the Sikhs under a Confederate Sarbat Khalsa system, who had divided the territory among factions known as misls.

Ranjit Singh's father Maha Singh was the Commander of the Sukerchakia misl and controlled a territory in the west Punjab based around his headquarters at Gujranwala. After his father's death he was raised under the protection of Sada Kaur of the Kanheya Misl. Ranjit Singh succeeded his father at the age of 18. After several campaigns, he conquered the other misls and created the Sikh Empire.

Pashtun King Amir Ahmad Shah Abdali 1747–1772 of Afghanistan Durrani Known as Kings of Kings first crossed the Indus River in 1748, the year after his ascension – his forces sacked and absorbed Lahore during that expedition. The following year (1749), the Mughal ruler was induced to cede Sindh and all of the Punjab including the vital trans Indus River to him, in order to save his capital from being attacked by the Afghan Pashtun forces of the DurraniEmpire.