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Guru Gobind Singh

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Guru Gobind Singh (Punjabi pronunciation: gʊɾuː goːbɪn̪d̪ᵊ sɪ́ŋgᵊ; born Gobind Das;[a] 22 December 1666 – 7 October 1708)[1][2] was the tenth and last human Sikh Guru.[3][b] He was a warrior, poet, and philosopher. In 1675, at the age of nine, he was formally made the leader of the Sikhs after his father Guru Tegh Bahadur—the ninth Sikh Guru—was executed by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.[3][c] His four biological sons were killed during his lifetime—two in battle and two executed by the Mughal administrator Wazir Khan.[9][10][11]

Among his notable contributions to Sikhism are founding the Sikh warrior community called Khalsa in 1699[12][13][14] and introducing the Five Ks, the five articles of faith that Khalsa Sikhs wear at all times. Guru Gobind Singh is credited with the Dasam Granth whose hymns are a sacred part of Sikh prayers and Khalsa rituals.[15][16] He is also credited for having finalized and fixed the Guru Granth Sahib as Sikhism's primary holy religious scripture and the eternal Guru.[17][18] He also established the concept of Guru Panth as his spiritual successor, however this manner of guruship is rarely mentioned today.[19] Guru Gobind Singh is remembered as being the founder of the Towns of Paonta Sahib (in 1685) and Damdama Sahib (in 1705).[20]

Death

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Cremation of Guru Gobind Singh at Nanded
Takht Sri Hazur Sahib, Nanded, built over the place where Guru Gobind Singh was cremated in 1708. The inner chamber is called Angitha Sahib.

Aurangzeb died in 1707, and immediately a succession struggle began between his sons who attacked each other.[21] Guru Gobind Singh supported Bahadur Shah I in the Battle of Jajau by sending 200–300 Sikhs under Bhai Dharam Singh and later joining the battle themselves.[22] Sikh sources say that it was Guru Gobind Singh who killed Azam Shah,[23][24] while Mughal sources say that it was Isa Khan Munj.[25] The official successor Bahadur Shah invited Guru Gobind Singh with his army to meet him in person in the Deccan region of India for reconciliation. Guru Gobind Singh hoped to get Anandpur, his former stronghold back, and remained close to the imperial camp for nearly a year. His appeals to get his lands back did not work as Bahadur Shah went on postponing any restoration to the earlier status as he did not want to offend either the Guru or the hill rajas.[26][21][27][28]

Wazir Khan, a Mughal army commander and the Nawab of Sirhind, against whose army the Guru had fought several wars,[29] hired two Afghans, Jamshed Khan, and Wasil Beg, to follow the Guru's army as it moved for the meeting with Bahadur Shah. They were then supposed to kill the Guru. The two followed the Guru whose troops were in the Deccan area of India, and entered the camp when the Sikhs had been stationed near river Godavari for months.[30] They gained access to the Guru and Jamshed Khan stabbed him twice at Nanded.[26][31][32] Some scholars belief that the assassin who killed Guru Gobind Singh was not sent by Wazir Khan, but was actually sent by the Mughal army staying nearby.[29]

According to Senapati's Sri Gur Sobha, an early 18th-century writer, the wound that killed the Guru was one below his heart. The Guru fought back and killed the assassin, while the assassin's friend was killed by the Sikh guards as he tried to escape.[30]

The Guru died of his wounds a few days later on 7 October 1708.[33] His death caused a long war to happen between the Sikhs and the Mughals.[30]

Notes

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  1. ↑ His birth name being Gobind Rai is questioned.
  2. ↑ In 1708, the Guruship was passed on to the holy Sikh scripture, Guru Granth Sahib, which is now considered the living Guru by the followers of the Sikh faith.[4]
  3. ↑ Jenkins, Grewal, and Olson state Tegh Bahadur was executed for refusing to convert to Islam.[5][6][7] Whereas, Truschke states Tegh Bahadur was executed for causing unrest in the Punjab.[8]

References

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  1. ↑ Ganda Singh. "Gobind Singh, Guru (1666–1708)". Encyclopaedia of Sikhism. Punjabi University Patiala. Archived from the original on 29 July 2017. Retrieved 7 March 2016.
  2. ↑ Owen Cole, William; Piara Singh Sambhi (1995). The Sikhs: Their Religious Beliefs and Practice. Sussex Academic Press. p. 36.
  3. 1 2 Mayled, Jon (2002). Sikhism. Heinemann. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-435-33627-1.
  4. ↑ The Sikhs : faith, philosophy & folk. Lustre Press. 1998. ISBN 9788174360373.
  5. ↑ Jenkins 2000, p. 200.
  6. ↑ Grewal 1998, p. 72.
  7. ↑ Olson 2007, p. 23.
  8. ↑ Truschke 2017, pp. 54–55.
  9. ↑ Seiple, Chris; Hoover, Dennis; Otis, Pauletta (2013). The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Security. Routledge. p. 93. ISBN 978-0-415-66744-9.;
    Richards, John F. (1995). The Mughal Empire. Cambridge University Press. pp. 255–258. ISBN 978-0-521-56603-2.
  10. ↑ "The Sikh Review". Sikh Cultural Centre. 20 (218–229): 28. 1972.
  11. ↑ Hardip Singh Syan (2013). Sikh Militancy in the Seventeenth Century: Religious Violence in Mughal and Early Modern India. I.B. Tauris. pp. 218–222. ISBN 978-1-78076-250-0.
  12. ↑ Mandair, Arvind-Pal Singh; Shackle, Christopher; Singh, Gurharpal (2013). Sikh Religion, Culture and Ethnicity. Routledge. pp. 25–28. ISBN 978-1-136-84627-4.
  13. ↑ "BBC Religions – Sikhism". BBC. 26 October 2009. Archived from the original on 23 January 2011. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
  14. ↑ Dhavan, P (2011). When Sparrows Became Hawks: The Making of the Sikh Warrior Tradition, 1699–1799. Oxford University Press. pp. 3–4. ISBN 978-0-19-975655-1.
  15. ↑ "Dasam Granth | Sikh writings | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
  16. ↑ McLeod, W. H. (1990). Textual Sources for the Study of Sikhism. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-56085-4., pp. 2, 67
  17. ↑ Mandair, Arvind-Pal Singh; Shackle, Christopher; Singh, Gurharpal (2013). Sikh Religion, Culture and Ethnicity. Routledge. pp. 11–12, 17–19. ISBN 978-1-136-84627-4.
  18. ↑ Shelke, Christopher (2009). Divine covenant: rainbow of religions and cultures. Gregorian Press. p. 199. ISBN 978-88-7839-143-7.
  19. ↑ McLeod, W. H. (24 July 2009). The A to Z of Sikhism. Scarecrow Press. pp. 84–86. ISBN 9780810863446. Guru Gobind Singh is traditionally believed to have announced that the personal transmission would end at his death, but that the mystical Guru would remain embodied in the scripture and the corporate Panth. ... GURU PANTH. The Guru Panth was a doctrine particularly suited to the circumstances of the 18th century, providing an effective means of decision making for Sikhs who were divided into several misls. When unification was achieved under Ranjit Singh the practice of eliciting corporate decisions from the Panth was discarded. The doctrine is still maintained today, and efforts are occasionally made to seek the Guru's will by this means. It is, however, seldom invoked. The voice of the Guru is much more commonly sought through the words of the Guru Granth.
  20. ↑ Mann, Gurinder Singh. "Table 1. Towns Associated with the Sikh Gurus". The Making of Sikh Scripture. Oxford University Press. pp. 9. ISBN 9780195130249.
  21. 1 2 Dhavan, P (2011). When Sparrows Became Hawks: The Making of the Sikh Warrior Tradition, 1699–1799. Oxford University Press. pp. 45–46. ISBN 978-0-19-975655-1.
  22. ↑ Gandhi, Surjit (2004). A Historian's Approach to Guru Gobind Singh. pp. 323, 324. ISBN 8172053061.
  23. ↑ A Historian's Approach to Guru Gobind Singh. p. 324.
  24. ↑ Gurbilas Patashahi 10 Chapter 19
  25. ↑ Irvine, William (1971). Later Mughal. Atlantic Publishers & Distri.
  26. 1 2 Cite error: The named reference FenechMcleodp9 was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  27. ↑ Grewal 1998, p. 79.
  28. ↑ Metcalf, Barbara D.; Metcalf, Thomas R. (2012). A Concise History of Modern India. Cambridge University Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-139-53705-6.
  29. 1 2 J. S. Grewal (1998). The Sikhs of the Punjab. Cambridge University Press. pp. 78–79. ISBN 978-0-521-63764-0.
  30. 1 2 3 4 Hardip Singh Syan (2013). Sikh Militancy in the Seventeenth Century: Religious Violence in Mughal and Early Modern India. I.B. Tauris. pp. 222–223. ISBN 978-1-78076-250-0.
  31. ↑ Singh, Prithi Pal (2007). The history of Sikh Gurus. Lotus Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-81-8382-075-2.
  32. ↑ Singh, Santhok. Suraj Granth (in Punjabi). Translated by Singh, Sodhi Teja. CSJS. p. 486.
  33. ↑ However Hardip Singh Syan gives the date as 18 October 1708.[30]
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