MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



473 



appear to liave taught exactly the 

 same doctrine as their leader; and 

 though Har Govind armed all his 

 followers, it was on a principle of 

 self-defence, in which he was fully 

 justified, even by the usage of the 

 Hindus, it was reserved for Guru 

 Govind to give a new character to 

 the religion of his followers ; not 

 by making any material alteration 

 in the tenets of Nanac, but by 

 establishing institutions and usages, 

 which not only separated tliein 

 from other Hindus, but which, by 

 the complete abolition of all dis- 

 tinction of casts, destroyed, at one 

 blow, a system of civil polity, 

 that, from being interwoven with 

 the religion of a weak and bigoted 

 race, fixed the rules of its priests 

 upon a basis that had withstood 

 the shock of ages. Though the 

 code of the Hindus was calculated 

 to preserve a vast community in 

 tranquillity and obedience to its 

 rulers, it had the natural effect of 

 making the country in which it 

 was established, an easy conquest 

 to every, powerful foreign invader ; 

 and it appears to have been the 

 contemplation of this effect that 

 made Guru Govind resolve on the 

 abolition of cast, as a necessary 

 and indispensable prelude to any 

 attempt to arm the original na- 

 tive population of India against 

 their foreign tyrants. He called 

 upon all Hindus to break those 

 chains in which prejudice and bi- 

 gotry had bound them, and to de- 

 vote themselves to arm*:, as the 

 only means by which they could 

 free themselves from the oppres- 

 sive government of the Muham- 

 mctlans ; against whom, a sense 

 of his own wrongs, and those of 

 Iiis tribe, led him to preach eter- 

 nal warfare. His religious doc- 



trine was meant to be popular, 

 and it promised equalit)% The in- 

 vidious appellation of Brahmin 

 Cshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra, were 

 abolished. The pride of descent 

 might remain, and keep up some 

 distinctions ; but, in the religious 

 code of Govind, every Kbdisa 

 Singh (for such he termed his fol- 

 lowers) was equal, and had a like 

 title to the good things of this 

 world, and to the blessings of a 

 future life. 



Though Guru Govind mixes, 

 even more than Nanac, the my- 

 thology of the Hindus with his 

 own tenets ; though his desire to 

 conciliate them, in opposition to 

 the Muhammedans, against whom 

 he always breathed war and de- 

 struction, led him to worship at 

 Hindu sacred shrines ; and though 

 the peculiar customs and dress 

 among his followers, are stated 

 to have been adopted from vene- 

 ration to the Hindu goddess of 

 courage, Durga Bhavani ; yet it is 

 impossible to reconcile the religion 

 and usages, which Govind had es- 

 tablished, with the belief of the 

 Hindus. It does not, like that of 

 Nanac, question some favourite 

 dogmas of the disciples of Brahma, 

 and attack that worship of idols, 

 which few of these defend, except 

 upon the ground of these figures, 

 before which they bend, being 

 symbolical representations of the 

 attributes of an all-powerful Di- 

 vinity ; but it proceeds at once to 

 subvert the foundation of the whole 

 system. Wherever the religion of 

 Guru Govind prevails, the institu- 

 tions of Brahma must fall. Tlie 

 admission of proselytes, the aboli- 

 tion of tiie distinctions of cast, the 

 eating of all kinds of flesh, except 

 that of cows, the form of religious 



