SIKHS. 



253 



and adopted tlieir doctrines. He read, particularly, 

 the works of a Mohammedan named Cabik, belong- 

 ing to this sect, who enjoined, in all his writings, 

 universal philanthropy, and, particularly, religious 

 toleration. Nanac now renounced all worldly busi- 

 ness, and consecrated his life to the purest devo- 

 tion. He entertained the noble and benevolent 

 idea of effecting a union between the Hindoos and 

 Mohammedans, by introducing simplicity of faith 

 and purity of morals. Hence he treated both reli- 

 gions with respect, laboured to remove only what 

 was superfluous and dissonant, and to lead the 

 people to a practical religion, to a pure worship of 

 God, and love to mankind. Thus he used to say, 

 " Hundreds of thousands of Mohammeds, mil- 

 lions of Brahmas and Vishnoos, and hundreds of 

 thousands of Rahmas, stand before the throne ot 

 the Almighty, and they all die. God alone is im- 

 mortal. He only is a good Hindoo who is just, 

 and a good Mohammedan whose life is pure." 

 Nanac died about 1540, at Kirtipur, where he lies 

 buried on the banks of the Ravee. Hence Kirti- 

 pur is deemed a sacred place by the Sikhs ; and a 

 relic of Nanac's dress is preserved in his temple 

 there, which is shown to pilgrims. The ennobling 

 religion established by Nanac, and the benevolence 

 of his doctrines, corresponded to the purity of his 

 whole life. Far from deceiving his adherents with 

 pretended miracles, he replied to the Yogiswares 

 (to whom a dominion over the powers of nature, 

 procured by self-torture, is attributed in Hindoo- 

 stan), when they importuned him to perform a 

 miracle, " I have nothing worth showing. A holy 

 teacher has no defence out the purity of his doc- 

 trines. The world may alter, but the Creator is 

 unchangeable." As a governor and priest, he 

 exercised, during his life, a spiritual and temporal 

 dominion over his disciples. At his death, he trans- 

 ferred the power, not to his sons, but to a favourite 

 disciple named Lehana, whom he had himself ini- 

 tiated into his doctrines, and dressed in the sacred 

 garb of a fakir. Of his successors in the govern- 

 ment of the Sikhs, Arjun gave stability to the re- 

 ligion, and unity to its professors, by collecting the 

 writings of Nanac, and publishing the A'di Grant'h, 

 the first sacred book of the sect. But this drew 

 upon him the notice and the jealousy of the Mo- 

 hammedan government, and he was put to death. 

 Eager to avenge his father's death, Har Govind, 

 the son and successor of Arjun, transformed the 

 Sikhs from peaceful believers into valiant warriors ; 

 and, under his reign, and that of his posterity, a 

 bloody contest was maintained between them and the 

 Mohammedans, till the day of Behadur's execution, 

 whose son, Guru Govind, was forced to retreat 

 with his adherents to the Punjab, where a Hindoo 

 chief kindly entertained him, and gave him Mek- 

 hamel, on the banks of the Setledge. Guru Go- 

 vind established there the state of the Sikhs, des- 

 troying among them the Hindoo distinction of 

 castes, and giving equal rights to the lowest Soo- 

 dra and the highest Brahmin. This procured him 

 great accessions to the numbers of his disciples, 

 whom he excited to seek for happiness in this and 

 the future world by destroying the tyrannical Mo- 

 hammedans. From this time, in consequence of 

 their heroic conduct during the protracted contest 

 with their oppressors, Guru Govind's followers re- 

 ceived the title of Sikhs or lions, which before had 

 been confined to the Rajaputs, as the first military 

 order among the Hindoos. This ruler, equally 

 great as a soldier and a lawgiver, wrote the Dasema 



Padshah ke Grant'h, or the book of the tenth 

 prince (so called because he was the tenth ruler of 

 the Sikhs from Nanac). Besides treating of reli- 

 gious subjects, it contained also the history of the 

 author's exploits. It is regarded by the sect with 

 the same veneration as the A'di Grant'h of Arjun. 

 Guru Govind directed the Sikhs, in order to distin- 

 guish them for ever from Mohammedans and Hin- 

 doos, to wear a blue dress, to let their hair grow, 

 and to be always armed. To make his religious 

 institutions more stable, he founded a religious 

 order, the acalis (immortals), and assigned the 

 members of it a bonga (monastery) by the sacred 

 fountain at Emoilser, on the income of which they 

 were supported. To these acalis he committed 

 the care of converting and initiating new Sikhs ; 

 and in their hands still rests the supreme direction 

 of all the religious and civil affairs. Guru Govind 

 was the last head of the Sikhs; for a prophecy 

 limited the number of the rulers to ten ; and as he 

 was the tenth ruler after Nanac, he said to his 

 friends, on his death-bed, " I commit the state to 

 God, who never dies." Hence the Sikhs suppose 

 that their state is under the peculiar care of the 

 Deity. Their government, therefore, is a pure 

 theocracy. The popular faith would prove an 

 insurmountable obstacle to any one who should 

 attempt to subject the Sikhs to his rule. After 

 the death of Guru Govind, the Sikhs gradually 

 yielded to the superior power of the Mohammedans ; 

 and even Banda, one of their most heroic leaders, 

 after a fearful struggle, was taken prisoner in the 

 fort of Lagab, with all his followers, sent to Delhi, 

 and put to death with the most barbarous tortures. 

 To exterminate at length the hated sect, a price 

 was set upon their head by the Mohammedan 

 government, and every adherent of it, who could 

 be taken, was put to death. But they suffered, 

 with the greatest firmness, the pains of martyrdom, 

 often courting, rather than fleeing from them. 

 Nothing could induce them to renounce their 

 faith ; and a Mohammedan writer has stated that no 

 Sikh was taken on the pilgrimage to Amritsar (the 

 holy place of the Sikhs) who ever abjured his religion 

 to save his life. A very small number of the Sikhs 

 escaped to inaccessible mountains, and faithfully 

 preserved the doctrines of their fathers, and an 

 inextinguishable hatred towards their persecutors. 

 After Nadir Shah's return to Persia, they ventured 

 to leave the mountains; and, taking advantage of 

 the eonfusion into which Nadir's expedition had 

 plunged Hindoostan, they subdued all Lahore. At 

 present, the territory of the Sikhs extends from 

 28 40' to beyond 30 north latitude, and compre- 

 hends all the Punjab, a part of Moultan, and the 

 largest portion of the country lying between the 

 Jumnah and the Setledge, or the north-western 

 corner of Hindoostan, containing 69,000 square 

 miles, and 4,000,000 inhabitants. A few chiefs, 

 who form a diet at Amritsar, and deliberate on 

 subjects of general interest, under the direction of 

 the acalis, rule over portions of country of greater 

 or less extent. According to the account of general 

 Malcolm, who was in the Punjab with the British 

 army in 1805, and to whom we are indebted for the 

 most accurate information concerning this interest- 

 ing sect (see vol. xi. of the Asiatic Researches, con- 

 taining his Sketch of the Sikhs, also printed sepa- 

 rately in 1812), they are able to bring into the field 

 100,000 horse. Their present governor, or maha 

 ruga, is said to have subjected portions of Afgha- 

 nistan and Cashmire to his rule. In the separate 



