SKETCH OF THE SIKHS; S37 



who, intoxicated with vidlory, endeavoured to change the religious irlsti- 

 tutions, and laws of Gu'ii'u Govind, many of whose most devoted fol- 

 lowers this fierce chief put to death, because they refused to depart from 

 those usages, which that revered spiritual leader had taught them to con- 

 sider sacred. Among other changes, Band a wished to make the Sikhs 

 aliandon their blue dress, to refrain from drinking, and eating fiesh, and 

 instead of exclaiming /Fi 7 Giaiiji ki'Futteh! JVdl Khdlsaji ki Futteh! 

 the salutations dire6led by Govind, he direcSed them to exclaim Futteh 

 D'herm ! Futteh ders'an ! which means, success to piety, success to the sect. 

 These innovations were very generally resisted ; but the dreaded severity 

 oi Banda made many conform to his orders. The class of Acdh's* or im- 

 mortals, who had been established by Gu'ru' Govind, continued to oppose 

 tlie innovations with great obstinacy, and many of them suffered martyr- 

 dom, rather than change either their mode of salutation, diet, or dress;, 

 and, at the death of Banda, their cause triumphed. All the institutions of 

 Gu'ru' Govind were restored ; but tlie blue dress, instead of beincr as at 

 first worn by all, appears, from that date, to have become the particular 

 right of the Acdlis, whose valor, in its defence, well merited the exclu- 

 sive privilege of wearing tills original uniform of a true Sikh. 



After the defeat and death of Banda, every measure was taken, that 

 ■an a(5live resentment could suggest, not only to destroy the power, but 

 to extirpate the race of the Sikhs. An astonishing number of that se6l 

 must have fallen, in the last two or three years of the contest with the 

 imperial armies; as the irritated Muhammedans gave them no quarter; 

 and after the execution of their chief, a royal edict was issued, ordering 

 all who professed the religion of Na'nac to be taken and put to death, 



An .iccount ol' (bis clasc oi' Sikhs Vrill be hereafter givou. 



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