SKETCH OF THE SIKHS, 269 



was calculated to preserve a vast community in tranquillity and obedience 

 to its rulers, it had the natural efFe6t 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 eifecl;, that made^ 

 Guru' Govind resolve on the abolition of cast, as a necessary and indis- 

 pensable prelude to any attempt to arm the original native population of 

 Lidia against their foreign tyrants. He called upon all Hindds, to break 

 those chains in which prejudice and bigotry had bound them, and: to de- 

 vote themselves to arms, as the only means by which they could free 

 themselves from the oppressive government of the Muhammedaus; a- 

 gainst whom a sense of his own wrongs, and those of his tribe, led him to 

 preach eternal warfare. His religious do6lrine was meant to be popular^ 

 and it promised equality. The invidious appellations of Brdhnen, Csha- 

 triya, Vaisya, siud Sildra, were abolished. The pride of descent might 

 remain, and keep up some distin6lions ; but in the religious code of 

 GoviND, every Khdlsa Sink, for such he termed his followers, was equal, 

 and had a like title to the good things pf this world, and to the blessings 

 of a future life. 



Though Guru' Govind mixes, even more than Na'nac, the mytho|o- . 

 gy of the Hindds with his own tenets; though his desire to concihate them, 

 in opposition to the MuhammedanSy against whom he always breathed war 

 and destru(51;ion, 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 veneration to the Hindu goddiss of courage, Du'rga 

 Bhava'ni; 3^et it is imposs'ble to reconcib the .religion and usages, which 

 GoviND has established, with the belief of the Hindus. It does not, like 

 that of Na'nac, question some favorite dojmas of the disciples of 



U uu 



