SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 291' 



** of Gu'ru' Govind, the Sinks seized and displayed the scymiter, theil 

 *' subduing all their enemies, they meditated on the eternal ; and, as sodrl 

 ** as the order of the most high was manifested in the world, circumcision 

 *' ceased, and the Turks trembled, when they saw the ritual of Muham- 

 « MED destroyed: then the J^akdra [Iscrge dnim) of vidlory soui^deti 

 " throughout the world, and fear and dread were abolished. Thus thb 

 « third se6t was established, and increased greatly in might/' 



These extra6ls, and what I have before stated, ¥/ill sufficiently shew., 

 the character of the religious institutions of Gu'ru' Govind ; whjchrwere 

 admirably calculated to awaken, through the means of fanaticism^ a spirit 

 of courage and independence, among men who had been content, for 

 ages, with that degraded condition in society, to which they were taught 

 to believe themselves born. The end which Govind sought, could not, 

 perhaps, have been attained by the employment of other means. Exhor- 

 tations respedling their civil rights, and the wrongs which they sustained, 

 would have been wasted on minds enslaved by superstition ^^a^,d who could 

 only be persuaded to assert themselves men, by an im|)ress,ion that it was 

 the will of heaven they should do so. His success is a strong elucidation 

 of the general chara6ler of the Hindil natives of India. That race, 

 though in general mild and peaceable, take the most savage and feroci- 

 ous turn, when roused to action by the influence of religious feeling. 



I HAVE mentioned, in the narrative part of this sketch, the attempt of the 

 Bairdgi Banda to alter the rehgious institutions of Gu'ru' Govind, and 

 its failure. The tribe of Acdlis (immortals) who have now assumed a dic- 

 tatorial sway in all the religious ceremonies at Ainritsar^ and the J^Tirmala 

 and Shaliid, who read the sacred writings, may hereafter introduce some 

 changes in those usages which the Sikhs revere ; but it is probable that 



