72 
[No. 1, 
C. J. Rodgers —On the Coins of the Sikhs. 
do not mean real godliness, I only mean the performance of those actions 
which are accounted religious by the people amongst whom they were per¬ 
formed. There was very little in the characters of some of the Sikh reli¬ 
gious leaders to mark them as teachers of religion. Their lives were loose, 
as were their doctrines. We read constantly of faith and of saving faith 
in Sikh books. But it resolves itself into faith in the Guru who claimed 
for himself perfect infallibility, if not perfect equality with god. The 
commandments of Sikhism have to do with wearing long hair, abstinence 
from cow’s flesh and Muhammadan women and smoking and drink. They 
encourage bloodshed, hatred, malice and all uncharitableness wherever and 
whenever Muhammadans are concerned. The modern Sikhs are, however, 
a temporizing lot of people, and they find our rule too obliging to their 
superstition. Their zeal and energy are not employed against the English 
but against Sikh declension from ancient ritual and discipline. The Koo. 
kas were Sikh Wahabees or Wesleyans, and so are the Nirmalas. 
As this paper has to do with the coins of the Sikhs, the symbols of 
their temporary power, it may be as well, although it is an oft told story, 
to give here a short account of the rise of the Sikhs, and to show how they 
became changed from a religious sect into a ruling power. 
1. Ndnak the founder of the Sikhs was born in 1469 A. D. at Tal- 
wandi near Lahore. This was in the time of Bahlol Lodi. His father was a 
Khatri. He early became a recluse and joined himself with a Musalman 
musician named Mardana. He afterwards wandered about like a modern 
faqir. In these journeys he must have got some ideas about Muhamma¬ 
danism and Hinduism beyond what his native village could have given him. 
Nanak died at Kartarpur in 1538, in the 7th year of the reign of Huma- 
yun. There is no trustworthy account of his life. He seems to have been 
as friendly to Musalmans as to Hindus. At his death one party wished to 
bury him and the other to cremate him. His doctrine was that there was 
one God. But with this he mixed much of polytheistic Hinduism and 
more of mysticism. At the same time he took good care to insist on his 
own guruship and on the necessity of giving alms to him as guru. To his 
followers he promised participation in all that was given to him. He made 
disciples from both Muhammadans and Hindus. Before his death he 
appointed a Hindu, named Angad, his successor. Nanak’s discqdes (Sikhs) 
were an ignorant rabble, few of them knowing how either to read or write. 
They were his servants and followed him for what they obtained as alms 
or in the shape of food. 
2. Angad, the second guru, did not rise above his fellow Sikhs in 
scholarship. His influence on his sect was nil. He simply figures as a 
man named a guru. He died in 1552 A. D., having made his servant 
Amar l)as his successor, to the exclusion of his sons, as Nanak had done 
