74 
[No. 1, 
C. J. Rodgers —On the Coins of the Sikhs. 
tain or head of a river. # Amrit is the water of immortality . But the Sikhs 
of the present century spell the word with a b and call it Ambratsar. On 
the Gurmukhi coins it is thus spelt. On the lamp shades in the railway 
station I notice the word is printed probably by an Amritsar man ^ f 
The b is very plain. Some etymologists (Sikhs never were troubled with 
learning) derive the name from Arnbar () — ambergris, or a rich per¬ 
fume. Amritsar is certainly a place of strong smells, but by no means 
pleasant. 
5. Ram Dass was succeeded by his son Arjan. And from this time 
the guruship became hereditary. Arjan built the tank and temple, but not 
those which exist now. The present structure is a more modern building. 
He began it in 1588 A. D., the year of the Spanish Armada. Tradition 
says that there was a grand procession formed, that portions of Nanak’s 
sayings were recited, and that the guru laid the first stone. But the brick¬ 
layer did not consider it laid properly, so he took it up again and relaid it. 
Arjan then prophesied that the building he was commencing should be one 
day destroyed and again rebuilt. But Arjan did more than build the tem¬ 
ple. He collected the saying and verses of Nanak and others, and wrote 
them in Gurmukhi letters in a book which is called the Granth. This 
book therefore represents to a certain extent the moral maxims of the 
teachers who had existed before Arjan’s clays in the Panjab. It being in 
the language of the people, has always exercised much power over them. 
It was the book in the mother-tongue of thousands of unlettered men and 
women. No wonder they reverenced it. It is now called the Granth Sahib, 
and the temple is called the Durbar Sahib : while Amritsar, the city which 
contains the two, is spoken of as Sri Amritsar. It is more reverenced now 
than either understood or practised. Its language, being three centuries 
old, is not intelligible now to the masses. Many changes have come over 
the people in those three hundred years of Mogul rule and rise of British 
power. 
Arjan was' enabled by his followers’ gifts to maintain some kind of 
state. He made arrangements for his income being collected with regulari¬ 
ty. But Amritsar lay in the road between Hehli and Lahore, and Arjan 
unfortunately brought himself to notice by leaning favourably towards the 
rebellious son of Jahangir. That rebellion was wiped out with one of the 
most bloody acts the history of India records. 7cX) men were impaled and 
poor Khusrau was led between the rows to be regaled with the groans and 
shrieks of the victims. Arjan escaped this horrible death. But for all 
* [Or rather, sar is the Sanskrit saras “ pool, tank,” which in the modern Indian 
languages becomes sar. Santokh-sar or santosha-saras is the “ tank of contentment:” 
Ram-sar “ the tank of Ram,” Vivek-sar “ the tank of discrimination.” Ed.] 
