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SIKHISM
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SIKHISM , a See also:religion of See also:India, whose followers (Sikhs) are principally found in the See also:Punjab, See also:United Provinces, See also:Sind, See also:Jammu and See also:Kashmir. Sikhism was founded by Nanak, a Khatri by See also:caste, who was See also:born at Talwandi near See also:Lahore in A.D. 1469, and after travelling and See also:preaching throughout a See also:great See also:part of See also:southern See also:Asia died at Kartarpur in See also:Jullundur in 1539. He was succeeded by nine gurus, great teachers or See also:head priests, whose See also:dates are a's follows: A.D. A.D. 1. Nanak 1469-1539 6. Har Govind. 1606-1645 2. Angad 1539-1552 7. Har Rai . 1645-1661 3. Amar Das . 1552–1574 8. Har Krishan 1661–1664 4. See also:Ram Das 1574-1581 9. Teg Bahadur 1664-1675 5. Arjan . . . 1581–1606 to. Govind Singh 1675–1708 Nanak, like See also:Buddha, revolted against a religion overladen with ceremonial and social restrictions, and both rebelled against the tyranny of the priesthood. The tendency of each religion' was to See also:quietism, but their See also:separate doctrines were largely influenced by the surroundings of their founders. Buddha lived in the centre of See also:Hindu India and among the many gods of the Brahmans. These he rejected, he knew of nought else, and in his theological See also:system there was found no See also:place for divinity. Nanak was born in the See also:province which then formed the borderland between See also:Hinduism and See also:Islam. He taught that there was one See also:God; but that God was neither See also:Allah nor Ram, but simply God; neither the See also:special god of the See also:Mahommedan, nor of the Hindu, but the God of the universe, of all mankind and of all religions. Starting from the unity of God, Nanak and his successors rejected the idols and incarnations of the See also:Hindus, and on the ground of the equality of all men rejected also the system of caste. The doctrines of Sikhism as set forth in the See also:Granth (q.v.) are that it prohibits See also:idolatry, See also:hypocrisy, class exclusiveness, the concremation of widows, the immurement of See also:women, the use of See also:wine and other intoxicants, See also:tobacco-smoking, See also:infanticide, See also:slander and pilgrimages to the sacred See also:rivers and tanks of the Hindus; and it inculcates See also:loyalty, gratitude for all favours received, philanthropy, See also:justice, impartiality, truth, honesty and all the moral and domestic virtues upheld by See also:Christianity. Sikhism mainly differs from Christianity in that it inculcates the transmigration of the soul, and adopts a belief in See also:predestination, which is universal in the See also:East.
The See also:Sikh religion did not reach this full development at once, nor was the first of the gurus even the first to feel dissatisfaction with the existing See also:order of things. Ideas of revolt and reform of decadent systems are always in the See also:air, it of Precu Ehersors may be for centuries, until some one See also:man bolder than auras. the See also:rest stands out to give them See also:free expression; and
as See also: Of these saints Ramanand was one of the most distinguished. He lived at the end of the 14th and beginning of
the 15th centuries, and during a visit to See also:Benares he renounced The See also:fourth guru, originally called Jetha, was attracted to the
some of the social and caste observances of the Hindus, called his
disciples the liberated, and freed them from all restrictions in eating and social intercourse. Kabir denounced idolatry and the ritualistic practices of the Hindus. He was born A.D. 1398, and according to the See also:legend was the son of a virgin widow, as the result of a See also:prayer offered for her by Ramanand in See also:ignorance of her status. Thus it will be seen that the doctrines of these See also:early reformers contained the germs of the later Sikh religion.
Nanak seems to have been produced by the same cyclic See also:wave of See also:reformation as fourteen years later gave See also: The Sikhs of to-See also:day, though they all derive primarily from Nanak, are only recognized as Singhs or real Sikhs when they accept the doctrines and practices of Guru Govind Singh. Nanak's successor, Angad, was born in A.D 1504 and died in 1552. He also was a Khatri, and was chosen by Guru Nanak in preference to his own sons. The legend of his choice is that Nanak Guru with his followers was going on a See also:journey, when they Augad. saw the dead See also:body of a man lying by the wayside. Nanak said, " Ye who trust in me eat of this See also:food." All hesitated See also:save Angad (or own body), who knelt and uncovered the dead, but, behold, the See also:corpse had disappeared, and a dish of sacred food was found in its place. The guru embraced his faithful follower, saying that he was as himself, and that his spirit should dwell within him. Thenceforward the Sikhs believe the spirit of Nanak to have been incarnate in each succeeding guru. Little is known of the See also:ministry of Angad except that he committed to See also:writing much of what he had heard about Guru Nanak as well as some devotional observations of his own, which were afterwards incorporated in the Granth. Angad, like his predecessor, postponed the claims of his own sons to the guruship to those of Amar Das, who had been his faithful servant. Amar Das preached the doctrine Guru Amarnas. of forgiveness and endurance, upheld Guru Nanak's See also:abrogation of caste distinctions, and his precepts were implicitly followed by his successors. He used to place all his Sikhs and visitors in rows and cause them to eat together, not separately, as is the practice of the Hindus. He said: " Let no one be proud of his caste, for this See also:pride of caste resulteth in many sins. He is a See also:Brahman who knoweth Brahma (God). Every one prateth of four castes. All are sprung from the See also:seed of Brahm. The whole See also:world is formed out of one See also:clay, but the See also:Potter See also:bath fashioned it in various forms." It was a See also:maxim of the Sikhs of his time: " If any one treat you See also:ill, See also:bear it. If you bear it three times God himself will fight for you and humble your enemies." Guru Amar Das also discountenanced the practice of See also:suttee, saying: " They are not satis who See also:burn them-selves with the dead. The true sati is she who dieth from the See also:shock of separation from her See also:husband. They also ought to be considered satis who abide in charity and contentment, who serve and, when rising, ever remember their See also:lord." Amar Das was born in A.D. 15og and died in 1594 after a ministry of twenty-two and a See also:half years. third guru by his reputation for sanctity. He became the servant of Amar Das, helped in the public See also:kitchen, shampooed his his See also:master, See also:drew water, brought firewood from the Ran, Das. See also:forest, and helped in the excavation of a well which Amar Das was constructing at Goindwal. Jetha was of such a mild See also:temper that, even if any one spoke harshly to him, he would endure it and never retaliate. He became known as Ram Das, which means God's slave; and on See also:account of his piety and devotion Amar Das gave him his daughter in See also:marriage and made him his successor. Ram Das is amongst the most revered of gurus, but no particular innovation is ascribed to him. He founded, however, the See also:golden See also:temple of See also:Amritsar in A.D. 1577, which has remained ever since the centre of the Sikh religious worship. From this time onward the See also:office of guru became hereditary, but the practice of See also:primogeniture was not followed, each guru selecting the relative who seemed most fitted to succeed him. Ram Das himself, finding his eldest son Prithi Chand worldly and disobedient, and his second unfitted by his too retiring disposition for the duties of guru, appointed his third son, Arjan, to succeed him. When Prithi Chand See also:Gun' Arlan. represented that he ought to have received the See also:turban See also:bound on Guru Arjan's head in token of See also:succession to his See also:father, Arjan meekly handed it to him, without, however, bestowing on him the guruship. The Sikhs themselves soon revolted against the exactions of Prithi Chand, and prayed Arjan to assert himself else the seed of the True Name would perish. It was Guru Arjan who compiled the Granath o"r Sikh See also:Bible, out of his own and his predecessors' compositions. On this account he was accused of deposing the deities of his See also:country and 'substituting for them a new divinity, but he was acquitted by the tolerant See also:Akbar. When Akbar. however, was succeeded by See also:Jahangir the guru aided the latter's son Khusru to See also:escape with a See also:gift of See also:money. On this account his See also:property was confiscated to the See also:state, and he was thrown into rigorous imprisonment and tortured to See also:death. Arjan saw clearly that it was impossible to preserve his See also:sect without force of arms, and one of his last injunctions to his son Har Govind was to sit fully armed on his See also:throne and maintain an See also:army to the best of his ability. This was the turning-point in the See also:history of the Sikhs. Hitherto they had been merely an insignificant religious sect; now, stimulated by persecution, they became a militant and political See also:power, inimical to the Mahommedan rulers of the country. When Har Govind was installed as guru, Bhai Budha, the aged Sikh who performed the ceremony, presented him with a turban and a necklace, and charged him to See also:wear and preserve them as the founder of his religion had done. Guru Gun,Govind.See also:Bar Har Govind promptly ordered that the articles should be relegated to his See also:treasury, the museum of the See also:period. He said; " My necklace shall be my See also:sword-See also:belt, and my turban shall be adorned with a royal See also:aigrette." He then sent for his See also:bow, See also:quiver, arrows, See also:shield and sword, and arrayed himself in See also:martial See also:style, so that, as the Sikh chronicler states, his splendour shone like the See also:sun. The first four gurus led See also:simple ascetic lives and were regardless of wordly affairs. Guru Arjan, who was in See also:charge of the great Sikh temple at Amritsar, received copious offerings and became a man of See also:wealth and See also:influence, while the sixth guru became a military See also:leader, and was frequently at warfare with the See also:Mogul authorities. Several warriors and wrestlers, See also:hearing of Guru Har Govind's fame, came to him for service. He enrolled as his body-guard fifty-two heroes who burned for the fray. This formed the See also:nucleus of his future army. Five See also:hundred youths then came to him for enlistment from the Manjha, See also:Doab and See also:Malwa districts. These men told him that they had no offering to make to him except their lives; for pay they only required instruction in his religion; and they professed themselves ready to See also:die in his service. The guru gave them each a See also:horse and five weapons of See also:war, and gladly enlisted them in his army. In a See also:short time, besides men who required See also:regular pay, hordes gathered See also:round the guru who were satisfied with two meals a day and a suit of clothes every six months. The fighting spirit of the See also:people was roused and satisfied by the spiritual and military leader. Har Govind was a See also:hunter and eater of flesh, and encouraged his followers to eat See also:meat as giving them strength and daring. It is largely to this practice that the Sikhs owe the superiority of their physique over their surrounding Hindu neighbours. The See also:regal state that the guru adopted and the army that he maintained were duly reported to the See also:emperor Jahangir. In the Autobiography of Jahangir it is stated that the guru was imprisoned in the fortress of See also:Gwalior, with a view to the realization of the See also:fine imposed on his father Guru Arjan, but the Sikhs believe that the guru became a voluntary inmate of the fortress with the See also:object of obtaining seclusion there to pray for the emperor who had been advised to that effect by his Hindu astrologers. After a time Jahangir died and was succeeded by Shah Jahan, with whom the guru was constantly at war. On three separate occasions after desperate fighting he defeated the royal troops sent against him. Many legends are told of his military prowess, for which there is no space in this See also:summary. The guru before his death at Kiratpur, on the margin of the See also:Sutlej, instructed his See also:grandson and successor, Guru Har Rai, to retain two thousand two hundred mounted soldiers ever with him as a precautionary measure. Har Rai was charged with friendship for Dara Shikoh, the son of Shah Jahan, and also with preaching a religion distinct from Islam. He was, therefore, summoned to See also:Delhi, but instead of going himself he sent his son Ram Rai and shortly afterwards died. His ministry was mild but won him See also:general respect. The eighth guru was the second son of Har Rai, but he died when a See also:child and too See also:young to leave any See also:mark on Guru Har history. His See also:elder See also:brother Ram Rai was passed over Krishan. in his favour and also in favour of the next guru for having altered a See also:line of the Granth to please the emperor See also:Aurangzeb. As the See also:direct line of succession died out with Har Krishan, the guruship harked back at this point to Teg Bahadur, the second son of Har Govind and See also:uncle of Har Rai. Teg Bahadur Guru was put to death for refusal to embrace Islam by Aurangzeb in A.D. 1675. It is of him that the legend is told that during his imprisonment in Delhi he was accused by the emperor of looking towards the See also:west in the direction of the imperial See also:zenana. The guru replied, " Emperor Aurangzeb, I was on the See also:top See also:storey of my See also:prison, but I was not looking at thy private apartments or at thy See also:queen's. I was looking in the direction of the Europeans who are coming from beyond the seas to See also:tear down thy purdahs and destroy thine See also:empire." This prophecy became the See also:battle-cry of the Sikhs in the See also:assault on Delhi in 18J7. Teg Bahadur was succeeded by the tenth and most powerful guru, his son Govind Singh; and it was under him that what had sprung into existence as a quietist sect of a purely Guru Govind religious nature, and had become a military society Singh. for self-See also:protection, See also:developed into a See also:national See also:movement which was to See also:rule the whole of See also:north-western India and to furnish to the See also:British arms their stoutest and most worthy opponents. For some years after his father's See also:execution Govind Singh, then known as Gobind Rai, lived in retirement, brooding over the wrongs of his people and the persecutions of the fanatical Aurangzeb. He See also:felt the See also:necessity for a larger following and a stronger organization, and following the example of his Mahommedan enemies used his religion as the basis of political power. Emerging from his retirement he preached the Khalsa, the " pure," and it is by this name his followers are now known. He, like his predecessors, openly attacked all distinctions of caste, and taught the equality of all men who would join him, and he instituted a ceremony of See also:initiation with baptismal See also:holy water by which all might enter the Sikh fraternity. The higher castes murmured, and many of them See also:left him, for he taught that the Brahmanical threads must be broken; but the See also:lower orders rejoiced and flocked in See also:numbers to his See also:standard. These he inspired with military ardour in the See also:hope of social freedom and of national See also:independence. He gave them outwardsigns of their faith in the five K's—which will subsequently be explained—he signified the military nature of their calling by the See also:title of " singh " or " See also:lion " and by the wearing of See also:steel, and he strictly prohibited the use of tobacco. The following are the See also:main points of his teaching: Sikhs must have one See also:form of initiation, sprinkling of water by five of the faithful; they should worship the one invisible God and See also:honour the memory of Guru Nanak and his successors; their watchword should be, " Sri wah guru ji ka khalsa, sri wah guru ji ki fatah " (Khalsa of God, victory to God!), but they should See also:revere and bow to nought visible save the Granth See also:Sahib, the See also:book of their belief; they should occasionally bathe in the sacred tank of Amritsar; their locks should remain unshorn; and they should name themselves singhs or lions. Arms should dignify their See also:person; they should ever practise their use, and great would be the merit of those who fought in the See also:van, who slew the enemies of their faith, and who despaired not although overpowered by See also:superior numbers. The religious creed of Guru Govind Singh was the same as that of Guru Nanak: the God, the guru and the Granth remained unchanged. But while Nanak had substituted holiness of See also:life for vain ceremonial, Guru Govind Singh demanded in addition brave deeds and zealous devotion to the Sikh cause as See also:proof of faith; and while he retained his predecessors' attitude towards the Hindu gods and worship he preached undying hatred to the persecutors of his religion. During the spiritual reign of Guru Govind Singh the religious was partially eclipsed by the military spirit. The Mahommedans promptly responded to the See also:challenge, for the danger was too serious to be neglected; the Sikh army was dispersed and two of Guru Govind Singh's sons were murdered at See also:Sirhind by the See also:governor of that fortress, and his See also:mother died of grief at the cruel death of her grandchildren. The death of the emperor Aurangzeb brought a temporary See also:lull: the guru assisted Aurangzeb's successor, Bahadur Shah, and was himself not See also:long after assassinated at Nander in the See also:Deccan. As all the guru's sons predeceased him, and as he was disappointed in his See also:envoy See also:Banda, he left no human successor, but vested the guruship in the Granth Sahib and his sect. No formal alteration has been made in the Sikh religion since Guru Govind Singh gave it his military organization, but certain modifications have taken place as the result of time and contact with Hinduism. After the guru's death the See also:gradual rise of the Sikhs into the ruling power of See also:northern India until they came in collision with the British arms belongs to the See also:secular history of the Punjab (q.v.). The chief ceremony initiated by Guru Govind Singh was the Khanda ka Pahul or See also:baptism by the sword. This baptism may not be conferred until the See also:candidate has reached an age of discrimination and capacity to remember obligations, se Sikh re c~re- seven years being fixed as the earliest age, but it is monies. generally deferred until manhood. Five of the initiated must be present, all of whom should be learned in the faith. An See also:Indian sweetmeat is stirred up in water with a two-edged sword and the novice repeats after the officiant the articles of his faith. Some of the water is sprinkled on him five times, and he drinks of it five times from the palms of his hands; he then pronounces the Sikh watchword given above and promises adherence to the new obligations he has contracted. He must from that date wear the five K's and add the word singh to his See also:original name. The five K's are (r) the kes or uncut See also:hair of the whole body, (2) the kachh or short drawers ending above the See also:knee, (3) the kara or See also:iron bangle, (4) the khanda or small steel See also:dagger,(5) the khanga or See also:comb. The five K's and the other See also:esoteric observances of the Sikhs mostly had a utilitarian purpose. When fighting was a part of the Sikh's See also:duty, long hair and iron rings concealed in it protected his head from sword cuts. The kachh or drawers fastened by a See also:waist-See also:band was more convenient and suitable for warriors than the insecurely tied dhoti of the Hindus or the Samba of the Mahommedans. So also the Sikh's See also:physical strength was increased by she use of meat and avoidance of tobacco. Another Sikh ceremony is the kara parshad or communion made of See also:butter, See also:flour and See also:sugar, and consecrated with certain ceremonies. The communicants sit round, and the. kara Guru Har See also:Rat. parshad is then distributed equally to all the faithful present, no See also:matter to what caste they belong. The object of this ceremony is to abolish caste distinctions. There may be said to be three degrees of strictness in the observances of the Sikhs. There may first be mentioned the zealots such as the Akalis, who, though generally The quite illiterate, aim at observing the injunctions of See also:stem Guru Govind Singh; secondly, the true Sikhs or of to-day. Singhs who observe his ordinances, such as the prohibitions of cutting the hair and the use of tobacco; and, thirdly, those Sikhs who while professing devotion to the tenets of the gurus are almost indistinguishable from See also:ordinary Hindus. These are largely Nanakpanti Sikhs, or followers only of Guru Nanak. The Nanakpanti Sikhs do not wear the hair long, nor use any of the outward signs of the Sikhs, though they reverence the Granth Sahib and above all the memory of their guru. They are distinguished from the Hindus by no outward sign except a slight laxity in the matter of caste observances. Sikhism attained its See also:zenith under the military See also:genius of Ranjit Singh. After the British See also:conquest of the Punjab the military spirit of the Sikhs remained for some time in See also:abeyance. Then came the See also:mutiny, and Sikhs once more were recruited in numbers and saved India for the British See also:crown. See also:Peace returned, and during the next twenty or twenty-five years Sikhism reached its lowest ebb; but since then the demand for Sikhs in the regiments of the Indian army and farther afield has largely revived the faith. The See also:establishment of Singh Sabhas, of Sikh See also:newspapers, and the spread of See also:education have largely tended in the same direction, but the strict ethical See also:code of Sikhism and the number of its obligatory divine services have caused many to fall away from the faith: nor does the austere Sikh See also:ritual See also:appeal to women, who generally prefer Hinduism with its picturesque material worship and the brightness of its innumerable festivals. At the present day the stronghold of Sikhism still remains the great Phulkian states of See also:Patiala, See also:Nabha and See also:Jind and the surrounding districts of See also:Ludhiana, Lahore, Amritsar, Jullundur and See also:Gujranwala. In these states and districts are recruited the soldiers who form one of the main bulwarks of the British empire in India. For authorities see See also:Cunningham, History of the Sikhs; Sir Lepel See also:Griffin, Maharaja Ranjit Singh (" Rulers of India " See also:series, 1892) ; See also:Falcon, Handbook on Sikhs; and specially M. Macauliffe, The Sikh Religion: Its Gurus, Sacred Writings and Authors (6 vols., 1909), and two lectures before the United Service Institution of India on " The Sikh Religion and its Advantages to the State " and " How the Sikhs became a Militant See also:Race." (M. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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