Sketch of the Sikhs; a singular nation, who inhabit the provinces of the Penjab, situated between the rivers Jumna and Indus

i fc

BERKELEY

.IBRARY

TY OF
CALIFORNIA J

SKETCH

OF

THE SIKHS;

Si lingular Ration,

WHO INHABIT THE

PROVINCES OF THE PENJAB,

SITUATED BETWEEN

C6e Etocttf 3[umna anD 3[ntw&

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL MALCOLM,

AUTHOR OF THE POLITICAL SKETCH OF INDIA.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET,

By James Moyes, Greville Street, Hatton Garden.

1812.

ADVERTISEMENT.

This Sketch has already appeared in the eleventh
volume of the Asiatic Researches : but, as that va-
luable work is not in common circulation, it is now
republished ; and may prove acceptable, as a short and
clear account of an oriental people, of singular religion
and manners, with whose history the European reader
can be but little acquainted.

076

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS

INTRODUCTION.

W^HEN with the British army in the
Penjab, in 1805, I endeavoured to collect
materials that would throw light upon the
history, manners, and religion of the Sikhs.
Though this subject had been treated by
several English writers, none of them had
possessed opportunities of obtaining more
than very general information regarding
this extraordinary race; and their narra-
tives therefore, though meriting regard,
have served more to excite than to gratify
curiosity.

In addition to the information I col-
lected while the army continued within the

2 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

territories of the Sikhs, and the personal
observations I was able to make, during
that period, upon the customs and manners
of that nation, I succeeded with difficulty
in obtaining a copy of the Adi-Grant'h *,
and of some historical tracts, the most
essential parts of which, when I returned
to Calcutta, were explained to me by a
Sikh priest of the Nirmala order, whom I
found equally intelligent and communi-
cative, and who spoke of the religion and
ceremonies of his sect with less restraint
than any of his brethren whom I had met
with in the Penjab. This slender stock

* The sacred volume of the Sikhs. The chief, who
gave me this copy, sent it at night, and with either a
real or affected reluctance, after having obtained a pro-
mise that I would treat it with great respect. I under-
stand, however, that the indefatigable research of
Mr. Colebrooke has procured not only the Adi-
Grant'h, but also the Dasima Padshah ka Grant'h :
and that, consequently, he is in possession of the two
most sacred books of the Sikhs.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 3

of materials was subsequently much en-
riched by my friend Dr. Leyden, who has
favoured me with a translation of several
tracts written by Sikh authors in the Pen-
jabi and Duggar dialects, treating of their
history and religion ; which, though full of
that warm imagery which marks all oriental
works, and particularly those whose authors
enter on the boundless field of Hindu my-
thology, contain the most valuable veri-
fications of the different religious institu-
tions of the Sikh nation.

It was my first intention to have endea-
voured to add to these materials, and to
have written, when I had leisure, a history
of the Sikhs ; but the active nature of my
public duties has made it impossible to
carry this plan into early execution, and
I have had the choice of deferring it to
a distant and uncertain period ; or of giv-
ing, from what I actually possessed, a short
and hasty sketch of their history, customs,
and religion. The latter alternative I have

4 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

adopted : for, although the information I
may convey in such a sketch may be very
defective, it will be useful at a moment
when every information regarding the Sikhs
is of importance ; and it may, perhaps, sti-
mulate and aid some person, who has more
leisure and better opportunities, to ac-
complish that task which I once con-
templated.

In composing this rapid sketch of the
Sikhs, I have still had to encounter various
difficulties. There is no part of oriental
biography in which it is more difficult to
separate truth from falsehood, than that
which relates to the history of religious
impostors. The account of their lives is
generally recorded, either by devoted dis-
ciples and warm adherents, or by violent
enemies and bigotted persecutors. The for-
mer, from enthusiastic admiration, decorate
them with every quality and accomplish-
ment that can adorn men : the latter mis-
represent their characters, and detract from

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 5

all their merits and pretensions. This general
remark I have found to apply with pecu-
liar force to the varying accounts given, by
Sikh and Muhammedan authors, of Nanac
and his successors. As it would have been
an endless and unprofitable task to have
entered into a disquisition concerning all
the points in which these authors differ,
many considerations have induced me to
give a preference, on almost all occasions,
to the original Sikh writers. In every re-
search into the general history of mankind,
it is of the most essential importance to
hear what a nation has to say of itself; and
the knowledge obtained from such sources
has a value, independent of its historical
utility. It aids the promotion of social
intercourse, and leads to the establishment
of friendship between nations. The most
savage states are those who have most
prejudices, and who are consequently most
easily conciliated or offended: they are

6 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

always pleased and flattered, when they
find, that those whom they cannot but
admit to possess superior intelligence, are
acquainted with their history, and respect
their belief and usages : and, on the con-
trary, they hardly ever pardon an outrage
against their religion or customs, though
committed by men who have every right to
plead the most profound ignorance, as an
excuse for the words or actions that have
provoked resentment.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

SECTION I.

SKETCH OF THE HISTORY AND PRESENT STATE
OF THE SIKHS ; WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THEIR
RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS, USAGES, MANNERS,
AND CHARACTER.

Nanac Shah, the founder of the sect,
since distinguished by the name of Sikhs*,
was born in the year of Christ 1469, at
a small village called Talwandi-f, in the
district of Bhatti, in the province of Lahore.
His father, whose name was CaldJ, was of

* Sikh or Sicsha, is a Sanscrit word, which means a
disciple, or devoted follower. In the Penjabi it is
corrupted into Sikh : it is a general term, and appli-
cable to any person that follows a particular teacher.

f This village, or rather town, for such it has
become, is now called Rayapur. It is situated on the
banks of the Beyah, or Hyphasis.

J He is called, by some authors, Kalu Vedi ; but
Vedi is a name derived from his tribe or family.

8 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

the Cshatriya cast, and Vedi tribe of
Hindus, and had no family except Nanac,
and his sister Nanaci, who married a Hindu
of the name of Jayaram, that was em-
ployed as a grain-factor by Daulet Khan
Lodi, a relation of the reigning emperor of
Delhi. Nanac was, agreeably to the usage
of the tribe in which he was born, married
to a woman of respectable family, at an
early age*, by whom he had two sons,
named Srichand and Lacshmi Das. The
former, who abandoned the vanities of the
world, had a son called Dherm Chand,
who founded the sect of Udasi ; and his
descendants are yet known by the name of
Nanac Putrah, or the children of Nanac.
Lacshmi Das addicted himself to the plea-
sures of this world, and left neither heirs
nor reputation.

* Several Sikh authors have heen very precise in
establishing the date of the consummation of ihis mar-
riage, which they fix in the month of Asarh, of the
Ilind6 aera of Vicramaditya, 1545.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 9

Nanac is stated, by all Sikh writers, to
have been, from his childhood, inclined to
devotion ; and the indifference which this
feeling created towards all worldly concerns,
appears to have been a source of continual
uneasiness to his father ; who endeavoured,
by every effort, to divert his mind from the
religious turn which it had taken. With a
view to effect this object, he one day gave
Nanac a sum of money, to purchase salt at
one village, in order to sell it at another;
in the hope of enticing him to business,
by allowing him to taste the sweets of com-
mercial profit. Nanac was pleased with
the scheme, took the money, and pro-
ceeded, accompanied by a servant of the
name of Bala, of the tribe of Sand'hu,
towards the village where he was to make
his purchase. He happened, however, on
the road, to fall in with some Fakirs, (holy
mendicants,) with whom he wished to com-
mence a conversation; but they were so
weak, from want of victuals, which they

10 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

had not tasted for three days, that they
could only reply to the observations of
Nanac by bending their heads, and other
civil signs of acquiescence. Nanac, af-
fected by their situation, said to his com-
panion, with emotion : " My father has
" sent me to deal in salt, with a view to
" profit ; but the gain of this world is
" unstable, and profitless ; my wish is to
" relieve these poor men, and to obtain
" that gain which is permanent and eter-
" nal." His companion* replied: " Thy
" resolution is good : do not delay its exe-
" cution." Nanac immediately distributed
his money among the hungry Fakirs ; who,
after they had gained strength from the
refreshment which it obtained them, entered
into a long discourse with him on the unity
of God, with which he was much delighted.
He returned next day to his father, who

* Bala Sand'hu, who gave this advice, continued,
through Nanac's life, to be his favourite attendant and
disciple.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. H

demanded what profit he had made ? " I
" have fed the poor," said Nanac, " and
" have obtained that gain for you which
" will endure for ever." As the father hap-
pened to have little value for the species of
wealth which the son had acquired, he was
enraged at having his money so fruitlessly
wasted, abused poor Nanac, and even
struck him ; nor could the mild repre-
sentations of Nanaci save her brother from
the violence of parental resentment. For-
tune, however, according to the Sikh nar-
rators of this anecdote of their teacher's
early life, had raised him a powerful pro-
tector, who not only rescued him from
punishment, but established his fame and
respectability upon grounds that at once
put him above all fear of future bad usage
from his low-minded and sordid father.
When Nanac was quite a youth, and em-
ployed to tend cattle in the fields, he hap-
pened to repose himself one day under the
shade of a tree ; and, as the sun declined

12 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

towards the west, its rays fell on his face,
when a large black snake*, advancing to
the spot where he lay, raised itself from the
ground, and interposed its spread hood
between Nanac and the suns rays. Ray
Bolar-f , the ruler of the district, was pass-
ing the road, near the place where Nanac
slept, and marked, in silence, though not
without reflection, this unequivocal sign of
his future greatness. This chief overheard
Calu punishing his son for his kindness
to the Fakirs. He immediately entered,
and demanded the cause of the uproar ;
and, when informed of the circumstances,
he severely chid Calu for his conduct, and

* The veneration which the Hindus have for the
snake is well known ; and this tradition, like many
others, proves the attachment of the Sikh writers to
that mythology, the errors of which they pretend to
have wholly abandoned.

f Ray, a title inferior to that of a Rajah, generally
applied to the Hindu chief of a village, or small
district.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 13

interdicted him from ever again lifting his
hand to Nanac, before whom, to the asto-
nishment of all present, he humbled himself
with every mark of the most profound vene-
ration. Though Calu, from this event, was
obliged to treat his son with more respect
than formerly, he remained as solicitous as
ever to detach him from his religious habits,
and to fix him in some worldly occupation ;
and he prevailed upon Jayram, his son-in-
law, to admit him into partnership in his
business. Nanac, obliged to acquiesce in
these schemes, attended at the granary of
Daulet Khan Lodi, which was in charge of
Jayram ; but though his hands were em-
ployed in this work, and his kindness of
manner made all the inhabitants of Sultan-
pur, where the granary was established, his
friends, yet his heart never strayed for one
moment from its object. It was incessantly
fixed on the Divinity ; and one morning, as
he sat in a contemplative posture, a holy
Muhammedan Fakir approached, and ex-

14 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

claimed : " Oh Nanac ! upon what are thy
" thoughts now employed ? Quit such oc-
" cupations, that thou mayest obtain the
" inheritance of eternal wealth." Nanac is
said to have started up at this exclamation,
and after looking for a moment in the face
of the Fakir, he fell into a trance ; from
which he had no sooner recovered, than he
immediately distributed every thing in the
granary among the poor* : and, after this
act, proceeded with loud shouts out of the
gates of the city, and running into a pool of
water, remained there three days ; during
which some writers assert he had an inter-
view with the prophet Elias, termed by the
Muhammedans, Khizzer, from whom he
learnt all earthly sciences.

While Nanac remained in the pool,

* This remarkable anecdote in Nanac's life is told
very differently by different Sikh authors. I have
followed the narrative of Bhacta Malli. They all
agree in Nanac's having, at this period, quitted the
occupations of the world, and become Fakir.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS 1$

abstracted from all worldly considerations,
holding converse with a prophet, poor
Jayram was put in prison by Daulet Khan
Lodi, on the charge of having dissipated
his property. Nanac, however, returned,
and told Daulet Khan that Jayram was
faultless ; that he was the object of punish-
ment ; and that, as such, he held himself
ready to render the strictest account of all
he had lost. The Khan accepted his pro-
posal : Jayram's accounts were settled ;
and, to the surprise of all, a balance was
found in his favour ; on which he was not
only released, but reinstated in the employ-
ment and favour of his master. We are
told, by the Sikh authors, that these won-
derful actions increased the fame of Nanac
in a very great degree ; and that he began,
from this period, to practise all the au-
sterities of a holy man ; and, by his frequent
abstraction in the contemplation of the
divine Being, and his abstinence and virtue,

16 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

he soon acquired great celebrity through
all the countries into which he travelled.

There are many extravagant accounts re-
garding the travels of Nanac. One author*,
who treats of the great reform which he
made in the worship of the true God,
which he found degraded by the idolatry
of the Hindus, and the ignorance of the
Muhammedans, relates his journey to all
the different Hindu places of pilgrimage,
and to Mecca, the holy temple of the Mu-
hammedans.

It would be tedious, and foreign to the
purpose of this sketch, to accompany Na-
nac in his travels, of which the above-men-
tioned author, as well as others, has given
the most circumstantial accounts. He was
accompanied (agreeable to them) by a cele-
brated musician, of the name of Merdana,
and a person named Bala Sand'hu ; and it

* Bhai Guru Vali, author of the Gnyana Ratnavali,
a work written in the Sikh dialect of the Penjabi.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 17

is on the tradition of the latter of these
disciples, that most of the miracles* and
wonders of his journies are related. In
Bengal, the travellers had to encounter all
kinds of sorcerers and magicians. Poor
Merdana, who had some of the propensities
of Sancho, and preferred warm houses and
good meals to deserts and starvation, was
constantly in trouble, and more than once
had his form changed into that of a sheep,
and of several other animals. Nanac,
however, always restored his humble friend
to the human shape, and as constantly
read him lectures on his imprudence. It
is stated, in one of those accounts, that
a Raja of Sivanab'hu endeavoured to tempt
Nanac, by offering him all the luxuries of
the world, to depart from his austere habits,
but in vain. His presents of rich meats,

* Though his biographers have ascribed miracles to
Nanac, we never find that he pretended to work any :
on the contrary, he derided those who did, as deriving
power from evil spirits.

C

18 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

splendid clothes, and fair ladies, only af-
forded the Sikh teacher so many oppor-
tunities of decrying the vanities of this
worid, and preaching to the Raja the bless-
ings of eternal life ; and he at last succeeded
in making him a convert, and resided at
Sivanab'hu two years and five months ;
during which period he composed the Pran
Sancali*, for the instruction of his fol-
lowers. After Nanac had visited all the
cities of India, and explained to all ranks
the great doctrines of the unity and omni-
presence of God, he went to Mecca and
Medina, where his actions, his miracles,
and his long disputations with the most
celebrated Muhammedan saints and doc-
tors, are most circumstantially recorded by
his biographers. He is stated, on this oc-
casion, to have maintained his own prin-
ciples, without offending those of others ;
always professing himself the enemy of dis-

* It is believed th.it this work of Nanac has been
incorporated in the first part of the Adi-Grant'li.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 19

cord, and as having no object but to recon-
cile the two faiths of the Muhammedans
and Hindus in one religion ; which he en-
deavoured to do by recalling them to that
great and original tenet, in which they both
believed, the unity of God, and by reclaim-
ing them from the numerous errors into
which they had fallen. During his travels,
Nanac was introduced to the emperor
Baber*, before whom he is said to have
defended his doctrine with great firmness
and eloquence. Baber was pleased with
him, and ordered an ample maintenance to
be bestowed upon him ; which the Sikh priest
refused; observing, that he trusted in him
who provided for all men, and from whom
alone a man of virtue and religion would
consent to receive favour or reward. When
Nanac returned from his travels, he cast

* This interview must have taken place in 1526 or
1527 ; as it is stated to have been immediately after
Daulet Khan Lodi had visited Paniput, in 1526;
where that prince had fought, and subdued Ibrahim,
emperor of Hindustan,

20 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

off the garments of a Fakir, and wore plain
clothes, but continued to give instructions
to his numerous disciples ; and he appears,
at this period, to have experienced the
most violent opposition from the Hindu,
zealots, who reproached him with having
laid aside the habits of a Fakir, and with
the impiety of the doctrines which he
taught. These accusations he treated with
great contempt ; and an author, before
cited, Bhai Guru Das Vali, states, that
when he visited Vatala, he enraged the
Yogis waras* so much, that they tried all
their powers of enchantment to terrify him.
" Some," says this writer, " assumed the
" shape of lions and tigers, others hissed
" like snakes, one fell in a shower of fire,
" and another tore the stars from the firma-
" ment;" but Nanac remained tranquil:
and when required to exhibit some proof
of his powers that would astonish them, he

* Recluse penitents, who, by means of mental and
corporeal mortifications, have acquired a command
over the powers of nature.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 21

replied : " I have nothing to exhibit worthy
" of you to behold. A holy teacher has
" no defence but the purity of his doctrine :
" the world may change, but the Creator
" is unchangeable." These words, adds the
author, caused the miracles and enchant-
ments of the Yogiswaras to cease, and they
all fell at the feet of the humble Nanac,
who was protected by the all perfect God.

Nanac, according to the same authority,
went from Vatala to Multan, where he
communed with* the Pirs, or holy fathers of
the Muhammedan religion of that country.
" I am come," said he, when he entered
that province, " into a country full of Pirs,
" like the sacred Ganga, visiting the ocean/'
From Multan he went to Kirtipur*, where
he threw off his earthly shape, and was
buried near the bank of the river Ravi,
which has since overflowed his tomb. Kir-
tipur continues a place of religious resort

* Kirtipur Dehra, on the banks of the Ravi, or
Hydraotes.

22 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

and worship ; and a small piece of Nanac's
garment is exhibited to pilgrims, as a sacred
relic, at his Dharmasala, or temple.

It would be difficult to give the character
of Nanac* on the authority of any account
we yet possess. His writings, especially the
first chapters of the Adi-Crant'h, will, if
ever translated, be perhaps a criterion by
which he may be fairly judged ; but the
great eminence which he obtained, and the
success with which he combated the oppo-
sition which he met, afford -ample reason to
conclude that he was a man of more than
common genius : and this favourable im-
pression of his character will be confirmed

* He is, throughout this sketch, called Nanac.
Muhammedan historians generally term him Nanac
Shah, to denote his being a Fakir, the name of Shah
being frequently given to men of celebrity in that
sect. The Sikhs, in speaking of him, call him Baba
Nanac, or Guru Nanac, father Nanac, or Nanac the
teacher; and their writers term him Nanac Nirinkar,
which means Nanac the omnipresent.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 23

by a consideration of the object of his life,
and the means he took to accomplish it.
Born in a province on the extreme verge
of India, at the very point where the reli-
gion of Mnhammed and the idolatrous
worship of the Hindus appeared to touch,
and at a moment when both these tribes
cherished the most violent rancour and ani-
mosity towards each other, his great aim
was to blend those jarring elements in
peaceful union, and he only endeavoured
to effect this purpose through the means
of mild persuasion. His wish was to recall
both Muhammedans and Hindus to an
exclusive attention to that sublimest of all
principles, which inculcates devotion to
God, and peace towards man. He had
to combat the furious bigotry of the one,
and the deep-rooted superstition of the
other; but he attempted to overcome all
obstacles by the force of reason and hu-
manity. And we cannot have a more con-
vincing proof of the general character of

24 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

that doctrine which he taught, and the inof-
fensive light in which it was viewed, than
the knowledge that its success did not rouse
the bigotry of the intolerant and tyrannical
Muhaminedan government under which he
lived.

Nanac did not deem either of his sons,
before mentioned, worthy of the succession
to his spiritual functions, which he be-
queathed to a Cshatriya of the Trehun
tribe, called Lehana, who had long been
attached to him, and whom he had initiated
in the sacred mysteries of his sect, clothed
in the holy mantle of a Fakir, and honoured
with the name of Angad*, which, accord-
ing to some commentators, means own
body.

Guru Angad, for that is the name by

* This fanciful etymology represents the word
Angad as a compound of the Sanscrit Jug, which
signifies body, and the Persian Khiid, which signifies
own. This mixture of language is quite common in
the jargon of the Penjab.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 25

which he is known by all Sikhs, was born
at the village of Khandur, on the bank of
the Beyah, or Hyphasis, in the province
of Lahore. His life does not appear to
have been distinguished by any remarkable
actions. He taught the same doctrine as
Nanac, and wrote some chapters that now
form part of the Grant'h. He left two
sons, Vasu and Datu, but neither of them
was initiated ; and he was succeeded, at
his death*, which happened in the year
A. D. 1552, and of the Sam vat 1609, by
Amera Das, a Cshatriya of the tribe of
B'hale, who performed the duties of a me-
nial towards him for upwards of twelve
years. It is stated, that the daily occu-
pation of Amera Das was to bring water
from the Beyah river, a distance of six
miles, to wash the feet of his master ; and
that one night, during a severe storm, as he

* Angad died at Khandur, a village about forty
miles east of Lahore.

26 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

was returning from his journey, his foot
slipped, and he fell and broke the vessel
that contained the river water, opposite the
door of a weaver, who lived next house
to Angad. The weaver, startled at the
noise, demanded, in a loud voice, of his
wife, from whence it proceeded. The
woman, who was well acquainted with the
daily toils and the devotion of Angad's
servant, replied, " It was poor Amera Das,
" who knows neither the sweets of sleep by
" night, nor of rest by day/' This conver-
sation was overheard by Angad ; and when
Amera Das came, next morning, to per-
form his usual duties, he treated him with
extraordinary kindness, and said : " You
" have endured great labour; but, hence-
" forward, enjoy rest/' Amera Das was
distinguished for his activity in preaching
the tenets of Nanac, and was very suc-
cessful in obtaining converts and followers ;
by the aid of whom he established some
temporal power, built Kujarawal, and sepa-

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 27

rated from the regular Sikhs the Udasi sect,
which was founded by Dherm-Chand, the
son of Nanac, and was probably con-
sidered, at that period, as heretical.

Amera Das had two children, a son
named Mohan, and a daughter named M6-
hani, known by the name of B'haini; re-
garding whose marriage he is stated to have
been very anxious : and as this event gave
rise to a dynasty of leaders, who are almost
adored among the Sikhs, it is recorded
with much minuteness by the writers of
that nation.

Amera Das had communicated his wishes,
regarding the marriage of B'haini, to a Brah-
men, who was his head servant, and di-
rected him to make some inquiries. The
Brahmen did so, and reported to his master
that he had been successful, and had found
a youth every way suited to be the husband
of his daughter. As they were speaking
upon this subject in the street, Amera Das

28 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

asked what was the boy's stature ? " About
" the same height as that lad," said the
Brahmen, pointing to a youth standing
near them. The attention of Amera Das
was instantly withdrawn from the Brahmen,
and intently fixed upon the youth to whom
he had pointed. He asked him regarding
his tribe, his name, and his family. The
lad said his name was Ram Das, and that
he was a Cshatriya, of a respectable family,
of the Sondi tribe, and an inhabitant of the
village of Gondawal. Amera Das, pleased
with the information he had received, took
no more notice of the Brahmen and his
choice of a son-in-law, but gave his daughter
to the youth whom fortune had so casually
introduced to his acquaintance*. Amera

* Though a contrary belief is inculcated by Nanac,
the Sikhs, like the Hindus, are inclined to be predesti-
narians, and this gives their minds a great tendency to
view accidents as decrees of Providence; and it is
probable that this instance of early good fortune in

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. %g

Das died in the year A. D. 1574, and of the
Sam vat 16*31, at the village of Gondawal,
in the province of Lahore, and was suc-
ceeded by his son-in-law, Ram Das*, whom
he had initiated in the sacred mysteries of
his holy profession, and who became famous
for his piety, and still more from the im-
provements he made at Amritsar, which
was for some time called Rampur, or Ram-
daspu'r, after him. Some Sikh authorities
ascribe the foundation of this city to him,
which is not correct, as it was a very
ancient town, known formerly under the

Ram Das, by impressing his countrymen with an idea
of his being particularly favoured of Heaven, gave rise
to an impression that promoted, in no slight degree,
that success which it anticipated.

* No dates of the events which occurred during the
rule of Ram Das are given in any of the authorities
from which this sketch is drawn. One author, how-
ever, states, that he lived in the time of Akber, and was
honoured with the favour of that truly tolerant and
great emperor.

30 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

name of Chak. He, however, added much
to its population, and built a famous tank,
or reservoir of water, which he called Ara-
ritsar, a name signifying the water of im-
mortality, and which has become so sacred,
that it has given its name, and imparted its
sanctity, to the town of Ramdaspur, which
has become the sacred city of the Sikh
nation, and is now only known by the name
of Amritsar.

After a life passed in the undisturbed
propagation of his tenets, in explanation of
which he wrote several works, he died, in
the year A. D. 1581, and of the Samvat
1638, at Amritsar, leaving two sons, Ar-
junmal and Bharatmal. He was succeeded
by the former*, who has rendered himself

* Arjunmal, or Arjun, as he is more commonly
called, according to B'hai Guru Das B'hale, the author
of the Gnyan Ratnavali, was not initiated in the
sacred mysteries of his father. This author says, that
Arjun, though a secular man, did not suffer the office
of Guru, or priest, to leave the Sondi tribe. " Like a

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 31

famous by compiling the Adi-Grant'h *.
The Adi-Grant'h, or first sacred volume of
the Sikhs, contains ninety-two sections : it
was partly composed by Nanac and his
immediate successors, but received its pre-
sent form and arrangement from Arjunmalf,

" substance," he adds, " which none else could di-
" gest, the property of the family remained in the
« family."

* Grant'h means book ; but, as a mark of its supe-
riority to all others, is given to this work, as " The
" Book." Adi Grant'h means, the first Grant'h, or
book, and is generally given to this work to distin-
guish it from the Dasama Padshah ka Grant'h, or the
book of the tenth king, composed by Guru Govind.

f Though the original Adi-Grant'h was compiled by
Arjunmal, from the writings of Nanac, Angad, Amera
•Das, and Ram Das, and enlarged and improved by his
own additions and commentaries, some small portions
have been subsequently added by thirteen different
persons, whose numbers, however, are reduced, by the
Sikh authors, to twelve and a half: the last contri-
butor to this sacred volume being a woman, is only
admitted to rank in the list as a fraction, by these
ungallant writers.

32 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

who has blended his own additions with
what he deemed most valuable in the com-
positions of his predecessors. It is Arjun,
then, who ought, from this act, to be deemed
the first who gave consistent form and order
to the religion of the Sikhs : an act which,
though it has produced the effect he wished,
of uniting that nation more closely, and of
increasing their numbers, proved fatal to
himself. The jealousy of the Muhammedan
government was excited, and he was made
its sacrifice. The mode of his death, which
happened in the year of Christ 1606, and
of the Samvat 1663, is related very dif-
ferently by different authorities : but several
of the most respectable agree in stating,
that his martyrdom, for such they term it,
was caused by the active hatred of a rival
Hindu zealot, Danichand Cshatriya, whose
writings he refused to admit into the Adi-
Grant'h, on the ground that the tenets incul-
cated in them were irreconcileable to the
pure doctrine of the unity and omnipotence

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 33

of God, taught in that sacred volume.
This rival had sufficient influence with the
Muhammedan governor of the province to
procure the imprisonment of Arjun ; who
is affirmed, by some writers, to have died
from the severity of his confinement ; and,
by others, to have been put to death in the
most cruel manner. In whatever way his
life was terminated, there can be no doubt,
from its consequences, that it was consi-
dered, by his followers, as an atrocious
murder, committed by the Muhammedan
government ; and the Sikhs, who had been,
till then, an inoffensive, peaceable sect, took
arms under Har Govind, the son of Arjun-
mal, and wreaked their vengeance upon all
whom they thought concerned in the death
of their revered priest.

The contest carried on by Har Govind
against the Muhammedan chiefs in the
Penjab, though no doubt marked by that
animosity which springs from a deep and
implacable sense of injury on one part, and

D

34 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

the insolence and violence of insulted power
on the other, could not have been of great
magnitude or importance, else it would
have been more noticed by contemporary
Muhammedan writers ; but it was the first
fruits of that desperate spirit of hostility,
which was soon after to distinguish the
wars between the followers of Nanac and
those of Muhammed : and, from every ac-
count of Har Govind's life, it appears to
have been his anxious wish to inspire his
followers with the most irreconcileable hatred
of their oppressors.

It is stated, that this warlike* Guru, or

* Several historical accounts of the Sikhs, par-
ticularly that published by Major Browne, which is,
in general, drawn from authentic sources, appear to be
in error with regard to the period at which this race
first took arras, which the last author states to have
occurred under Guru G6vind; but several Sikh au->
thors, of great respectability and information, agree in
ascribing to the efforts of Har Govind, the son of
Arjun, this great change in the Sikh commonwealth;
and their correctness, in this point, appears to be placed

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 35

priest militant, wore two swords in his
girdle. Being asked why he did so : " The
" one/' said he, " is to revenge the death
" of my father ; the other, to destroy the
" miracles of Muhammed."

beyond all question, by a passage in the Ratnavali of
B'hai Guru Das B'hale ; who observes, " That five phials
" (of divine grace) were distributed to five Pirs (holy
" men), but the sixth Pir was a mighty Guru (priest).
" Arjun threw off his earthly frame, and the form
" of Har Govind mounted the seat of authority. The
" Sondi race continued exhibiting their different forms
" in their turns. Har Govind was the destroyer of
" armies, a martial Guru (priest), a great warrior, and
" performed great actions." The mistake of some
European writers on this subject probably originated
in a confusion of verbal accounts ; and the similarity
of the name of Har Govind, the son of Arjunmal, and
Govind, the last and greatest of the Sikh Gurus, the
son of Tegh Bahadur. In the Persian sketch, which
Major Browne translates, the name of Har Govind is
not mentioned. The son of Arjunmal is called Guru
Ram Ray, which is obviously a mistake of the author
of that manuscript.

3(5 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

Har Govind is reputed, by some authors,
to have been the first who allowed his fol-
lowers to eat* the flesh of all animals, with
the exception of the cow : and it appears not
improbable that he made this great change
in their diet at the time when he effected a
still more remarkable revolution in their
habits, by converting a race of peaceable
enthusiasts into an intrepid band of sol-
diers -f. He had five sons, Babu Guru-
daitya, Saurat Singh, Tegh Bahadur, Anna
Ray, and Atal Ray. The two last died

* Nanac had forbidden hog's flesh, though a com-
mon species of food among the lower tribe of Hindus,
in compliance with the prejudices of the Mu-
bammedans, whom it was his great wish to recon-
cile to bis faith by every concession and per-
suasion.

f It is stated, by a Sikh author named Nand, that
Har Govind, during his ministry, established the prac-
tice of invoking the three great Hindu deities, Brahma,
Vishnu, and Siva: but this is not confirmed by any
other authority which I have seen.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 37

without descendants. Saurat Singh and
Tegh Singh, or Tegh Bahadur, were, by
the cruel persecution of the Muhammedans,
forced to fly into the mountains to the
northward of the Penjab. His eldest son,
Gurudaitya, died early, but left two sons,
Daharmal and Har Ray ; the latter of whom
succeeded his grandfather, who died in the
year A. D. 1644, and of the Samvat 1701.
It does not appear that Har Ray enjoyed
much temporal power, or that he entered
into any hostilities with the Muhamme-
dans : his rule was tranquil, and passed
without any remarkable event; owing, pro-
bably, to the vigor which the Muham-
medan power had attained in the early
part of the reign of Aurungzeb. At his
death, which happened in the year A.D.
1661, and of the Samvat 1718, a violent
contest arose among the Sikhs, regarding
the succession to the office of spiritual
leader; for the temporal power of their
ruler was, at this period, little more than

38 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

nominal. The dispute between his sons,
or, as some Sikh authors state, his son and
grandson, Har Crishn and Ram Ray, was
referred to Dehli, whither both parties went ;
and, by an imperial decree of Aurungzeb,
the Sikhs were allowed to elect their own
priest. They chose Har Crishn, who died
at Dehli in the year A. D. 1664, and of the
Samvat 1721 ; and was succeeded by his
uncle, Tegh Behadur. He, however, had
to encounter the most violent opposition
from his nephew, Ram Ray*, who remained

* The violent contests of the Sikhs are mentioned
by most of their writers ; and, though they disagree
in their accounts, they all represent Tegh Behadur as
falling the innocent sacrifice of Muhammedan des-
potism and intolerance ; which, from the evidence
of all respectable contemporary Muhammedan au-
thors, would appear not to be the fact. Tegh Be-
hadur, agreeable to them, provoked his execution
by a series of crimes. He joined, they state, with a
Moslem Fakir, of the name of Hafiz ed Din ; and,
supported by a body of armed mendicants, commit-
ted the most violent depredations on the peaceable

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 39

at Dehli, and endeavoured, by every art
and intrigue, to effect his ruin: he was
seized, and brought to Dehli, in conse-
quence of his nephew's misrepresentations ;
and, after being in prison for two years,
was released at the intercession of Jayasingh,
Raja of Jayapur, whom he accompanied
to Bengal. Tegh Behadur afterwards took
up his abode at the city of Patna* ; but
was pursued, agreeable to Sikh authors, to
his retreat, with implacable rancour, by the
jealousy and ambition of Ram Ray ; who
at last accomplished the destruction of his
rival. He was brought from Patna, and,
by the accounts of the same authors, pub-
licly put to death, without even the alle-
gation of a crime, beyond a firm and

inhabitants of the Penjab. The author of the Seir
Mutakhherin says he was, in consequence of these
excesses, put to death at Gwalior, and his body cut
into four quarters, one of which was hung up at each
gate of the fortress.

*■ A Sikh college was founded in that city.

40 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

undaunted assertion of the truth of that
faith of which he was the high priest.
This event is said to have taken place in
the year A. D. 1675, and of the Samvat
1732 : but the Sikh records of their own
history, from the death of Har Govind to
that of Tegh Behadur, are contradictory
and unsatisfactory, and appear to merit
little attention. The fact is, that the sect
was almost crushed, in consequence of their
first effort to attain power, under Har Go-
vind ; and, from the period of his death to
that of Tegh Behadur, the Mogul empire
was, as has been before stated, in the zenith
of its power, under Aurungzeb : and the
Sikhs, who had never attained any real
strength, were rendered still weaker by
their own internal dissensions. Their writers
have endeavoured to supply this chasm in
their history by a fabulous account of the
numerous miracles which were wrought by
their priests, Ram Ray, Har Crishn, and
even the unfortunate T6gh Behadur, at

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 41

Dehli, all of whom are said to have asto-
nished the emperor and his nobles, by a
display of their supernatural powers : but
their wide difference from each other, in
these relations, would prove, if any proof
was wanting, that all the annals of that
period are fabricated.

The history of the Sikhs, after the death
of Tegh Behadur, assumes a new aspect.
It is no longer the record of a sect, who,
revering the conciliatory and mild tenets of
their founder, desired more to protect them-
selves than to injure others ; but that of a
nation, who, adding to a deep sense of the
injuries they had sustained from a bigotted
and overbearing government, all the ardour
of men commencing a military career of
glory, listened, with rapture, to a son glow-
ing with vengeance against the murderers
of his father, who taught a doctrine suited
to the troubled state of his mind, and called
upon his followers, by every feeling of man-
hood, to lay aside their peaceable habits, to

42 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

graft the resolute courage of the soldier on
the enthusiastic faith of the devotee, to
swear eternal war with the cruel and haughty
Muhammedans, and to devote themselves
to steel, as the only means of obtaining
every blessing that this world, or that to
come, could afford to mortals.

This was the doctrine of Guru Govind,
the son of Tegh Behadur; who, though
very young at his father's death, had his
mind imbued with the deepest horror at
that event, and cherished a spirit of im-
placable resentment against those whom he
considered as his murderers. Devoting his
life to this object, we find him, when quite
a youth, at the head of a large party of his
followers, amid the hills of Srinagar, where
he gave proofs of that ardent and daring
mind, which afterwards raised him to such
eminence. He was not, however, able to
maintain himself against the prince of that
country, with whom he had entered into
hostilities; and, being obliged to leave it,

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 43

he went to the Penjab, where he was
warmly welcomed by a Hindu chief in re-
bellion against the government. This chief
gave Govind possession of Mak'haval*, and
several other villages, where he settled with
his followers, and repaid his benefactor by
aiding him in his depredations. Govind
appears, at this moment, to have been uni-
versally acknowledged by the Sikhs, as their
Sat-gurti, or chief spiritual leader ; and he
used the influence which that station, his
sufferings, and the popularity of his cause,
gave him, to effect a complete change in
the habits and religion of his countrymen-)-.
It would be tedious and useless to follow
the Sikh writers through those volumes of
fables in which they have narrated the
wonders that prognosticated the rise of this,

* A town on the Satlej.

+ Guru Govind is stated, by a Sikh author of re-
spectability, B'hai Guru Das B'hale, to have been
fourteen years of age when his father was put to
death.

44 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

the most revered of all their priests, to
power; or to enter, at any length, into
those accounts which they, and Govind
himself, for he is equally celebrated as an
author and as a warrior, have given of his
exploits. It will be sufficient, for the pur-
pose of this sketch, to state the essential
changes which he effected in his tribe, and
the consequences of his innovations.

Though the Sikhs had already, under
Har Govind, been initiated in arms, yet
they appear to have used these only in self-
defence : and as every tribe of Hindus, from
the Brahmen to the lowest of the Sudra,
may, in cases of necessity, use them without
any infringement of the original institutions
of their tribe, no violation of these insti-
tutions was caused by the rules of Nanac ;
which, framed with a view to conciliation,
carefully abstained from all interference
with the civil institutes of the Hindus. But
lus more daring successor, Guru Govind,
saw that such observances were at variance

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 45

with the plans of his lofty ambition ; and
he wisely judged, that the only means by
which he could ever hope to oppose the
Muhammedan government with success,
were not only to admit converts from all
tribes, but to break, at once, those rules by
which the Hindus had been so long chained ;
to arm, in short, the whole population of
the country, and to make worldly wealth
and rank an object to which Hindus, of
every class, might aspire.

The extent to which Govind succeeded
in this design will be more fully noticed in
another place. It is here only necessary to
state the leading features of those changes by
which he subverted, in so short a time, the
hoary institutions of Brahma*, and excited

# The object of Nanac was to abolish the distinc-
tions of cast amongst the Hindus, and to bring them
to the adoration of that Supreme Being, before whom
all men, he contended, were equal. Guru Govind,
who adopted all the principles of his celebrated prede-
cessor, as far as religious usages were concerned, is

46 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

terror and astonishment in the minds of the
Muhammedan conquerors of India, who saw
the religious prejudices of the Hindus, which
they had calculated upon as one of the
pillars of their safety, because they limited
the great majority of the population to
peaceable occupations, fall before the touch
of a bold and enthusiastic innovator, who
opened at once, to men of the lowest tribe*,
the dazzling prospect of earthly glory. All
who subscribed to his tenets were upon a

reported to have said, on this subject, that the four
tribes of Hindus, the Brahmen, Cshatriya, Vaisya,
and Sudra, would, like pan (betle-leaf), chunam (lime),
sitpari (betle-nut), and khat (terra japonica, or catechu),
become all of one colour, when well chewed.

* Some men of the lowest Hindu tribe, of the occu-
pation of sweepers, were employed to bring away the
corpse of Tegh Behadur from Dehli. Their success
was rewarded by high rank and employment. Several
of the same tribe, who have become Sikhs, have been
remarkable for their valour, and have attained great
reputation. They are distinguished, among the Sikhs,
by the name of Ran-Rata Singh.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 47

level, and the Brahmen who entered his sect
had no higher claims to eminence than the
lowest Sudra who swept his house. It was
the object of Govind to make all Sikhs
equal*, and that their advancement should
solely depend upon their exertions: and
well aware how necessary it was to inspire
men of a low race, and of groveling minds,
with pride in themselves, he changed the
name of his followers from Sikh to Singh,
or lion; thus giving to all his followers
that honourable title which had been before
exclusively assumed by the Rajaputs, the
first military class of Hindus : and every

* That is, equal in civil rights. He wished to re-
move the disqualifications of birth, and do away cast.
That he did not completely effect this object, and
that some distinctions of their former tribes, par-
ticularly those relating to intermarriage, should still
be kept up by the Sikhs, cannot be a matter of asto-
nishment to those acquainted with the deep-rooted
prejudices of the Hindus upon this point; which is as
much a feeling of family pride as of religious usage.

48 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

Sikh felt himself at once elevated to rank
with the highest, by this proud appellation.
The disciples of Govind were required to
devote themselves to arms, always to have
steel about them in some shape or other ; to
wear a blue dress ; to allow their hair to
grow ; to exclaim, when they met each other,
Wd ! Gurdji kd khdlsah ! Wd ! Guruji ki
futteh ! which means, " Success to the
" state of the Guru! Victory attend the
" Guru* ! The intention of some of these
institutions is obvious : such as that prin-
ciple of devotion to steel, by which all were
made soldiers ; and that exclamation, which
made the success of their priest, and that
of the commonwealth, the object of their
hourly prayer. It became, in fact, the
watchword which was continually to revive,
in the minds of the Sikh disciple, the obli-
gations he owed to that community of

* Spiritual leader.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 49

which he had become a member, and to
that faith which he had adopted.

Of the causes which led Govind to enjoin
his followers to regard it as impious to cut
the hair of their heads, or shave their
beards, very different accounts are given.
Several Muhammedan authors state, that
both this ordination, and the one which
directed his followers to wear blue clothes,
was given in consequence of his gratitude
to some Afghan mountaineers, who aided
his escape from a fort, in which he was
besieged, by clothing him in a chequered
blue dress, and causing him to allow his
hair to grow, in order to pass him for one
of their own Pirs, or holy fathers ; in which
they succeeded. This account, however,
is not supported by any Sikh writer; and
one of the most respectable and best in-
formed authors of that sect states, that
when Guru Govind first went to Anandpur
Mak'haval, which was also called Cesgher,
or the house of hair, he spent much of his

E

50 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

time in devotion, at a temple of Durga
Bhavani, the goddess of courage, by whom
he was directed to unloose his hair and
draw his sword. Govind, in consequence
of this pretended divine order, vowed he
would preserve his hair, as consecrated
to that divinity, and directed his followers
to do the same*. The origin of that blue
chequered f dress, which was at one time
worn by all Govind's followers, and is still
worn by the Acalis, or never-dying, (the
most remarkable class of devotees of that
sect,) is differently stated by different au-
thors : but it appears probable, that both
these institutions proceeded from the policy

f The goddess Durga Bhavani is said, by a Sikh
author, to be represented, in some images, with her
hair long and dishevelled.

f This institution is also said to be borrowed from
the Hindu mythology. Bala Ram, the elder brother
of Crishna, wore blue clothes ; from which he is called
Nilambar, or the clothed in dark blue ; and Shitivas, or
the blue clothed.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 51

of Govind, who sought to separate his fol-
lowers from all other classes of India, as
much by their appearance as by their reli-
gion : and he judged with wisdom when
he gave consequence to such distinctions;
which, though first established as mere
forms, soon supersede the substance of
belief; and, when strengthened by usage,
become the points to which ignorant and
unenlightened minds have, in all ages of the
world, shown the most resolute and uncon-
querable adherence.

Guru. Govind inculcated his tenets upon
his followers by his preaching, his actions,
and his works ; among which is the Dasama
Padshah ka Grant'h, or the book of the
tenth king or ruler; Guru Govind being
the tenth leader of the sect from Nanac.
This volume, which is not limited to reli-
gious subjects, but filled with accounts of
his own. battles, and written with the view
of stirring up a spirit of valour and emu-
lation among his followers, is at least as

52 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

much revered, among the Sikhs, as the
Adi-Grant'h of Arjunmal. Govind is said
to have first instituted the Guru Mata, or
state council, among the Sikhs ; which
meets at Amritsar. The constitution and
usages of this national assembly will be
described hereafter: it is here only neces-
sary to observe, that its institution adds
one more proof to those already stated, of
the comprehensive and able mind of this
bold reformer, who gave, by its foundation,
that form of a federative republic, to the
commonwealth of the Sikhs, which was
most calculated to rouse his followers from
their indolent habits, and deep-rooted pre-
judices, by giving them a personal share in
the government, and placing within the
reach of every individual the attainment of
rank and influence in the state.

It could not be expected that Guru
Govind could accomplish all those great
schemes he had planned. He planted the
tree ; but it was not permitted, according to

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 53

Sikh writers, that he should see it in that
maturity which it was destined to reach :
and this, these authors state, was foretold
to him by some Brahmens, skilled in necro-
mancy. It would be tedious to dwell on
such fables*; and it is time to return to the

* One of the most popular of these fables states,
that in the year of the Hijerah 1118, Guru Go-
vind, agreeably to the directions he had received
from two Brahmen necromancers, threw a number of
magical compounds, given him by these Brahmens,
into a fire, near which he continued in prayers for
several days. A sword of lightning at last burst from
the flame of fire; but Govind, instead of seizing this
sword in an undaunted manner, as he was instructed,
was dazzled by its splendour, and shrunk from it
in alarm. The sword instantly flew to heaven ; from
whence a loud voice was heard to say, " Guru G6-
" vind! thy wishes shall be fulfilled by thy posterity,
" and thy followers shall daily increase." The Brah-
mens were in despair at this failure ; but, after deep
reflection, they told Govind, there was still one mode
of acquiring that honour for himself, which appeared,
by the decree that had been pronounced, doomed for
his posterity. If he would only allow them to take off his

54 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

political life of Go vine! , which is marked
by but few events of importance. These are
either related by Muhammedan authors,
who detract from all the pretensions of this
enemy of their faith and name ; by his dis-
ciples, .who exalt the slightest of his actions
into the achievements of a divinity ; or
by himself, for he wrote an account of his
own wars. This last work, however, is
more calculated to inflame the courage of
his followers, than to convey correct in-
formation of actual events.

Guru Govind Singh, in the Vichitra Na-
tac, a work written by himself, and inserted
in the Dasania Padshah ka Grant n, traces
lhc descent of the Cshatriya tribe of Sondi,
to which he belongs, from a race of Hindu

head, and throw it into the fire, he would he resus-
citated to the enjoyment of the greatest glory. The
Guru excused himself from trying this experiment,
deelaring that he was content that his descendants
should enjoy the fruits of that tree which he had
planted.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 55

Rajas*, who founded the cities of Casur
and Lahore. He was born, he stales, at
Patan, or Patna, and brought up at Madra
Des, in the Penjab. lie went, after his
father's death, to the banks of the Cal'mdi,
or Yamuna, and addicted himself to hunt-
ing the wild beasts of the forest, and other
manly diversions : but this occupation, he
adds, offended the emperor of Dchli, who
ordered chiefs, of the Muhammedan race,
to attack him. Guru Govind describes, in
this work, with great animation, his own
feats, and those of his friends -j-, in the first

* These Rajas appear, from the same authority, to
be descended in a direct line from Hindu gods.

f The following short extract from the translation
of the Vichitra Natac, will show that Govind gave his
friends their full meed of praise, and will also exhibit
the character of his style : " Cripal rages, wielding his
" mace : he crushed the skull of the fierce Hj'at
" Khan. He made the blood spurt aloft, and scat-
" tered the brains of the chief, as Crishna crushed the
" earthen vessel of butter. Then Nand Chand raged
" in dreadful ire, launching the spear, and wielding

56 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

of his actions ; in which, by his account,
the arrows of the Sikhs were victori-

" the sword. He broke his keen scimitar, and drew
u his dagger, to support the honour of the Sondi race.
" Then my maternal uncle, Cripal, advanced in his
u rage, and exhibited the skilful war-feats of a true
" Cshatriya. The mighty warrior, though struck by
" an arrow, with another made a valiant Khan fall
" from his saddle, and Saheb Chand, of the Cshatriya
" race, strove in the battle's fury, and slew a blood-
" thirsty Khan, a warrior of Khorasan." After record-
ing the actions of many others, Govind thus describes
his own deeds : " The blood-drinking spectres and
¥ ghosts yelled for carnage; the fierce Vetala, the
" chief of the spectres, laughed for joy, and sternly
" prepared for his repast. The vultures hovered
" around, screaming for their prey. Hari Chand, (a
" Hindu chief in the emperor's army,) in his wrath,
" drawing his bow, first struck my steed with an
" arrow : aiming a second time, he discharged his
" arrow; but the Deity preserved me, and it passed
" me, and only grazed my car. His third arrow struck
" my breast : it tore open the mail, and pierced the
" skin, leaving a slight scar; but the God whom 1
" adore saved me. When I felt this hurt, my anger
" was kindled; I drew my bow and discharged an

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 57

ous over the sabres of the Muhamme-
dans *.

This first success appears to have greatly
increased the number of Guru Govind's
followers, whom he established at Anand-
pur, Khilor, and the towns in their vici-
nity; where they remained, till called to

" arrow : all my champions did the same, rushing
" onwards to the battle. Then I aimed at the young
" hero, and struck him. Hari Chand perished, and
" many of his host ; death devoured him, who was
" called a Raja among a hundred thousand Rajas.
" Then all the host, struck with consternation, fled,
" deserting the field of combat. I obtained the vic-
" tory through the favour of the Most High; and,
" victorious in the field, we raised aloud the song of
" triumph. Riches fell on us like rain, and all our
" warriors were glad."

* Hyat Khan and Nejabet Khan are mentioned as
two of the principal chiefs of the emperor's army that
fell in this first action. Govind, speaking of the fall
of the latter, says : " When Nejabet Khan fell, the
" world exclaimed, Alas ! but the region of Svvarga
" (the heavens) shouted victory."

58 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

aid the Raja of Nadon*, Bhima Chand,
who was threatened with an invasion by
the Raja, of Jammu ; who had been excited
to hostilities by Mia Khan, a Mogul chief,
then at war with Bhima Chand.

Guru Govind gives an account of this
war, which consisted of attacking and de-
fending the narrow passes of the moun-
tains. He describes Bhima Chand and him-
self as leading on their warriors, who ad-
vanced, he says, to battle, " like a stream
" of flame consuming the forest." They
were completely successful in this expe-
dition ; the Rajd of Jammu, and his Mu-

* A mountainous tract of country, that borders on
the Penjab. It lies to the N. W. of Srinagar, and the
S. E. of Jammu. The present Raja, Sansar Chand, is
a chief of great respectability. His country has lately
been overrun by the Raja of INcpal and Gorc'ha. 1
derived considerable information regarding this family,
and their territories, from the envoy of Sansar Chand,
who attended Lord Lake, in 1805, when the British
army was in the Penjab.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 59

hammedan allies, having been defeated,
and chased with disgrace across the Satlej.
Guru Govind next relates the advance
of the son of Dilawer Khan against him.
The object of the Muhammcdan chief
appears to have been, to surprise Govind
and his followers at night : but, when that
project was defeated, his troops were seized
with a panic, and fled from the Sikhs with-
out a contest. The father, enraged at the
disgraceful retreat of his son, collected all
his followers, and sent Ilusain Khan, who
made successful inroads upon the Sikhs,
taking several of their principal forts *. A

* Though the account of this war is given iti a
style sufficiently inflated for the wars of the demons
and angels ; yet, as Govind relates, that Husain Khan
returned a messenger, which one of the principal liajas
had sent him, with this message to his master ; " Pay
" down ten thousand rupees, or destruction descends
" on thy head ;" we may judge, both from the demand,
and the amount of the contribution, of the nature of
this contest, as well as its scale. It was evidently one
of those petty provincial wars, which4 took place in

50 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

general action at last took place, in which
the Khan, after performing prodigies of
valour, was defeated, and lost his life. Guru
Govind was not present at this battle.
" The lord of the earth/' he says, " de-
" tained me from this conflict, and caused
" the rain of steel to descend in another
" quarter/'

Dilawer Khan and Rustam Khan next
marched against the Sikhs, who appear to
have been disheartened at the loss of some
of their principal chiefs, and more at the
accounts they received of Aurungzeb's
rage at their progress, and of his having
detached his son to the district of Madra*,

every remote part of the Indian empire, when it was
distracted : and, at this period, Aurungzeb was wholly
engaged in the Dek'hin, and the northern provinces
were consequently neglected, and their governments
in a weak and unsettled state.

# This must have been in the year 1701, when
Bahader Shah was detached from the Dek'hin to take
charge of the government of Cabul, and was probably
ordered, at the same time, to settle the disturbances in
the Penjab.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 61

in order to take measures to quell them. At
the prince's approach, " every body," says
Guru Govind, " was struck with terror.
" Unable to comprehend the ways of the
" Eternal, several deserted me, and fled,
" and took refuge in the lofty mountains.
" These vile cowards were," he adds, " too
" greatly alarmed in mind to understand
" their own advantage; for the emperor
" sent troops, who burnt the habitations of
" those that had fled." He takes this oc-
casion of denouncing every misery that
this world can bring, and all the pains and
horrors of the next, on those who desert
their Guru, or priest. " The man who
" does this," he writes, " shall neither have
" child nor offspring. His aged parents
" shall die in grief and sorrow, and he
" shall perish like a dog, and be thrown
" into hell to lament." After many more
curses on apostates, he concludes this ana-
thema by stating, that the good genius
of prosperity in this world, and eternal

62 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

blessings in the next, shall be the certain
reward of all who remain attached to their
Guru : and, as an instance, he affirms, that
not one of those faithful followers, who had
adhered to him at this trying crisis, had
received the least injury*.

Guru Govind closes his first work, the
Vichitra Natac, with a further representa-
tion on the shame that attends apostasy,
and the rewards that await those that prove
true to their religion ; and he concludes
by a prayer to the Deity, and a declaration
of his intention to compose, for the use
of his disciples, a still larger work ; by which

* There is a remarkable passage in this chapter, in
which Guru Govind appears to acknowledge the
supremacy of the emperor. " God," he says, " formed
" both Baba (Nanac) and Baber (the emperor of that
" name). Look upon Baba as the Padshah (king) of
" religion, and Baber, the lord of the world. He
" who will not give Nanac a single damri, (a coin the
" sixteenth part of an ana,) will receive a severe
a punishment from Baber."

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 5*3

the Sikhs conceive that he meant the rest
of the Dasama Padshah ka Grant'h, of
which the Vichitra Natac forms the first
section.

An account of Govind's war with the
Raja of Kahilur*, is found in a work writ-
ten in the Dugar, or mountain dialect of
the Penjabi tongue, which gives an account
of some other actions of this chief. Though
this account is greatly exaggerated, it no
doubt states some facts correctly, and there-
fore merits a brief notice. According to
this authority, the Rajas of Kahilur, Jiswal,
and others, being defeated and disgraced in
several actions, applied to the court of
Aurungzeb for aid against Guru Govind,
from whom, they stated that they had
received great injuries. When the emperor

* Kahilfir, or Kahlore, is situated on the Satlej,
above Mak'haval. It is near the mountains through
which that river flows into the Penjab. Another
place of the name of Kahlur, or Kahlore, is situated a
short distance from Lahore, to the N. E. of that city.

64 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

asked who made the complaint, the answer
was: " It is the chief of Kahilur, thy
" servant, who has been despoiled of his
" country by violence, though a faithful
" Zemindar (landholder), and one who has
" always been punctual in paying his con-
" tributions." Such were the representa-
tions, this author states, by which they
obtained the aid of an army from the
emperor.

Their combined forces proceeded against
Guru Govind and his followers, who
were obliged to shut themselves up in
their fortresses, where they endured every
misery that sickness and famine can bring
upon a besieged place. Govind, after
suffering the greatest hardships, deter-
mined to attempt his escape. He ordered
his followers to leave the fort, one by one,
at midnight, and to separate the moment
they went out. The misery of this separa-
tion, which divided the father from the
child, the husband from the wife, and

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 6$

brothers from sisters, was horrible; but it
was the only chance which they had of
safety, and his orders were obeyed. He
himself went, among the rest; and, after
undergoing great fatigue, and escaping
many dangers, he arrived at Chamk6ur, by
the Raja of which place he was received in
a kind and friendly manner. His enemies
had entered the fortress which Govind left,
the moment he fled, and made many pri-
soners ; among which were his mother and
his two children, who were carried to
Foujdar Khan, the governor of Sirhind,
by whose orders they were inhumanly mas-
sacred*. The army of the emperor, aided
by the Rajas hostile to Govind, next marched
to Chamkour, and encompassed it on all
sides. Govind, in despair, clasping his
hands, called upon the goddess of the
sword -j\ " The world sees," he exclaimed,

* The Muhammedan authors blame Vizir Khan for
this unnecessary and impolitic act of barbarity,
f Bhavani Durga.

F

66 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

" that we have no help but thee ! " saying
which, he prepared, with his few followers,
to make the most desperate resistance.

The emperor's army, employed at this
period against Govind, was commanded by
Khwajeh Muhammed and Nahar Khan,
who deputed, at the commencement of the
siege, an envoy to the Sikh leader, with the
following message : "This army is not one
" belonging to Rajas and Rands : it is that
" of the great Aurungzeb : show, therefore,
" thy respect, and embrace the true faith."
The envoy proceeded, in the execution of
his mission, with all the pride of those he
represented. " Listen/' said he, from him-
self to Guru Govind, " to the words of the
" Nawab : leave off contending with us,
" and playing the infidel ; for it is evident
" you never can reap advantage from such
" an unequal war." He was stopped by
Ajit Singh, the son of Govind, from saying
more. That youth, seizing his scimetar,
exclaimed : " If you utter another word, I

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 67

" will humble your pride : I will smite
" your head from your body, and cut you
" to pieces, for daring to speak such lan-
" guage before our chiefs/' The blood of
the envoy boiled with rage, and he returned
with this answer to his master.

This effort to subdue the fortitude and
faith of Govind having failed, the siege
commenced with great vigour. A long
description is given by B'hai Guru Das
B'hale and other Sikh authors, of the ac-
tions that were performed. Amongst the
most distinguished, were those of the brave,
but unfortunate, Ajit Singh*, the son of

* In the Penjabi narrative of B'hai Guru Das
B'hale, the actions of Ajit Singh, and Ranjit Singh,
sons of Govind, are particularly described ; and, from
one part of the description, it would appear that the
family of Govind, proud of their descent, had not laid
aside the zunar, or holy cord, to which they were, as
belonging to the Cshatriya race, entitled. Speaking
of these youths, the author says : " Slaughtering every
" Turk and Pahlan whom they saw, they adorned

68 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

Guru Govind, whose death is thus recorded r
" A second time the Khan advanced, and
" the battle raged. Some fought, some
" fled. Ajit Singh, covered with glory,
" departed to Svvarga (heaven). Indra*,
" first of the gods (Devatas), advanced
" with the celestial host to meet him ; he
" conducted him to Devapur, the city of
" the gods, and seated him on a celestial
" throne : having remained there a short
" time, he proceeded to the region of the
" sun. Thus/' he concludes, " Ajit Singh
" departed in glory ; and his fame extends

" their sacred strings, by converting them into sword-
" belts. Returning from the field, they sought their
" father, who bestowed a hundred blessings on their
" scimetars."

* The Sikh author, though he may reject the super-
stitious idolatry of the Hindus, adorns his descriptions
with every image its mythology can furnish ; and
claims for his hero the same high honours in Swarga,
that a Brahmen would expect for one of the Pandu
race.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 69

" over three worlds, for the fame of the
" warrior lives for ever/'

Though Govind showed an invincible
spirit, and performed prodigies of valour,
having killed, with his own hand, Nahar
Khan, and wounded Khwajeh Muhammed,
the other leader of the emperor's troops,
it was impossible to contend longer against
such superior numbers ; and he at last,
taking advantage of a dark night, fled from
Chamkour, covering his face, according to
the Sikh author, from shame at his own
disgrace.

This sketch of the life of Govind is com-
piled from his own works, and those of
other Sikh writers, such as Nand and B'hai
Guru Das ; and the events recorded, allow-
ing for the colouring with which such nar-
ratives are written in the East, appear to be
correct : the leading facts are almost all
established by the evidence of contemporary
Muhammedan writers, to whom we must
trust for the remainder of his history ; as

70 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

the authorities we have followed end at the
period of his flight from Chamkour.

Most accounts agree that Guru Govind,
after his flight, was, from a sense of his
misfortunes, and the loss of his children,
bereft of his reason, and wandered about
for a considerable time in the most de-
plorable condition. One account states,
that he died in the Penjab; another, that
he went to Patna, where he ended his days ;
a third, taken from a Sikh authority*, as-
serts that Gtiru Govind, after remaining
some time in the Lak'hi-Jungle, to which
he had fled, returned without molestation

* Mr. Foster has followed this authority in his
account of the Sikh nation : and I am inclined to
believe that the part of it which relates to Guru G6-
vind's dying at Nader, in the Dek'hin, of a wound
received from a Patan, is correct; as it is written on
the last page of a copy of the Adi-Grant'h, in my pos-
session, with several other facts relative to the dates of
the births and deaths of the principal high priests of
the Sikhs.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 71

to his former residence in the Penjab ; and
that, so far from meeting with any per-
secution from the Muhammedan govern-
ment, he received favours from the em-
peror, Bahader Shah ; who, aware of his
military talents, gave him a small military
command in the Dek'hin, where he was
stabbed by a Patan soldier's son, and ex-
pired of his wounds, in the year 1708, at
Nader, a town situate on the Godaveri river,
about one hundred miles from Haiderabad.
It is sufficiently established, from these
contradictory and imperfect accounts of the
latter years of Guru Govind, that he per-
formed no actions worthy of record after
his flight from Chamkour: and when we
consider the enthusiastic ardour of his mind,
his active habits, his valour, and the insa-
tiable thirst of revenge, which he had
cherished through life, against the mur-
derers of his father, and the oppressors of
his sect, we cannot think, when that leading
passion of his mind must have been in-

72 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

creased by the massacre of his children,
and the death or mutilation* of his most
attached followers, that he would have
remained inactive ; much less that he would
have sunk into a servant of that govern-
ment, against which he had been in con-
stant rebellion : nor is it likely that such a
leader as Guru Govind could ever have
been trusted by a Muhammedan prince :
and there appears, therefore, every reason
to give credit to those accounts which state,
that mental distraction, in consequence of
deep distress and disappointment, was the
cause of the inactivity of Guru Govind's
declining years. Nor is such a conclusion at
all at variance with the fact of his being
killed at Nader, as it is probable, even if
he was reduced to the state described, thai
he continued, till the close of his existence,

* Both at Chamkour, and other forts, from which
the famished Sikhs attempted to escape, many of
them were taken, and had their noses and ears
cut off.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 73

that wandering and adventurous life to
which he had been so early accustomed.

In the character of this reformer of the
Sikhs, it is impossible not to recognise
many of those features which have dis-
tinguished the most celebrated founders of
political communities. The object he at-
tempted was great and laudable. It was
the emancipation of his tribe from op-
pression and persecution ; and the means
which he adopted, were such as a compre-
hensive mind could alone have suggested.
The Muhammedan conquerors of India, as
they added to their territories, added to
their strength, by making proselytes through
the double means of persuasion and force ;
and these, the moment they had adopted
their faith, became the supporters of their
power against the efforts of the Hindus ;
who, bound in the chains of their civil and
religious institutions, could neither add to
their number by admitting converts, nor

74 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

allow more than a small proportion of the
population of the country to arm against
the enemy. Govind saw that he could
only hope for success by a bold departure
from usages which were calculated to keep
those, by whom they were observed, in
a degraded subjection to an insulting and
intolerant race. " You make Hindus Mu-
" hammedans, and are justified by your
" laws," he is said to have written to Au-
rungzeb : " now I, on a principle of self-
" preservation, which is superior to all
" laws, will make Muhammedans Hindus*.
" You may rest," he added, " in fancied
" security : but beware ! for I will teach
" the sparrow to strike the eagle to the
" ground." A fine allusion to his design of

* Meaning Sikhs; whose faith, though it differs
widely from the present worship of the Hindus, has
been thought to have considerable analogy to the
pure and simple religion originally followed by that
nation.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 75

inspiring the lowest races among the Hindus
with that valour and ambition which would
lead them to perform the greatest actions.

The manner in which Govind endea-
voured to accomplish the great plan he
had formed, has been exhibited in the im-
perfect sketch given of his life. His efforts
to establish that temporal power in his own
person, of which he laid the foundation for
his tribe, were daring and successful in as
great a degree as circumstances would
admit : but it was not possible he could
create means, in a few years, to oppose,
with success, the force of one of the greatest
empires in the universe. The spirit, how-
ever, which he infused into his followers,
was handed down as a rich inheritance to
their children ; who, though they consider
Baba Nanac as the author of their religion,
revere, with a just gratitude, Guru Govind,
as the founder of their worldly greatness
and political independence. They are con-
scious, indeed, that they have become, from

76 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

the adoption of his laws and institutions,
the scourge of their enemies ; and have con-
quered and held, for more than half a
century, the finest portion of the once great
empire of the house of Taimur.
. Guru Govind was the last acknowledged
religious ruler of the Sikhs. A prophecy
had limited their spiritual guides to the
number of ten; and their superstition, aided,
no doubt, by the action of that spirit of
independence which his institutions had
introduced, caused its fulfilment. The suc-
cess, however, of Banda, a Bairagi, who
was the devoted follower and friend of
Guru Govind, established their union under
his banners. A short period after Govind's
death, the grief of Banda at the misfortune
of his priest, is said, by Sikh authors, to
have settled into a gloomy and desperate
desire to revenge his wrongs. The con-
fusion which took place on the death of
Aurungzeb, which happened in the year
1707, was favourable to his wishes. After

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 77

plundering the country, and defeating most
of the petty Muhammedan chiefs that were
opposed to him, he thought himself suffi-
ciently strong to venture on an action with
Foujdar Khan, the governor of the province
of Sarhind, and the man of all others most
abhorred by the Sikhs, as the murderer of
the infant children of Guru Govind. This
action was fought with valour by the Mu-
hammedans ; and with all that desperation
on the part of the Sikhs, which the most
savage spirit of revenge could inspire : and
this, aided by the courage and conduct
of their leader, gave them the victory, after
a severe contest. Foujdar Khan fell, with
most of his army, to whom the enraged
Sikhs gave no quarter. Nor was their savage
revenge satiated by the destruction of the
Muhammedan army: they put to death
the wife and children of Vizir Khan, and
almost all the inhabitants of Sarhind. They
destroyed or polluted the mosques of that
city ; and, in a spirit of wild and brutal

78 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

rage, dug up the carcasses of the dead,
and exposed them to be devoured by
beasts of prey. Encouraged by this suc-
cess, and hardened by the lessons of
Banda to deeds of the most horrid atro-
city, the Sikhs rushed forward, and sub-
dued all the country between the Satlej
and the Jumna; and, crossing that river,
made inroads into the province of Sa-
haranpur*. It is unnecessary to state
the particulars of this memorable incursion,
which, from all accounts, appears to have
been one of the severest scourges with
which a country was ever afflicted. Every
excess that the most wanton barbarity could
commit, every cruelty that an unappeased
appetite of revenge could suggest, was in-
flicted upon the miserable inhabitants of
the provinces through which they passed.
Life was only granted to those who con-

* This province lies a few miles to the N. E. of
Dehli, between the rivers Jumna and Ganges.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 79

formed to the religion, and adopted the
habits and dress of the Sikhs ; and if Be-
hadur Shah had not quitted the Dek'hin,
which he did in A. D. 1710, there is reason
to think the whole of Hindustan would
have been subdued by these merciless in-
vaders.

The first check the Sikhs received was
from an army under Sultan Kuli Khan.
That chief defeated one of their advanced
corps at Panipat'h, which, after being dis-
persed, fled to join their leader Banda, at
Sarhind. The death of Behadur Shah pre-
vented this success from being pursued ;
and the confusion which followed that event,
was favourable to the Sikhs. Banda de-
feated Islam Khan, the viceroy of Lahore,
and one of his fanatic followers stabbed
Bayezid Khan, the governor of Sarhind,
who had marched out of that town to
encounter this army. This, however, was
the last of Banda's successful atrocities.
Abdal Samad Khan, a general of great

80 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

reputation, was detached, with a large army,
by the emperor Farakhseir, against the
Sikhs, whom he defeated in a very des-
perate action ; in which, agreeable to Mu-
hammedan authors, Banda performed pro-
digies of valour, and was only obliged to
give way to the superior numbers and dis-
cipline of the imperialists. The Sikhs were
never able to make a stand after this defeat,
and were hunted, like wild beasts, from one
strong hold to another, by the army of
the emperor; by whom their leader, and
his most devoted followers, were at last
taken, after having suffered every extreme
of hunger and fatigue*.

Abdal Samad Kh&n put to death great

* They were taken in the fort of Lohgad, which is
one hundred miles to the north-east of Lahore. This
fortress was completely surrounded, and the Sikhs
were only starved into surrender, having been reduced
to such extremes, that they were reported to have
eaten, what to them must have been most horrible, the
flesh of the cow.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 81

numbers of the Sikhs after the surrender of
Lohgad, the fortress in which they took
refuge ; but sent Banda, and the principal
chiefs of the tribe, to Dehli, where they
were first treated with every kind of obloquy
and insult, and then executed. A Mu-
harnmedan writer* relates the intrepidity
with which these Sikh prisoners, but par-
ticularly their leader, Banda, met death.
" It is singular," he writes, " thai these
" people not only behaved firmly during
" the execution, but they would dispute
" and wrangle with each other who should
" suffer first ; and they made interest with
" the executioner to obtain the preference.
" Banda/' he continues, " was at last pro-
" duced, his son being seated in his lap.
" His father was ordered to cut his throat,
" which he did, without uttering one word.
" Being then brought nearer the magis-

* The author of the Seir Mutakherin.
G

32 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

" trate's tribunal, the latter ordered his
" flesh to be torn off with red hot pincers ;
" and it was in those moments he expired :
" his black soul taking its flight, by one of
" those wounds, towards the regions for
" which it was so well fitted."

Thus perished Banda; who, though a
brave and able leader, was one of the most
cruel and ferocious of men, and endea-
voured to impart to his followers that feel-
ing of merciless resentment which he che-
rished against the whole Muhammedan
race, whom he appears to have thought
accountable for the cruelty and oppression
of a few individuals of the persuasion*.

* It is necessary, however, to state, that there is a
schismatical sect of Sikhs, who are termed Bandai, or
the followers of Banda, who totally deny this account
of the death of Banda, and maintain that he escaped
severely wounded from his last battle, and took refuge
in B'habar, where he quietly ended his days, leaving
two sons, Ajit Singh and Zorawcr Singh, who success-

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 83

Though the Sikhs, from being animated
by a similar feeling, and encouraged by his
first successes, followed Banda to the field,
they do not revere his memory; and he
is termed, by some of their authors, a
heretic ; who, intoxicated with victory, en-
deavoured to change the religious institu-
tions and laws of Guru G6vind, many of
whose most devoted followers this fierce
chief put to death, because they refused
to depart from those usages which that
revered spiritual leader had taught them to
consider sacred. Among other changes,
Banda wished to make the Sikhs abandon
their blue dress, to refrain from drinking
and eating flesh ; and, instead of exclaim-
ing Wd I Gdruji ki Futteh ! Wd ! Khdlsaji
ki Futteh ! the salutations directed by G6-
vind, he directed them to exclaim, Futteh

fully propagated his doctrine. This sect chiefly re-
sides in Multan, Tata, and the other cities on the
banks of the Indus. They receive the Adi-Grant'h,
but not the Dasama Padshah ka Grant'h.

84 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

D'herm ! Futteh dersan ! which means,
" Success to piety! Success to the sect!"
These innovations were very generally re-
sisted ; but the dreaded severity of Banda
made many conform to his orders. The
class of Acalis*, or immortals, who had
been established by Guru Govind, con-
tinued to oppose the innovations with great
obstinacy ; and many of them suffered mar-
tyrdom, rather than change either their
mode of salutation, diet, or dress ; and,
at the death of Banda, their cause tri-
umphed. All the institutions of Guru Go-
vind were restored : but the blue dress,
instead of being, as at first, worn by all,
appears, from that date, to have become
the particular right of the Acalis, whose
valour, in its defence, well merited the ex-
clusive privilege of wearing this original
uniform of a true Sikh.

# An account of this class of Sikhs will be hereafter
given.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 85

After the defeat and death of Banda,
every measure was taken, that an active
resentment could suggest, not only to de-
stroy the power, but to extirpate the race,
of the Sikhs. An astonishing number of
that sect must have fallen, in the last two
or three years of the contest with the im-
perial armies, as the irritated Muhamme-
dans gave them no quarter. After the
execution of their chief, a royal edict was
issued, ordering all who professed the reli-
gion of Nanac to be taken and put to
death, wherever found. To give effect
to this mandate, a reward was offered for
the head of every Sikh ; and all Hindus
were ordered to shave their hair off, under
pain of death. The few Sikhs, that escaped
this general execution, fled into the moun-
tains to the N. E. of the Penjab, where
they found a refuge from the rigorous per-
secution by which their tribe was pursued ;
while numbers bent before the tempest
which they could not resist, and abandoning

86 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

the outward usages of their religion, satis-
fied their consciences with the secret practice
of its rites.

From the defeat and death of Banda
till the invasion of India by Nadir Shah,
a period of nearly thirty years, we hear
nothing of the Sikhs ; but, on the occur-
rence of that event, they are stated to have
fallen upon the peaceable inhabitants of the
Penjab, who sought shelter in the hills, and
to have plundered them of that property
which they were endeavouring to secure
from the rapacity of the Persian invader.

Enriched with these spoils, the Sikhs left
the hills, and built the fort of Dalewal, on
the Ravi, from whence they made preda-
tory incursions, and are stated to have
added both to their wealth and reputation,
by harassing and plundering the rear of
Nadir Shah's army, which, when it returned
to Persia, was encumbered with spoil, and
marched, from a contempt of its enemies,
with a disregard to all order.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 87

The weak state to which the empire of
Hindustan was reduced ; and the confusion
into which the provinces of Lahore and
Cabul were thrown, by the death of Nadir ;
were events of too favourable a nature to
the Sikhs to be neglected by that race, who
became daily more bold, from their num-
bers being greatly increased by the union
of all those who had taken shelter in the
mountains; the readmission into the sect
of those who, to save their lives, had ab-
jured, for a period, their usages; and the
conversion of a number of proselytes, who
hastened to join a standard, under which
robbery was made sacred ; and to plunder,
was to be pious.

Aided with these recruits, the Sikhs now-
extended their irruptions over most of the
provinces of the Penjab : and though it was
some time before they repossessed them-
selves of Amritsar, they began, immediately
after they quitted their fastnesses, to flock
to that holy city at the periods of their

88 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

feasts. Some performed this pilgrimage in
secret, and in disguise : but in general, ac-
cording to a contemporary Muhammedan
author, the Sikh horsemen were seen riding,
at full gallop, towards " their favourite
" shrine of devotion. They were often
" slain in making this attempt, and some-
" times taken prisoners ; but they used, on
" such occasions, to seek, instead of avoid-
" ing, the crown of martyrdom : and the
" same authority states, that an instance
" was never known of a Sikh, taken in his
" way to Amritsar, consenting to abjure his
" faith."

It is foreign to the object of this sketch
to enter into a detail of those efforts by
which the Sikhs rose into that power which
ihey now possess. It will be sufficient lo
glance at the principal events which have
marked their progress, from the period of
their emerging from the mountains, to which
they had been driven after the death of
Banda, to that of the conquest and subjec-

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 89

tion of those fine provinces over which their
rule is now established. This sect, as has
been before stated, have never admitted
a spiritual leader since the death of Guru
Govind. It was success, and the force of
a savage but strong genius, which united
them, for a period, under Banda; and they
have, since his death, had no acknowledged
general, leader, or prince. Each individual
followed to the field the Sirdar or chief,
who, from birth, the possession of property,
or from valour and experience, had become
his superior. These chiefs again were of
different rank and pretensions: a greater
number of followers, higher reputation, the
possession of wealth, or lands, constituted
that difference ; and, from one or other of
these causes, one chief generally enjoyed a
decided pre-eminence, and, consequently,
had a lead in their military councils. But,
nevertheless, they always went through the
form of selecting a military leader at their
Guru-mata, or national council; where,

90 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

however, influence prevailed, and the most
powerful was certain of being elected.

Such a mode of government was in itself
little calculated to give that strength and
union which the cause of the Sikhs re-
quired : but the peculiarities of their usages,
the ardent character of their faith, the power
of their enemies, and the oppression they
endured, amply supplied the place of all
other ordinances. To unite and to act in
one body, and on one principle, was, with
the first Sikhs, a law of necessity : it was,
amid the dangers with which they were
surrounded, their only hope of success, and
their sole means of preservation : and it
was to these causes, combined with the
weakness and internal contests of their ene-
mies, to which this sect owes its extraordi-
nary rise, — not to their boasted constitution ;
which, whether we call it an oligarchy,
which it really is ; or a theocracy, which the
Sikhs consider it ; has not a principle in its
composition that would preserve it one day

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. gx

from ruin, if vigorously assailed. But of
this their history will furnish the best
example.

Encouraged by the confusion which took
place on the first Afghan* invasion, the
Sikhs made themselves masters of a con-
siderable part of the Duab of Ravi and
Jalendra-f-, and extended their incursions
to the neighbouring countries. They, how-
ever, at this period received several severe
checks from Mir Manu, the governor of
Lahore, who is said, by Muhammedan
authors, to have been only withheld from
destroying them by the counsel of his
minister, Koda Mai, who was himself a
Sikh of the KhalasaJ tribe. Mir Manu

* A. D. 1746.

f The country between the rivers Ravi and Beyah,
and that river and the Satlej.

J A sect of non-conformist Sikhs, who believe in the
Adi-Grant'h of Nanac, but do not conform to the insti-
tutions of Guru Govind. They are called Khalasa.
This word is said, by some, to be from khalis, pure or

92 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

appointed Adina Beg Khan to the charge
of the countries in which the Sikhs main-
tained themselves ; and, as that able but
artful chief considered this turbulent tribe
in no other light than as the means of his
personal advancement, he was careful not
to reduce them altogether; but, after defeat-
ing them in an action, which was fought
near Mak'haval, he entered into a secret
understanding with them, by which, though
their excursions were limited, they enjoyed
a security to which they had been unac-
customed, and from which they gathered
strength and resources for future efforts.

At the death of Mir Manu*, the Sikhs
took all those advantages, which the local
distractions of a falling empire offered them,
of extending and establishing their power.

select, and to mean the purest, or the select : by others,
from khalas,free, and to mean the freed or exempt,
alluding to the tribe being exempt from the usages
imposed on the other Sikhs.
* A. D. 1752.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 93

Their bands, under their most active leaders,
plundered in every direction, and were suc-
cessful in obtaining possession of several
countries, from which they have never since
been expelled : and their success, at this
period, was promoted, instead of being
checked, by the appointment of their old
friend, Adina Beg Khan, to Lahore; as
that brave chief, anxious to defend his own
government against the Afghans, imme-
diately entered into a confederacy with the
Sikhs, whom he encouraged to plunder the
territories of Ahmed Shah Abdali.

The Afghan monarch, resenting this pre-
datory warfare, in which the governor of
Lahore was supported by the court of
Dehli, determined upon invading India.
Adina Beg, unable to oppose him, fled ;
and the Sikhs could only venture to plunder
the baggage, and cut off the stragglers of
the Afghan army ; by which they so irritated
Ahmed Shah, that he threatened them with
punishment on his return ; and, when he

94 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

marched to Cabul, he left his son, Taimur
Khan, and his vizir, Jehan Khan, at La-
hore, with orders to take vengeance on the
Sikhs for all the excesses which they had
committed. The first expedition of Taimur
Khan was against their capital, Amritsar,
which he destroyed, filling up their sacred
tank, and polluting all their places of wor-
ship: by which action he provoked the
whole race to such a degree, that they all
assembled at Lahore, and not only at-
tempted to cut off the communication
between the fort and country, but collected
and divided the revenues of the towns and
villages around it. Taimur Khan, enraged
at this presumption, made several attacks
upon them, but was constantly defeated ;
and being at last reduced to the necessity
of evacuating Lahore, and retreating to
Cabul, the Sikhs, under one of their cele-
brated leaders, called Jasa Singh Calal, im-
mediately took possession of the vacant
Subah of Lahore, and ordered rupees to be

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 95

coined, with an inscription to the following
import: " Coined by the grace of Khal-
" sah ji, in the country of Ahmed, con-
" quered by Jasa Singh Calal."

The Sikhs, who were so deeply indebted
to the forbearance of Adina Beg Khan,
now considered themselves above the power
of that chief; who, in order to regain his
government from them and the Afghans,
was obliged to invite the Mahrata leaders,
Raghunat'h Rao, Saheb Pateil, and Malhar
Rao, to enter the Penjab. Aided by these
chiefs, he first advanced to Sarhind, where
he was joined by some Sikhs that remained
attached to him. Samad Khan, the officer
who had been left in charge of Sarhind
by Ahmed Khan, found himself obliged to
evacuate that place ; which he had no
sooner done, than the Sikhs began to
plunder. The Mahratas, always jealous of
their booty, determined to attack and punish
them for this violation of what they deemed
their exclusive privilege : but Adina Beg

96

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

receiving intelligence of their intentions,
communicated it to the Sikhs ; who, taking
advantage of the darkness of the night,
saved themselves by flight.

After the fall of Sarhind, the Mahratas,
accompanied by Adina Beg Khan, ad-
vanced to Lahore, and soon expelled both
the Sikhs and the Afghans from the prin-
cipal towns of the provinces of Sarhind and
Lahore ; of which they not only took pos-
session, but sent a governor to the province
of Multan ; and Saheb Pateil advanced to
the Attock*, where he remained for a few
months. But the commotions of Hindus-
tan and the Dek'hin soon obliged these
foreigners to abandon the Penjab; which
they did the same year they had reduced
it. They appointed Adina Beg Khan go-
vernor of Lahore. He died in the ensuing

# The empire of the Mahratas had, at this proud
moment, reached its zenith. The battle of Panipat'h
took place soon afterwards; since which it has rapidly
declined.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 97

year ; and, by his death, afforded an oppor-
tunity to the Sikhs, which they eagerly
seized, to make themselves again masters
of the province of Lahore. Their success
was, however, soon checked by Ahmed
Shah Abdali ; who, irritated by their unsub-
dued turbulence, and obstinate intrepidity,
made every effort (after he had gained the
victory of Panipat'h, which established his
supremacy at Dehli) to destroy their power ;
and, with this view, he entered the Penjab
early in 1762, and overran the whole of
that country with a numerous army, defeat-
ing and dispersing the Sikhs in every direc-
tion. That sect, unable to make any stand
against the army of the Abdali, pursued
their old plan of retreating near the moun-
tains ; and collected a large force in the
northern districts of Sarhind, a distance of
above one hundred miles from Lahore,
where the army of Ahmed Shah was en-
camped. Here they conceived themselves
to be in perfect safety : but that prince

H

98 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

made one of those rapid movements for
which he was so celebrated, and reaching
the Sikh army on the second day, com-
pletely surprised, and defeated it with great
slaughter. In this action, which was fought
in February, 1762, the Sikhs are said to
have lost upwards of twenty thousand men,
and the remainder fled into the hills, aban-
doning all the lower countries to the Af-
ghans, who committed every ravage that a
barbarous and savage enemy could devise.
Amritsar was razed to the ground, and the
sacred reservoir again choaked with its
ruins. Pyramids* were erected, and covered
with the heads of slaughtered Sikhs : and it
is mentioned, that Ahmed Shah caused the
walls of those mosques, which the Sikhs
had polluted, to be washed with their blood,

# This is a very common usage amongst eastern
conquerors. The history of Jenghiz Khan, Taimur
and Nadir Shah, afford many examples of this mode
of treating their vanquished enemies.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 99

that the contamination might be removed,
and the insult offered to the religion of Mu-
hammed expiated*.

This species of savage retaliation appears
to have animated, instead of depressing, the
courage of the Sikhs ; who, though they
could not venture to meet Ahmed Shah's
army in action, harassed it with an inces-
sant predatory warfare ; and, when that
sovereign was obliged, by the commotions
of Afghanistan, to return to Cabul, they
attacked and defeated the general he had
left in Lahore, and made themselves masters
of that city, in which they levelled with the
ground those mosques which the Afghans
had, a few months before, purified with the
blood of their brethren.

Ahmed Shah, in 1763, retook Lahore,
and plundered the provinces around it ; but,
being obliged to return to his own country in
the ensuing year, the Sikhs again expelled his

* Foster's Travels, Vol. I. p. 279.

100 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

garrison, and made themselves masters of the
Penjab; and, from that period until his death,
a constant war was maintained, in which
the enterprise and courage of the Afghans
gradually gave way before the astonishing
activity and invincible perseverance of their
enemies ; who, if unable to stand a general
action, retreated to impenetrable mountains,
and the moment they saw an advantage,
rushed again into the plains with renewed
vigour, and recruited numbers. Several
Sikh authors, treating of the events of this
period, mention a great action having been
fought, by their countrymen, near Amritsar,
against the whole Afghan army, commanded
by Ahmed Shah in person ; but they differ
with regard to the dale of this battle, some
fixing it in 1762, and others later. They
pretend that the Sikhs, inspired by the
sacredness of the ground on which this
action was fought, contended for victory
against superior numbers with the most
desperate fury, and that the battle termi-

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. iQl

nated in both parties quitting the field,
without either being able to claim the least
advantage. The historians of Ahmed Shah
are, however, silent regarding this action;
which, indeed, from all the events of his
long contests with the Sikhs, appears un-
likely to have occurred. It is possible the
Sikhs fought, at Amritsar, with a division of
the Afghan army, and that might have been
commanded by the prince; but it is very
improbable they had ever force to en-
counter the concentrated army of the Ab-
dalis ; before which, while it remained in
a body, they appear, from the first to the
last of their contests with that prince, to
have always retreated, or rather fled.

The internal state of Afghanistan, since
the death of Ahmed Shah, has prevented
the progress of the Sikh nation receiving
any serious check from that quarter; and
the distracted and powerless condition of
the empire of India has offered province
after province to their usurpation. Their

102 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

history, during this latter period, affords
little but a relation of village warfare, and
predatory incursions. Their hostilities were
first directed against the numerous Mu-
hammedan chiefs who were settled in the
Penjab, and who defended, as long as they
could, their jagirs, or estates, against them:
but these have either been conquered, or
reduced to such narrow limits, as to owe
their security to their insignificance, or
the precarious friendship of some powerful
Sikh chief, whose support they have
gained; and who, by protecting them
against the other leaders of his tribe, ob-
tains a slight accession of strength and
influence.

The Sikh nation, who have, throughout
their early history, always appeared, like a
suppressed flame, to rise into higher splen-
dour from every attempt to crush them,
had become, while they were oppressed, as
formidable for their union, as for their deter-
mined courage and unconquerable spirit of

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 103

resistance : but a state of persecution and
distress was the one most favourable for the
action of a constitution like theirs ; which,
formed upon general and abstract prin-
ciples, required constant and great sacri-
fices of personal advantage to the public
good; and such can alone be expected
from men, acting under the influence of
that enthusiasm, which the fervor of a new
religion, or a struggle for independence, can
alone impart, and which are ever most
readily made, when it becomes obvious to
all, that a complete union in the general
cause is the only hope of individual
safety.

The Sikhs would appear, from their own
historians, to have attributed the conquests
they made entirely to their valour, and to
have altogether forgot that they owed them
chiefly to the decline of the house of Tai-
mur, and the dissensions of the government
of Cabul. Intoxicated with their success.

104 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

they have given way to all those passions
which assail the minds of men in the pos-
session of power. The desire, which every
petty chief entertained, of increasing his
territories, of building strong forts, and
adding to the numbers of his troops, in-
volved them in internal wars ; and these,
however commenced, soon communicated
to numbers, who engaged in the dispute as
passion or interest dictated. Though such
feuds have, no doubt, helped to maintain
their military spirit, yet their extent and
virulence have completely broken down
that union, which their great legislator,
Govind, laboured to establish. Quarrels
have been transmitted from father to son ;
and, in a country where the infant is de-
voted to steel, and taught to consider war
as his only occupation, these could not
but multiply in an extraordinary degree ;
and, independent of the comparative large
conquests in which the greater chiefs occa-

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 105

sionally engaged, every village* has become
an object of dispute ; and there are few, if
any, in the Penjab, the rule of which is not
contested between brothers or near rela-
tions f. In such a state, it is obvious, the
Sikhs could alone be formidable to the
most weak and distracted governments.
Such, indeed, was the character, till within
a very late period, of all their neighbours ;
and they continued to plunder, with im-

* All the villages in the Penjab are walled round;
as they are in almost all the countries of India that
are exposed to sudden incursions of horse, which this
defence can always repel.

f When the British and Mahrata armies entered
the Penjab, they were both daily joined by discon-
tented petty chiefs of the Sikhs, who offered their aid
to the power that would put them in the possession of
a village or a fort, from which, agreeably to their
statement, they had been unjustly excluded by a
father or brother. Holkar encouraged these appli-
cations, and used them to his advantage. The British
commander abstained from all interference in such
disputes.

106 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

punity, the upper provinces of Hindtistan,
until the establishment of the power of
Daulet Rao Sindia, when the regular bri-
gades, commanded by French officers in
the service of that prince, not only checked
their inroads, but made all the Sikh chiefs,
to the southward of the Satlej, acknowledge
obedience and pay tribute to Sindia: and
it was in the contemplation of General
Perron, had the war with the English
government not occurred, to have subdued
the Penjab, and made the Indus the limit
of his possession : and every person ac-
quainted with his means, and with the
condition and resources of the Sikhs, must
be satisfied he would have accomplished
this project with great ease, and at a very
early period.

When Holkar fled into the Penjab, in
1805, and was pursued by that illustrious
British commander, Lord Lake, a com-
plete opportunity was given of observing
the actual state of this nation, which was

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 107

found weak and distracted, in a degree
that could hardly have been imagined. It
was altogether destitute of union. And
though a Guru-mata, or national council,
was called, with a view to decide on those
means by which they could best avert the
danger by which their country was threat-
ened, from the presence of the English and
Mahrata armies, it was attended by few
chiefs : and most of the absentees, who had
any power, were bold and forward in their
offers to resist any resolution to which this
council might come. The intrigues and
negotiations of all appeared, indeed, at this
moment, to be entirely directed to objects
of personal resentment, or personal aggran-
dizement; and every shadow of that con-
cord, which once formed the strength of
the Sikh nation, seemed to be extinguished.

108 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

SECTION II.

Neither the limits of this sketch, nor
the materials from which it is drawn, will
admit of my giving a particular or correct
account of the countries possessed by the
Sikhs, or of their forms of government,
manners, and habits : but a cursory view of
these subjects may be useful, and may
excite and direct that curiosity which il
cannot expect to gratify.

The country now possessed by the Sikhs,
which reaches from latitude 28° 40' to
beyond latitude 32° N., and includes all the
Penjab*, a small part of Multan, and most

* A general estimate of the value of the country
possessed by the Sikhs may he formed, when it is
stated, that it contains, besides other countries, the
whole of the province of Lahore ; which, agreeable to
Mr. Bernier, produced, in the reign of Aurungzeb, two

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 109

of that tract of country which lies between
the Jumna and the Satlej, is bounded, to
the northward and westward, by the terri-
tories of the king of Cabul ; to the east-
ward, by the possessions of the mountaineer
Rajas of Jammu, Nad6n, and Srinagar;
and to the southward, by the territories of
the English government, and the sandy
deserts of Jasalmer and Hansyd Hisar.

The Sikhs, who inhabit the country
between the Satlej and the Jumna, are
called Malawa Singh, and were almost all
converted from the Hindu tribes of Jats
and Gujars. The title of Malawa Singh
was conferred upon them for their extra-
ordinary gallantry, under the Bairagi Banda,
who is stated to have declared, that the
countries granted to them should be fruitful

hundred and forty-six lacks and ninety-five thousand
rupees ; or two millions, four hundred and sixty-nine
thousand, five hundred pounds sterling.

HO SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

as Malwa, one of the provinces* in India.
The principal chiefs among the Malawi
Singhs, are, Saheb Singh, of Patiala; B'hang&
Singh, of Thanesur ; B'hag Singh, of Jhind ;
and B'hailal Singh, of Keintal. Besides
these, there are several inferior chiefs, such
as Gurudah Singh, Jud'h Singh, and Carm
Singh ; all of whom have a few villages,
and some horse, and consider themselves
independent; though they, in general, are
content to secure their possessions by at-
taching themselves to one or other of the
more powerful leaders.

The country of the Malawa Singh is, in
some parts, fruitful: but those districts of
it, which border on Hansya and Carnal, are
very barren ; being covered with low wood,
and, in many places, almost destitute of
water. Sarhind was formerly the capital of

* This province now forms almost the whole terri-
tory of Daulet Rao Sinclia.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. m

this country ; but it is now a complete ruin,
and has probably never recovered the
dreadful ravages of the Bairagi Banda, who
is stated not only to have destroyed its
mosques, but to have levelled all its palaces
and public buildings with the ground.
Patiala is now the largest and most flourish-
ing town of this province, and next to it
T'hanesur, which is still held in high reli-
gious veneration by the Hindtis ; who have
also a very high reverence for the river
Serasweti, which flows through this pro-
vince. The territories of the chiefs of Ma-
lawa Singh are bounded to the N. W. by
the Satlej ; between which and the Bey ah,
is the country called the Jalendra Beit,
or Jalendra Duab; the Sikhs inhabiting
which are called the DtiaM Singh, or the
Singhs who dwell between the rivers*. The

* With the chiefs of the Sikhs in the Jalendra
Duab we are little acquainted. Tara Singh is the most

112 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

country of Jalendra Duab, which reaches
from the mountains to the junction of the
Satlej and the Beyah, is the most fruitful
of all the possessions of the Sikhs ; and is,
perhaps, excelled in climate and vegetation
by no province of India. The soil is light,
but very productive : the country, which is
open and level, abounds with every kind of
grain. That want of water, which is so
much felt in other parts of India, must be
here unknown ; as it is found every where
in abundance, within two, or at furthest
three, feet from the surface of the soil. The
towns of Jalendra and Sultanpur are the
principal in the Duab.

The country between the Beyah and
Ravi rivers is called Bari Duab, or Manj'ha ;
and the Sikhs inhabiting it are called

considerable ; but he and the others have been greatly
weakened by their constant and increasing internal
divisions. v

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 113

Manj'ha Singh. The cities of Lahore and
Amritsar are both in this province; and it
becomes, in consequence, the great centre
of the power of this nation. Ranjit Singh,
of Lahore ; Fateh Singh*, of Alluwal ; and
Jud'h Singh, of Ramgadia-f ; are the prin-
cipal chiefs of this country.

The country of Bari is said to be less
fertile, particularly towards the mountains,
than Jalendra ; but, as it lies on the same
level, it must possess nearly the same cli-
mate and soil.

The inhabitants of the country between
the Ravi and Chanhab, are called D'harpi
Singh, from the country being called
D'harpi. The D'hanigheb Singh are be-
yond the Chanhab J, but within the Jeha-

lam river.

/

* Fateh Singh is, like Ranjit Singh, of a Jat family.

f Jud'h Singh, of Ramgadia, is of the carpenter cast.

I The term Gujarat Singh is sometimes given to
the inhabitants of this Duab, of which the chiefs of
Gujarat and Rotas are the principal rulers.
I

1X4 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

The Sind Singh is the term by which the
inhabitants of the districts under the Sikhs,
bordering on the Sind, are known; and
Nakai Singh is the name given to the Sikhs
who reside in Multan. With the leaders of the
Sikhs in these provinces, the extent of their
possessions, or the climate and productions
of the country under their rule, I am little
acquainted. Those in Multan, as well as
those settled on the river Jehalam, are said
to be constantly engaged in a predatory
warfare, either with the officers of the Af-
ghan government, or with Muhammedan
chiefs who have jagirs in their vicinity.

The government of the Sikhs, considered
in its theory, may, as has, been before
stated, be termed a theocracy. They obey
a temporal chief, it is true ; but that chief
preserves his power and authority by pro-
fessing himself the servant of the Khalsa*,

* The word Khalsa, which has before been ex-
plained to mean the state or commonwealth, is sup-

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 115

or government, which can only be said to
act, in times of great public emergency,
through the means of a national council, of
which every chief is a member, and which
is supposed to deliberate and resolve under
the immediate inspiration and impulse of
an invisible being; who, they believe, always
watches over the interests of the common-
wealth.

The nature of the power established by
the temporal chiefs of the Sikhs, has been
sufficiently explained in the narrative of
their history. It will be necessary, before
any account is given of the forms and
actions of their Guru-mata, or great national
council, which is intended to have a su-
preme authority over their federative re-
posed, by the Sikhs, to have a mystical meaning1, and
to imply that superior government, under the protec-
tion of which " they live, and to the established rules
" and laws of which, as fixed by Guru G6vind, it
" is their civil and religious duty to conform."

ng SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

public, to take a view of that body of
Acalis, or immortals, who, under the double
character of fanatic priests and desperate
soldiers, have usurped the sole direction of
all religious affairs at Amritsar, and are,
consequently, leading men in a council
which is held at that sacred place, and
which deliberates under all the influence of
religious enthusiasm.

The Acalis* are a class of Sikh devotees ;
who, agreeably to the historians of that
nation, were first founded by Guru Govind,
whose institutes, as it has been before stated,
they most zealously defended against the
innovations of the Bairagi Banda. They
wear blue chequered clothes, and bangles,

* Aca.li, derived from Acal, a compound term of
cal, death, and the Sanscrit privative a, which means
never-dying, or immortal. It is one of the names of the
Divinity; and has, probably; been given to this re-
markable class of devotees, from their always exclaim
ing Acal ! Acal ! in their devotions.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 117

or bracelets of steel*, round their wrists,
initiate converts, and have almost the sole
direction of the religious ceremonies at Am-
ritsar, where they reside, and of which they
deem themselves the defenders ; and, con-
sequently, never desire to quit it unless in
cases of great extremity.

* All Singbs do not wear bracelets ; but it is indis-
pensable to bave steel about their persons, which they
generally have in the shape of a knife or dagger. In
support of this ordinance they quote the following
verses of Guru Govind :

Saheb bea ki rach'ha hamne,
Tuhi Sri Saheb, churi, kati, katar—
Acal puvukh ki rach'ha hamne,
Serv loh di rach'ha hamne,
Servacal di rach'ha hamne,
Serv lohji di sada rach'ha hamne.

which may be translated : " The protection of the
" infinite Lord is over us : thou art the lord, the cut-
" lass, the knife, and the dagger. The protection of
" the immortal Being is over us : the protection of
" all-steel is over us : the protection of all-time
" is over us : the protection of all-steel is constantly
u over us."

H8 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

This order of Sikhs have a place, or
Bunga*, on the bank of the sacred reser-
voir of Amritsar, where they generally resort,
but are individually possessed of properly,
though they affect poverty, and subsist upon
charity ; which, however, since their num-
bers have increased, they generally extort,
by accusing the principal chiefs of crimes,
imposing fines upon them ; and, in the
event of their refusing to pay, preventing
them from performing their ablutions, or
going through any of their religious cere-
monies at Amritsar.

It will not, when the above circumstances

* The Shahid and Nirmala, two other religious
tribes among the Sikhs, have Bungas, or plaees, upon
the great reservoir of Amritsar; but both these are
peaceful orders of priests, whose duty is to address the
Deity, and to read and explain the Adi-Grant'h to the
Sikhs. They are, in general, men of some education.
A Sikh, of any tribe, may be admitted into either of
these classes, as among the Acalis, who admit all into
their body who choose to conform to their rules.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. ||g

are considered, be thought surprising, that
the most powerful of the Sikh chiefs should
desire to conciliate this body of fanatics, no
individual of which can be offended with
impunity, as the cause of one is made the
cause of the whole ; and a chief, who is
become unpopular with the Acalis, must
not only avoid Amritsar, but is likely to
have his dependants taught, when they pay
their devotions at that place, that it is
pious to resist his authority.

The Ac&lis have a great interest in main-
taining both the religion and government of
the Sikhs, as established by Guru G6vind ;
as, on its continuance in that shape, their
religious and political influence must de-
pend. Should Amritsar cease to be a place
of resort, or be no longer considered as the
religious capital of the state, in which all
questions that involve the general interests
of the commonwealth are to be decided,
this formidable order would at once fall
from that power and consideration which

120 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

they now possess, to a level with other
mendicants.

When a Guru-mata, or great national
council, is called, (as it always is, or ought
to be, when any imminent danger threatens
the country, or any large expedition is to
be undertaken,) all the Sikh chiefs assemble
at Amritsar. The assembly, which is called
the Guru-matd, is convened by the Acalis ;
and when the chiefs meet upon this solemn
occasion, it is concluded that all private
animosities cease, and that every man sacri-
fices his personal feelings at the shrine of
the general good ; and, actuated by prin-
ciples of pure patriotism, thinks of nothing
but the interests of the religion, and com-
monwealth, to which he belongs.

When the chiefs and principal leaders
are seated, the Adi-Grant'h and Dasama
Padshah ka Grant'h are placed before them.
They all bend their heads before these scrip-
tures, and exclaim, Wli ! Guruji ka Khalsa !
W& ! Giiriyi hi Fat eh ! A great quantity of

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 121

cakes, made of wheat, butter, and sugar,
are then placed before the volumes of their
sacred writings, and covered with a cloth.
These holy cakes, which are in comme-
moration of the injunction of Nanac, to eat
and to give to others to eat, next receive
the salutation of the assembly, who then
rise, and the A calls pray aloud, while the
musicians play. The Acalis, when the
prayers are finished, desire the council to
be seated. They sit down, and the cakes
being uncovered, are eaten of by all classes*
of Sikhs: those distinctions of original
tribes, which are, on other occasions, kept
up, being on this occasion laid aside, in
token of their general and complete union

* A custom of a similar nature, with regard to all
tribes eating promiscuously, is observed among the
Hindus, at the temple of Jagannath, where men of
all religions and casts, without distinction, eat cf the
Maha Prasad, the great offering; i. e. food dressed
by the cooks of the idols, and sold on the stairs of
the temple.

122 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

in one cause*. The A calls then exclaim :
" Sirdars! (chiefs) this is a Guru-mata!"
on which prayers are again said aloud.
The chiefs, after this, sit closer, and say to
each other : " The sacred Grant'h is betwixt
" us, let us swear by our scripture to forget
" all internal disputes, and to be united/'
This moment of religious fervor and ardent
patriotism, is taken to reconcile all ani-
mosities. They then proceed to consider
the danger with which they are threatened,
to settle the best plans for averting it, and
to choose the generals who are to lead their

* The Sikh priest, who gave an account of this
custom, was of a high Hindu tribe ; and, retaining
some of his prejudices, he at first said, that Muham-
medan Sikhs, and those who were converts from the
sweeper cast, were obliged, even on this occasion, to
eat a little apart from the other Sikhs : but, on being
closely questioned, he admitted the fact as stated in
the narrative; saying, however, it was only on this
solemn occasion that these tribes are admitted to eat
with the others.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 123

armies* against the common enemy. The
first Guru-mat& was assembled by Guru
Govind ; and the latest was called in 1805,
when the British army pursued Holkar into
the Penjab.

The principal chiefs of the Sikhs are all
descended from Hindu tribes. There is,
indeed, no instance of a Singh of a Mu-
hammedan family attaining high power-f-:
a circumstance to be accounted for from
the hatred still cherished, by the followers
of Guru Govind, against the descendants of

* The army is called, when thus assembled, the
Dal Khalsa, or the army of the state.

f The Muhammedans who have become Sikhs,
and their descendants, are, in the Penjabi jargon,
termed Mezhebi Singh, or Singhs of the faith; and
they are subdivided into the four classes which are
vulgarly, but erroneously, supposed to distinguish the
followers of Muhammed, Sayyad Singh, Sheikh Singh,
Moghul Singh, and Patan Singh; by which designa-
tions the names of the particular race or country of
the Muhammedans have been affixed, by Hindus, as
distinctions of cast.

124 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

his persecutors : and that this rancorous
spirit is undiminished, may be seen from
their treatment of the wretched Muhamme-
dans who yet remain in their territories.
These, though very numerous, appear to be
all poor, and to be an oppressed, despised
race. They till the ground, and are em-
ployed to carry burdens, and to do all kinds
of hard labour : they are not allowed to eat
beef, or to say their prayers aloud, and but
seldom assemble in their mosques*; of
which few, indeed, have escaped destruc-
tion. The lower order of Sikhs are more
happy : they are protected from the tyranny
and violence of the chiefs, under whom
they live, by the precepts of their common
religion, and by the condition of their coun-
try, which enables them to abandon, when-

* The Muhammedan inhabitants of the Penjab used
to flock to the British camp; where, they said, they
enjoyed luxuries which no man could appreciate that
had not suffered privation. They could pray aloud,
and feast upon beef.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 125

ever they choose, a leader whom they
dislike; and the distance of a few miles
generally places them under the protection
of his rival and enemy. It is from this
cause that the lowest Sikh horseman usually
assumes a very independent style, and the
highest chief treats his military followers
with attention and conciliation. The civil
officers, — to whom the chiefs intrust their
accounts, and the management of their
property and revenue concerns, as well as
the conduct of their negotiations, — are, in
general, Sikhs of the Khalasa cast ; who,
being followers of Nanac, and not of Guru
Govind, are not devoted to arms, but edu-
cated for peaceful occupations, in which
they often become very expert and in^
telligent.

In the collection of the revenue in the
Penjab it is stated to be a general rule,
that the chiefs, to whom the territories
belong, should receive one half of the pro-

126 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

duce*, and the farmer the other : but the
chief never levies the whole of his share :
and in no country, perhaps, is the Rayat,
or cultivator, treated with more indulgence.
Commerce is not so much encouraged ;
heavy duties are levied upon it by all petty
rulers through whose districts it passes :
and this, added to the distracted state in
which the Penjab has been, from the internal
disputes of its possessors, caused the rich
produce of Casmir to be carried to India
by the difficult and mountainous tract of
Jammu, Nad6n, and Srinagar. The Sikh
chiefs have, however, discovered the injury
which their interests have suffered from this
cause, and have endeavoured, and not with-
out success, to restore confidence to the
merchant ; and great part of the shawl trade
now flows through the cities of Lahore,
Amritsar, and Patiala, to Hindustan.

* Grain pays in kind; sugar-cane, melon?, 8cc. pay
in cash.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 127

The administration of justice in the coun-
tries under the Sikhs, is in a very rude and
imperfect state ; for, though their scriptures
inculcate general maxims of justice, they
are not considered, as the Old Testament
is by the Jews, or the Koran by the Mu-
hammedans, as books of law : and, having
no fixed code, they appear to have adopted
that irregular practice, which is most con-
genial to the temper of the people, and
best suited to the unsteady and changing
character of their rule of government. The
following appears to be the general outline
of their practice in the administration of
justice.

Trifling disputes about property are set-
tled by the heads of the village, by arbitra-
tion*, or by the chiefs. Either of these

* This is called Penchayat, or a court of five ; the
general number of arbitrators chosen to adjust dif-
ferences and disputes. It is usual to assemble a Pan
cbayat, or a court of arbitration, in every part of India,
under a native government; and, as they are always

128 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

modes, supposing the parties consent to
refer to it, is final ; and they must agree to
one or other. If a theft occurs, the pro-
perty is recovered, and the party punished
by the person from whom it was stolen,
who is aided on such occasions by the inha-
bitants of his village, or his chief. The
punishment, however, is never capital*.
Murder is generally revenged by the rela-
tions of the deceased, who, in such cases,
rigorously retaliate on the murderer, and
often on all who endeavour to protect
him.

chosen from men of the best reputation in the place
where they meet, this court has a high character for
justice.

* A Sikh priest, who has been several years in Cal-
cutta, gave this outline of the administration of justice
among his countrymen. He spoke of it with rapture ;
and insisted, with true patriotic prejudice, on its great
superiority over the vexatious system of the English
government; which was, he said, tedious, vexatious,
and expensive, and advantageous only to clever
rogues.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 129

The character of the Sikhs, or rather
Singhs, which is the name by which the
followers of Guru Govind, who are all
devoted to arms, are distinguished, is very
marked. They have, in general, the Hindu
cast of countenance, somewhat altered by
their long beards, and are to the full as
active as the Mahratas ; and much more
robust, from their living fuller, and enjoying
a better and colder climate. Their courage
is equal, at all times, to that of any natives
of India; and when wrought upon by pre-
judice or religion, is quite desperate. They
are all horsemen, and have no infantry in
their own country, except for the defence
of their forts and villages, though they gene-
rally serve as infantry in foreign armies.
They are bold, and rather rough, in their
address ; which appears more to a stranger
from their invariably speaking in a loud tone*

* Talking aloud is so habitual to a Sikh, that he
bawls a secret in your ear. It has often occurred to
me, that they have acquired it from living in a country
K

130 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS

of voice : but this is quite a habit, and is
alike used by them to express the senti-
ments of regard and hatred. The Sikhs
have been reputed deceitful and cruel ; but
I know no grounds upon which they can
be considered more so than the other tribes
of India. They seemed to me, from all the
intercourse I had with them, to be more
open and sincere than the Mahratas, and
less rude and savage than the Afghans.
They have, indeed, become, from national
success, too proud of their own strength,
and too irritable in their tempers, to have
patience for the wiles of the former ; and
they retain, in spite of their change of man-
ners and religion, too much of the original

where internal disputes have so completely destroyed
confidence, that they can only carry on conversation
with each other at a distance : but it is fairer, perhaps,
to impute this boisterous and rude habit to their living
almost constantly in a camp, in which the voice cer-
tainly loses that nice modulated tone which distin-
guishes the more polished inhabitants of cities.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 131

character of their Hindu ancestors, (for the
great majority are of the Hindu race,) to
have the constitutional ferocity of the latter.
The Sikh soldier is, generally speaking,
brave, active, and cheerful, without polish,
but neither destitute of sincerity nor attach-
ment ; and if he often appears wanting in
humanity, it is not so much to be attributed
to his national character, as to the habits of
a life, which, from the condition of the
society in which he is born, is generally
passed in scenes of violence and rapine.

The Sikh merchant, or cultivator of the
soil, if he is a Singh, differs little in cha-
racter from the soldier, except that his oc-
cupation renders him less presuming and
boisterous. He also wears arms, and is,
from education, prompt to use them when-
ever his individual interest, or that of the
community in which he lives*, requires him

* The old Sikh soldier generally returns to his native
village, where his wealth, courage, or experience,
always obtains him respect, and sometimes station and

132 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

to do so. The general occupations of the
Khalasa Sikhs has been before mentioned.

consequence. The second march which the British
army made into the country of the Sikhs, the head-
quarters were near a small village, the chief or' which,
who was upwards of a hundred years of age, had been
a soldier, and retained all the look and manner of his
former occupation. He came to me, and expressed
his anxiety to see Lord Lake. I showed him the
general, who was sitting alone, in his tent, writing. He
3iniled, and said he knew better : " The hero who had
" overthrown Sindia and Holkar, and had conquered
" Hindustan, must be surrounded with attendants, and
" have plenty of persons to write for him." I assured
him that it was Lord Lake; and, on his lordship
coming to breakfast, I introduced the old Singh, who
seeing a number of officers collect round him, was at
last satisfied of the truth of what I said ; and, pleased
with the great kindness and condescension with which
he was treated by one whom he justly thought so
great a man, sat down on the carpet, became quite
talkative, and related all he had seen, from the inva-
sion of Nadir Shah to that moment. Lord Lake,
pleased with the bold manliness of his address, and the
independence of his sentiments, told him he would
grant him any favour he wished. " I am glad of it,"

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 133

Their character differs widely from that of
the Singhs. Full of intrigue, pliant, versatile,
and insinuating, they have all the art of the
lower classes of Hindus, who are usually
employed in transacting business : from
whom, indeed, as they have no distinction
of dress, it is very difficult to distinguish
them.

The religious tribes of Acalis, Shahid,
and Nirmala, have been noticed. Their

said the old man ; " then march away with your army
4< from my village, which will otherwise be destroyed."
Lord Lake, struck with the noble spirit of the request,
assured him he would march next morning, and that,
in the mean-time, he should have guards, who would
protect his village from injury. Satisfied with this
assurance, the old Singh was retiring, apparently full
of admiration and gratitude at Lord Lake's goodness,
and of wonder at the scene he had witnessed, when,
meeting two officers at the door of the tent, he put a
hand upon the breast of each, exclaiming at the same
time, " Brothers ! where zcere you born, and where are
<( you at this moment?" and, without waiting for an
answer, proceeded to his village.

134 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

general character is formed from their habits
of life. The Acahs are insolent, ignorant,
and daring : presuming upon those rights
which their numbers and fanatic courage
have established, their deportment is hardly
tolerant to the other Sikhs, and insufferable
to strangers, for whom they entertain a
contempt, which they take little pains to
conceal. The Shahid and the Nirmala,
particularly the latter, have more know-
ledge, and more urbanity. They are almost
all men of quiet, peaceable habits; and
many of them are said to possess learning.

There is another tribe among the Sikhs,
called the Nanac Pautra, or descendants of
Nanac, who have the character of being a
mild, inoffensive race ; and, though they do
not acknowledge the institutions of Guru.
Govind, they are greatly revered by his
followers, who hold it sacrilege to injure the
race of their founder ; and, under the
advantage which this general veneration af-
fords them, the Nanac Pautra pursue their

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 135

occupations ; which, if they are not mendi-
cants, is generally that of travelling mer-
chants. They do not carry arms ; and pro-
fess, agreeably to the doctrine of Nanac, to
be at peace* with all mankind.

The Sikh converts, it has been before
stated, continue, after they have quitted
their original religion, all those civil usages
and customs of the tribes to which they
belonged, that they can practise, without
infringing the tenets of Nanac, or the insti-
tutions of Gurd Govind. They are most par-
ticular with regard to their intermarriages ;
and, on this point, Sikhs descended from
Hindus almost invariably conform to Hindti.
customs, every tribe intermarrying within

* When Lord Lake entered the Penjab, in 1805, a
general protection was requested, by several principal
chiefs, for the Nanac Pautra, on the ground of the
veneration in which they were held, which enabled
them, it was stated, to travel all over the country with-
out molestation, even when the most violent wars
existed. It was, of course, granted.

136 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

itself. The Hindu usage, regarding diet, is
also held equally sacred ; no Sikh, descended
from a Hind 6 family, ever violating it, ex-
cept upon particular occasions, such as a
Guru-mata, when they are obliged, by their
tenets and institutions, to eat promiscuously.
The strict observance of these usages has
enabled many of the Sikhs, particularly of
the Jat* and Gujarf* tribes, which include
almost all those settled to the south of the
Satlej, to preserve an intimate intercourse
with their original tribes ; who, considering
the Sikhs not as having lost cast, but as
Hindus that have joined a political associa-

* The Jats are Hindus of a low tribe, who, takinc

7 ' o

advantage of the decline of the Moghul empire, have,
by their courage and enterprise, raised themselves into
some consequence on the north-western parts of Hin-
dustan, and many of the strongest forts of that part of
India are still in their possession.

f The Gujars, who are also Hindus, have raised
themselves to power by means not dissimilar to those
used by the Jats. Almost all the thieves in Hindustan
are of this tribe.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 137

tion, which obliges them to conform to
general rules established for its preservation,
neither refuse to intermarry* nor to eat with
them.

The higher cast of Hindus, such as Brah-
mens and Cshatrijas, who have become
Sikhs, continue to intermarry with converts
of their own tribes, but not with Hindus of
the cast they have abandoned, as they are
polluted by eating animal food ; all kinds
of which are lawful to Sikhs, except the
cow, which it is held sacrilege to slay-f.
Nanac, whose object was to conciliate the
Muhammedans to his creed, prohibited
hog's flesh also; but it was introduced by
his successors, as much, perhaps, from a
spirit of revenge against the Moslems, as
from considerations of indulgence to the

* A marriage took place very lately between the
Sikh chief of Patiala, and that of the Jat Raja, of
B'haratpur.

f Their prejudice regarding the killing of cows is
stronger, if possible, than that of the Hindus.

138 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

numerous converts of the Jat and Gujar
tribe, among whom wild hog is a favourite
species of food.

The Muhammedans, who become Sikhs,
intermarry with each other, but are allowed
to preserve none of their usages, being
obliged to eat hog's flesh, and abstain from
circumcision.

The Sikhs are forbid the use of tobacco*,
but allowed to indulge in spirituous -j*
liquors, which they almost all drink to
excess ; and it is rare to see a Singh soldier,
after sunset, quite sober. Their drink is an

* The Khalasa Sikhs, who follow Nanac, and reject
Guru Govind's institutions, make use of it.

f Spirituous liquors, they say, are allowed by that
verse in the Adi-Grant'h, which states, " Eat, and give
" unto others to eat. Drink, and give unto others to
" drink. Be glad, and make others glad." There is
also an authority, quoted by the Sikhs, from the Hindu
Sastras, in favour of this drinking to excess. Durga,
agreeably to the Sikh quotations, used to drink, because
liquor inspires courage; and this goddess, they say,
was drunk when she slew Mahishasur,

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 139

ardent spirit*, made in the Penjab; but
they have no objections to either the wine
or spirits of Europe, when they can obtain
them.

The use of opium, to intoxicate, is very
common with the Sikhs, as with most of the
military tribes of India. They also take
B'hang-f, another inebriating drug.

The conduct of the Sikhs to their women
differs in no material respect from that of
the tribes of Hindus, or Muhammedans,
from whom they are descended. Their
moral character with regard to women, and

# When Fateh Singh, of Aluwal, who was quite a
young man, was with the British army, Lord Lake
gratified him by a field review. He was upon an ele-
phant, and I attended him upon another. A little
before sunset he became low and uneasy. I observed
it ; and B'hag Singh, an old chief, of frank, rough man-
ners, at once said, " Fateh Singh wants his dram, but
" is ashamed to drink before you." I requested lie
would follow his custom, which he did, by drinking a
large cup of spirits,
f Cannabis sativa.

140 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

indeed in most other points, may, from the
freedom of their habits, generally be con-
sidered as much more lax than that of their
ancestors, who lived under the restraint of
severe restrictions, and whose fear of ex-
communication from their cast, at least
obliged them to cover their sins with the
veil of decency. This the emancipated
Sikhs despise : and there is hardly an in-
famy which this debauched and dissolute
race are not accused (and I believe with
justice) of committing in the most open
and shameful manner.

The Sikhs are almost all horsemen, and
they take great delight in riding. Their
horses were, a few years ago, famous ; and
those bred in the Lak'hi Jungle, and other
parts of their territory, were justly cele-
brated for their strength, temper, and ac-
tivity : but the internal distractions of these
territories has been unfavourable to the
encouragement of the breed, which has
consequently declined ; and the Sikhs now

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 141

are in no respect better mounted than
the Mahratas. From a hundred of their
cavalry it would be difficult to select ten
horses that would be admitted as fit to
mount native troopers in the English
service.

Their horsemen use swords and spears,
and most of them now carry matchlocks,
though some still use the bow and arrow ; a
species of arms, for excellence in the use of
which their forefathers were celebrated, and
which their descendants appear to abandon
with great reluctance.

The education of the Sikhs renders them
hardy, and capable of great fatigue; and
the condition of the society in which they
live, affords constant exercise to that restless
spirit of activity and enterprise which their
religion has generated. Such a race can-
not be epicures : they appear, indeed, gene-
rally to despise luxury of diet, and pride
themselves in their coarse fare. Their dress
is also plain, not unlike that of the Hindus,

142 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

equally light and divested of ornament.
Some of the chiefs wear gold bangles ; but
this is rare ; and the general characteristic of
their dress and mode of living, is simplicity.

The principal leaders among the Sikhs
affect to be familiar and easy of intercourse
with their inferiors, and to despise the pomp
and state of the Muhammedan chiefs : but
their pride often counteracts this disposi-
tion; and they appeared to me to have,
in proportion to their rank and conse-
quence, more state, and to maintain equal,
if not more, reserve and dignity with their
followers, than is usual with the Mahrata
chiefs.

It would be difficult, if not impracticable,
to ascertain the amount of the population
of the Sikh territories, or even to compute
the number of the armies which they could
bring into action. They boast that they
can raise more than a hundred thousand
horse: and, if it were possible to assemble
every Sikh horseman, this statement might

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 143

not be an exaggeration : but there is, per-
haps, no chief among them, except Ranjit
Singh, of Lahore, that could bring an effec-
tive body of four thousand men into the
field. The force of Ranjit Singh did not,
in 1805, amount to eight thousand; and
part of that was under chiefs who had been
subdued from a state of independence, and
whose turbulent minds ill brooked an usur-
pation which they deemed subversive of the
constitution of their commonwealth. His
army is now more numerous than it was,
but it is composed of materials which have
no natural cohesion ; and the first serious
check which it meets, will probably cause
its dissolution.

144 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

SECTION III.

There is no branch of this sketch which
is more curious and important, or that
offers more difficulties to the inquirer, than
the religion of the Sikhs. We meet with a
creed of pure deism, grounded on the most
sublime general truths, blended with the
belief of all the absurdities of the Hindu
mythology, and the fables of Muhamme-
danism; for Nanac professed a desire to
reform, not to destroy, the religion of the
tribe in which he was born ; and, actuated
by the great and benevolent design of
reconciling the jarring faiths of Brahmd and
Muhammed, he endeavoured to conciliate
both Hindus and Moslems to his doctrine,
by persuading them to reject those parts of
their respective beliefs and usages, which,
he contended, were unworthy of that God

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 145

whom they both' adored. He called upon
the Hindus to abandon the worship of idols,
and to return to that pure devotion of the
Deity, in which their religion originated.
He called upon the Muhammedans to ab-
stain from practices, like the slaughter of
cows, that were offensive to the religion of
the Hindus, and to cease from the perse-
cution of that race. He adopted, in order
to conciliate them, many of the maxims
which he had learnt from mendicants, who
professed the principles of the Sufi sect;
and he constantly referred to the admired
writings of the celebrated Muhammedan
Kabir*, who was a professed Stifi, and who

* This celebrated Sufi, or philosophical deist, lived
in the time of the Ernperor Shir Shah. He was, by
trade, a weaver; but has written several admired
works. They are all composed in a strain of universal
philanthropy and benevolence ; and, above all, he in-
culcated religious toleration, particularly between the
Muhammedans and Hindus, by both of whom his
memory is held in the highest esteem and veneration.
L

146 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

inculcated the doctrine of the equality of
the relation of all created beings to their
Creator. Nanac endeavoured, with all the
power of his own genius, aided by such
authorities, to impress both Hindus and
Muhammedans with a love of toleration
and an abhorrence of war ; and his life was
as peaceable as his doctrine. He appears,
indeed, to have adopted, from the hour in
which he abandoned his worldly occu-
pations to that of his death, the habits
practised by that crowd of holy mendicants,
Sanyasis and Fakirs, with whom India
swarms. He conformed to their customs ;
and his extraordinary austerities* are a
constant theme of praise with his followers.
His works are all in praise of God ; but he

* Nanac was celebrated for the manner in which he
performed Tapasa, or austere devotion, which requires
the mind to be so totally absorbed in the Divinity, as
to be abstracted from every worldly thought, and this
for as long a period as human strength is capable of
sustaining.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 147

treats the polytheism of the Hindus with
respect, and even veneration. He never
shows a disposition to destroy the fabric,
but only wishes to divest it of its useless
tinsel and false ornaments, and to establish
its complete dependence upon the great
Creator of the universe. He speaks every
where of Muhammed, and his successors,
with moderation ; but animadverts boldly
on what he conceives to be their errors;
and, above all, on their endeavours to pro-
pagate their faith by the sword.

As Nanac made no material invasion of
either the civil or religious usages of the
Hindus, and as his only desire was to re-
store a nation who had degenerated from
their original pure worship* into idolatry,
he may be considered more in the light of a
reformer than of a subverter of the Hindu

* The most ancient Hindus do not appear to have
paid adoration to idols; but, though they adored God,
they worshipped the sun and elements.

!48 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

religion ; and those Sikhs who adhere to his
tenets, without admitting those of Guru
Govind, are hardly to be distinguished from
the great mass of Hindu population ; among
whom there are many sects who differ,
much more than that of Nanac, from the
general and orthodox worship at present
established in India.

The first successors of Nanac appear to
have taught exactly the same doctrine as
their leader; and though Har Govind
armed all his followers, it was on a prin-
ciple of self-defence, in which he was fully
justified, even by the usage of the Hindus.
It was reserved for Guru Govind to give a
new character to the religion of his fol-
lowers ; not by making any material altera-
tion in the tenets of Nanac, but by esta-
blishing institutions and usages, which not
only separated them from other Hindus,
but which, by the complete abolition of all
distinction of casts, destroyed, at one blow,
a system of civil polity, that, from being

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 149

interwoven with the religion of a weak and
bigoted race, fixed the rule of its priests
upon a basis that had withstood the shock
of ages. Though the code of the Hindus
was calculated to preserve a vast commu-
nity in tranquillity and obedience to its
rulers, it had the natural effect 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 effect that made Guru
Govind resolve on the abolition of cast, as
a necessary and indispensable prelude to
any attempt to arm the original native
population of India against their foreign
tyrants. He called upon all Hindus to
break those chains in which prejudice and
bigotry had bound them, and to devote
themselves to arms, as the only means by
which they could free themselves from the
oppressive government of the Muhamme-
dans; against whom, a sense of his own
wrongs, and those of his tribe, led him to

150 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

preach eternal warfare. His religious doc-
trine was meant to be popular, and it
promised equality. The invidious appel-
lations of Brahmen, Cshatriya, Vaisya, and
Sudra, were abolished. The pride of descent
might remain, and keep up some distinc-
tions ; but, in the religious code of Govind,
every Khalsa Singh (for such he termed his
followers) was equal, and had a like title to
the good things of this world, and to the
blessings of a future life.

Though Guru Govind mixes, even more
than Nanac, the mythology of the Hindus
with his own tenets; though his desire
to conciliate them, in opposition to the
Muhammedans, against whom he always
breathed war and destruction, 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 god-
dess of courage, Durga Bhavani ; yet it is
impossible to reconcile the religion and

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 151

usages, which G6vind has established, with
the belief of the Hindus. It does not, like
that of Nanac, question some favourite
dogmas of the disciples of Brahma-, and
attack that worship of idols, which few of
these defend, except upon the ground of
these figures, before which they bend, being
symbolical representations of the attributes
of an all-powerful Divinity ; but it proceeds
at once to subvert the foundation of the
whole system. Wherever the religion of
Guru Govind prevails, the institutions of
Brahma must fall. The admission of pro-
selytes, the abolition of the distinctions of
cast, the eating of all kinds of flesh, except
that of cows, the form of religious worship,
and the general devotion of all Singhs to
arms, are ordinances altogether irreconcil-
able with Hindu mythology, and have ren-
dered the religion of the Sikhs as obnoxious
to the Brahmens, and higher tribes of the
Hindus, as it is popular with the lower
orders of that numerous class of mankind.

152 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

After this rapid sketch of the general
character of the religion of the Sikhs, I
shall take a more detailed view of its origin,
progress, tenets, and forms.

A Sikh author*, whom I have followed
in several parts of this sketch, is very par-
ticular in stating the causes of the origin of
the religion of Nanac : he describes the
different Yugas, or ages of the world, stated
in the Hindu mythology. The Cali Yug,
which is the present, is that in which it was
written that the human race would become
completely depraved : " Discord," says the
author, speaking of the Cali Yug, " will
" rise in the world, sin prevail, and the
" universe become wicked ; cast will con-
" tend with cast ; and, like bamboos in
" friction, consume each other to embers.
" The Vedas, or scriptures," he adds, " will
" be held in disrepute, for they shall not
" be understood, and the darkness of igno-

* B'hai Gdr6 Das B'hale.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 153

" ranee will prevail every where f Such is
this author's record of a divine prophecy
regarding this degenerate age. He proceeds
to state what has ensued : " Every one fol-
" lowed his own path, and sects were
" separated ; some worshipped Chandra
" (the moon) ; some Surya (the sun) ; some
" prayed to the earth, to the sky, and the
" air, and the water, and the fire, while
" others worshipped D'herma Raja (the
" judge of the dead) ; and in the fallacy of
" the sects nothing was to he found but
" error. In short, pride prevailed in the
" world, and the four casts* established a
" system of ascetic devotion. From these,
" the ten sects of Sanyasis, and the twelve
" sects of Yogis, originated. Thejangam,
" the Srivira, and the Deva Digambar,
" entered into mutual contests. The Brah-
" mens divided into different classes ; and

# Brahmen, Cshatriya, Vaisya, and Sudra.

154 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

" the Sastras, Vedas, and Puranas*, con-
" tradicted each other. The six Dersans
" (philosophical sects) exhibited enmity,
" and the thirty-six Pashands (heterodox
" sects) arose, with hundreds of thousands
" of chimerical and magical (t antra mantra)
" sects : and thus, from one form, many
" good and many evil forms originated,
" and error prevailed in the Cali Yug,
" or age of general depravity."

The Sikh author pursues this account
of the errors into which the Hindus fell,
with a curious passage regarding the
origin and progress of the Muhammedan
religion .

" The world," he writes, " went on with
" these numerous divisions, when Muham-
" med Yara-f appeared, who gave origin

* Different sacred books of the Hindus.

t Yar signifies friend; and one of the prophet's
titles, among his followers, is Yar-i-Khuda, or the friend
of God.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 155

" to the seventy-two sects*, and widely
" disseminated discord and war. He esta-
" blished the Rozeh o Aid (fast and festi-
" vals), and the Namaz (prayer), and
" made his practice of devotional acts pre-
" valent in the world, with a multitude of
" distinctions, of Pir (saint), Paighamber
" (prophet), Ulema (the order of priest-
" hood), and Kitab (the Koran). He de-
" molished the temples, and on their ruins
" built the mosques, slaughtering cows
" and helpless persons, and spreading trans-
" gression far and wide, holding in hostility
" Cafirs (infidels), Mulhids (idolaters), Ir-
" menis (Armenians), Rumis (the Turks),
" and Zingis (Ethiopians). Thus vice
" greatly diffused itself in the universe."

" Then," this author adds, " there were
" two races in the world ; the one Hindu,
" the other Muhammedan ; and both were

* The Muhammedan religion is said to be divided
into seventy-two sects.

156 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS,

" alike excited by pride, enmity, and ava-
" rice, to viotence. The Hindus set their
" heart on Ganga and Benares ; the Mu-
" hammedans on Mecca and the Caaba:
" the Hindus clung to their mark on the
" forehead and brahminical string; the
" Moslemans to their circumcision : the
" one cried Ram (the name of an Avatar),
" the other Rahim (the merciful) ; one
" name, but two ways of pronouncing it ;
" forgetting equally the Vedas and the
" Koran : and through the deceptions of
" lust, avarice, the world, and Satan, they
" swerved equally from the true path :
" while Brahmens and Moulavis destroyed
" each other by their quarrels, and the
" vicissitudes of life and death hung always
" suspended over their heads.

" When the world was in this distracted
" state, and vice prevailed," says this writer,
" the complaint of virtue, whose dominion
" was extinct, reached the throne of the
" Almighty, who created Niinac, to en-

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 157

w lighten and improve a degenerate and
" corrupt age : and that holy man made
" God the Supreme known to all, giving
" the nectareous water that washed his feet
" to his disciples to drink. He restored to
" Virtue her strength, blended the four
" casts * into one, established one mode of
" salutation, changed the childish play of
" bending the head at the feet of idols,
" taught the worship of the true God, and
" reformed a depraved world/'

Nanac appears, by the account of this
author, to have established his fame for
sanctity by the usual modes of religious
mendicants. He performed severe Tapasaf*,
living upon sand and swallow- wort, and
sleeping on sharp pebbles ; and, after attain-

* There is no ground to conclude that casts were
altogether abolished by Nanac; though his doctrines
and writings had a tendency to equalize the Hindus,
and unite all in the worship of one God.

"t* A kind of ascetic devotion, which has been before
explained.

158 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

ing fame by this kind of penance, he
commenced his travels, with the view of
spreading his doctrine over the earth.

After Nanac had completed his terres-
trial travels, he is supposed to have as-
cended to Sumeru, where he saw the
Sidd'his*, all seated in a circle. These,
from a knowledge of that eminence for
which he was predestined, wished to make
him assume the characteristic devotion of
their sect, to which they thought he would
be an ornament. While means were used
to effect this purpose, a divine voice was
heard to exclaim : " Nanac shall form his
«« own sect, distinct from all the Yatis-f-
" and Sidd'his; and his name shall be
" joyful to the Cali Yug." After this,

* The Sidd'his (saints) are the attendants of the
gods. The name is most generally applied to those
who wait on Gauesa.

+ The name Yati is most usually applied to the
priests of the Jainas; but it is also applicable to San-
yasis, and other penitents.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 159

Nanac preached the adoration of the true
God to the Hindus; and then went to
instruct the Muhammedans, in their sacred
temples at Mecca. When at that place,
the holy men are said to have gathered
round him, and demanded, Whether their
faith, or that of the Hindus, was the best ?
" Without the practice of true piety, both/'
said Nanac, " are erroneous, and neither
" Hindus nor Moslems will be acceptable
" before the throne of God ; for the faded
" tinge of scarlet, that has been soiled by
" water, will never return. You both de-
" ceive yourselves, pronouncing aloud Ram
" and Rahim, and the way of Satan pre-
" vails in the universe."

The courageous independence with which
Nanac announced his religion to the Mu-
hammedans, is a favourite topic with his
biographers. He was one day abused, and
even struck, as one of these relates, by a
Moullah, for lying on the ground with his
feet in the direction of the sacred temple of

160 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

Mecca. " How darest thou, infidel!" said
the offended Muhammedan priest, " turn
" thy feet towards the house of God Vs —
" Turn them, if you can," said the pious
but indignant Nanac, " in a direction where
" the house of God is not."

Nanac did not deny the mission of Mu-
hammed. " That prophet was sent," he
said, " by God, to this world, to do good,
" and to disseminate the knowledge of one
" God through means of the K6ran ; but
" he, acting on the principle of free-will,
" which all human beings exercise, intro-
" duced oppression, and cruelty, and the
" slaughter of cows*, for which he died. —
" lam now sent," he added, " from heaven,
" to publish unto mankind a book, which
" shall reduce all the names given unto
" God to one name, which is God ; and he
" who calls him by any other, shall fall into

* Nanac appears on this, and every other occasion,
to have preserved his attachment to this favourite
dogma of the Hindus.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. i6'l

" the path of the devil, and have his feet
** bound in the chains of wretchedness.
** You have/' said he to the Muhamme-
dans, " despoiled the temples, and burnt
■" the sacred Vedas, of the Hindus; and
" you have dressed yourselves in dresses of
" blue, and you delight to have your
u praises sung from house to house : but I,
" who have seen all the world, tell you,
" that the Hindus equally hate you and
" your mosques. I am sent to reconcile
" your jarring faiths, and I implore you to
u read their scriptures, as well as your own :
" but reading is useless without obedience
" to the doctrine taught; for God has
" said, no man shall be saved except he
" has performed good works. The Al-
" mighty will not ask to what tribe or
" persuasion he belongs. He will only
" ask, What has he done ? Therefore those
" violent and continued disputes, which
" subsist between the Hindus and Mosle-
" mans, are as impious as they are unjust."

M

162 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

Such were the doctrines, according to
his disciples, which Nanac taught to both
Hindus and Muhammedans. He professed
veneration and respect, but refused adora-
tion to the founders of both their religions ;
for which, as for those of all other tribes, he
had great tolerance. " A hundred thousand
" of Muhammeds," said Nanac, " a million
u of Brahmas, Vishnus, and a hundred
" thousand Ramas, stand at the gate of the
" Most High. These all perish ; God alone
" is immortal. Yet men, who unite in
" the praise of God, are not ashamed
" of living in contention with each other ;
" which proves that the evil spirit has
*< subdued all. He alone is a true Hindu
" whose heart is just: and he only is
" a good Muhammedan whose life is
" pure."

Nanac is stated, by the Sikh author from
whom the above account of his religion is
taken, to have had an interview with the
supreme God, which he thus describes :

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 163

" One day Nanac heard a voice from
" above exclaim, N&nac, approach!" He
replied, " Oh God ! what power have I to
" stand in thy presence?" The voice said,
" Close thine eyes." Nanac shut his eyes,
and advanced : he was told to look up : he
did so, and heard the word Wa ! or well
done, pronounced five times ; and then Wa !
Guruji, or well done teacher. After this
God said, " Nanac! I have sent thee into
" the world, in the Cali Yug (or depraved
" age) ; go and bear my name/' Nanac
said, " Oh God ! how can I bear the mighty
" burthen? If my age was extended to
" tens of millions of years, if I drank of
" immortality, aud my eyes were formed of
" the sun and moon, and were never closed,
" still, oh God! I could not presume to
*' take charge of thy wondrous name." —
" I will be thy Guru (teacher)," said God,
" and thou shalt be a Guru to all mankind,
M and thy sect shall be great in the world ;
" their word is Puri Puri. The word

164 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

" of the Bairasi is Ram ! Ram ! that of the

4C Sanyasi, Om ! Nama ! Narayen ! and the

" word of the Yogis, Ades ! Ades ! and the

" salutation of the Muhainmedans is Salam

" Alikam ; and that of the Hindus, Ram !

" Ram ! but the word of thy sect shall be

" Guru, and I will forgive the crimes of

" thy disciples. The place of worship of

" the Bairagis is called Ramsala; that of

" the Yogis, Asan ; that of the Sanyasis,

" Mat ; that of thy tribe shall be Dherma

" Sala. Thou must teach unto thy fol-

" lowers three lessons : the first, to worship

" my name ; the second, charity ; the third,

" ablution. They must not abandon the

" world, and they must do ill to no being;

" for into every being have I infused breath ;

" and whatever I am, thou art, for betwixt

" us there is no difference. It is a blessing

" that thou art sent into the Cali Yug."
After this, " Wa Guru I or zvell done,

" teacher ! was pronounced from the mouth

u of the most high Guru or teacher (God),

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 165

" and Nanac came to give light and free-
" dom to the universe."

The above will give a sufficient view of
the ideas which the Sikhs entertain regard-
ing the divine origin of their faith ; which,
as first taught by Nanac, might justly be
deemed the religion of peace.

" Put on armour," says Nanac, " that
" will harm no one ; let thy coat of mail
" be that of understanding, and convert
" thy enemies to friends. Fight with va-
" lour, but with no weapon except the
" word of God." All the principles which
Nanac inculcated, were those of pure deism ;
but moderated, in order to meet the deep-
rooted usages of that portion of mankind
which he wished to reclaim from error.
Thou<m he condemned the lives and habits
of the Muhammedans, he approved of the
Koran-, He admitted the truth of the

* This fact is admitted by Sikh authors. It is, how-
ever, probable, that Nanac was but imperfectly ac-
quainted with the doctrines of that volume.

166 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

ancient Vedas, but contended that the
Hindu religion had been corrupted, by the
introduction of a plurality of gods, with
the worship of images ; which led their
minds astray from that great and eternal
Being, to whom adoration should alone be
paid. He, however, followed the forms of
the Hindus, and adopted most of their doc-
trines which did not interfere with his great
and leading tenet. He admitted the claim
to veneration, of the numerous catalogue of
Hindu Devas, and Devatas, or inferior
deities ; but he refused them adoration. He
held it impious to slaughter the cow ; and he
directed his votaries, as has been seen, to
consider ablution as one of their primary
religious duties.

Nanac, according to Penjabi authors,
admitted the Hindu doctrine of metempsy-
chosis. He believed, that really good men
would enjoy Paradise ; that those, who had
no claim to the name of good, but yet were
not bad, would undergo another probation,

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 167

by revisiting the world in the human form :
and that the bad would animate the bodies
of animals, particularly dogs and cats : but
it appears, from the same authorities, that
Nanac was acquainted with the Muham-
medan doctrine regarding the fall of man,
and a future state ; and that he represented
it to his followers as a system, in which
God, by showing a heaven and a hell, had, in
his great goodness, held out future rewards
and punishments to man, whose will he
had left free, to incite him to good actions,
and deter him from bad. The principle of
reward and punishment is so nearly the same
in the Hindu and in the Muhammedan reli-
gion, that it was not difficult for Nanac to
reconcile his followers upon this point : but
in this, as in all others, he seems to have
bent to the doctrine of Brahma. In all his
writings, however, he borrowed indifferently
from the Koran and the Hindu Sastras ;
and his example was followed by his suc-
cessors ; and quotations from the scriptures

168 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

of the Hindus, and from the book of Mu-
hammed, are indiscriminately introduced
into all their sacred writings, to elucidate
those points on which it was their object to
reconcile these jarring religions.

With the exact mode in which Nanac
instructed his followers to address their
prayers to that supreme Being whom he
taught them to adore, I am not acquainted.
Their D'herma Sala, or temples of worship,
are, in general, plain buildings. Images
are, of course, banished. Their prescribed
forms of prayer are, I believe, few and
simple. Part of the writings of Nanac,
which have since been incorporated with
those of his successors, in the Adi Grant'h,
are read, or rather recited, upon every
solemn occasion. These are all in praise of
the Deity, of religion, and of virtue ; and
against impiety and immorality. The Adi
Grant'h, the whole of the first part of which
is ascribed to Nanac, is written, like the
rest of the books of the Sikhs, in the

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 169

Gurumuk'h* character. I can only judge
very imperfectly of the value of this work :
but some extracts, translated from it, ap-
pear worthy of that admiration which is
bestowed upon it by the Sikhs.

The Adi-Grant'h is in verse; and many
of the chapters, written by Nanac, are
termed Pidi, which means, literally, a ladder
or flight of steps ; and, metaphorically, that
by which a man ascends.

In the following fragment, literally trans^
lated from the Sodar rag asa mahilla pehla
of Nanac, he displays the supremacy of the
true God, and the inferiority of the De-
vatas, and other created beings, to the uni-
versal Creator; however they may have
been elevated into deities by ignorance or
superstition.

Thy portals, how wonderful they are, how wonderful
thy palace, where thou sittest and governest all !

Numberless and infinite are the sounds which pro-
claim thy praises.

* A modified species of the Nagari character.

17q SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

How numerous are thy Peris, skilful in music and
song !

Pavan (air), water, and Vasan tar (fire), celebrate thee ;
D'herma Raja (the Hindu Rhadamanthus) cele-
brates thy praises, at thy gates.

Chitragupta (Secretary to D'herma Raja) celebrates
thy praises ; who, skilful in writing, writes and
administers final justice.

Iswara, Brahma, and Devi, celebrate thy praises ;
they declare in fit terms thy majesty, at thy
gates.

Indra celebrates thy praises, sitting on the Indraic
throne amid the Devatas.

The just celebrate thy praises in profound medita-
tion, the pious declare thy glory.

The Yaris and the Satis joyfully celebrate thy might.

The Pandits, skilled in reading, and the Rishiswaras,
who, age by age, read the Vedas, recite thy
praises.

The Mohinis (celestial courtezans), heart alluring,
inhabiting Swarga, Mritya, and Patala, cele-
brate thy praises.

The Ratnas (gems), with the thirty-eight Tirt'has
(sacred springs), celebrate thy praises.

Heroes of great might celebrate thy name; beings
of the four kinds of production celebrate thy
praises.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 171

The continents, and regions of the world, celebrate

thy praises ; the universal Brahmanda (the

mundane egg), which thou hast established firm.
All who know thee praise thee, all who are desirous

of thy worship.
How numerous they are who praise thee ! they exceed

my comprehension: how, then, shall Nanac

describe them ?
He, even he, is the Lord of truth, true, and truly just.
He is, he was, he passes, he passes not, the preserver

of all that is preserved.
Of numerous hues, sorts and kinds, he is the original

author of Maya (deception).
Having formed the creation, he surveys his own

Avork, the display of his own greatness.
What pleases him he does, and no order of any

other being can reach him.
He is the Padshah and the Fudsaheb of Shahs;

Nanac resides in his favour.

These few verses are, perhaps, sufficient
to show, that it was on a principle of pure
deism that Nanac entirely grounded his
religion. It was not possible, however,
that the minds of any large portion of man-
kind could remain long fixed in a belief

172 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

which presented them only with general
truths, and those of a nature too vast for
their contemplation or comprehension. The
followers of Nanac, since his death, have
paid an adoration to his name, which is at
variance with the lessons which he taught ;
they have clothed him in all the attributes
of a saint: they consider him as the se-
lected instrument of God to make known
the true faith to fallen man ; and, as such,
they give him divine honours; not only
performing pilgrimage to his tomb, but
addressing him, in their prayers, as their
saviour and mediator.

The religious tenets and usages of the
Sikhs continued, as they had been esta-
blished by Nanac*, till the time of Guru

* Certainly no material alteration was made, cither
in the belief or forms of the Sikhs, by any of his suc-
cessors before Guru Govind. liar G6vind, who
armed his followers to repel aggression, would only
appear to have made a temporary effort to oppose his

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 173

Govind; who, though he did not alter the
fundamental principles of the established
faith, made so complete a change in the
sacred usages and civil habits of his fol-
lowers, that he gave them an entirely new
character : and though the Sikhs retain all
their veneration for Nanac, they deem Guru
Govind to have been equally exalted, by
the immediate favour and protection of the
Divinity ; and the Dasama Padshah ka
Gran th, or book of the tenth king, which
was written by Guru Govind, is considered,
in every respect, as holy as the Adi Grant'h
of Nanac, and his immediate successors.
I cannot better explain the pretensions
which Guru Govind has made to the rank
of a prophet, than by exhibiting his own
account of his mission in a literal version
from his Vichitra Natac.

enemies, without an endeavour to effect any serious
change in the religious belief or customs of the sect to
which he belonged.

174 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

" I now declare my own history, and
" the multifarious austerities which I have
" performed.

" Where the seven peaks rise beautiful
" on the mountain Hemacuta, and the
" place takes the name of Sapta Sringa,
" greater penance have I performed than
" was ever endured by Pandu Raja, medi-
" tating constantly on Maha Cal and Calica,
" till diversity was changed into one form.
" My father and mother meditated on the
" Divinity, and performed the Yoga, till
" Guru Deva approved of their devotions.
" Then the Supreme issued his order, and
" I was born, in the Call Yug, though my
" inclination was not to come into the
" world, my mind being fixed on the foot
" of the Supreme. When the supreme
" Being made known his will, I was sent
" into the world. The eternal Being thus
" addressed this feeble insect :

" — I have manifested thee as my own
M son, and appointed thee to establish a

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 175

" perfect Pant'h (sect). Go into the world,
" establish virtue and expel vice/' —

" — I stand with joined hands, bending
" my head at thy word : the Pant'h shall
" prevail in the world, when thou lendest
" thine aid. — Then was I sent into the
" world : thus I received mortal birth. As
" the Supreme spoke to me, so do I speak,
" and to none do I bear enmity.. Whoever
" shall call me Parameswara, he shall sink
" into the pit of hell : know, that I am only
" the servant of the Supreme, and con-
" cerning this entertain no doubt. As God
" spoke, I announce unto the world, and
" remain not silent in the world of men.

" As God spoke, so do I declare, and I
" regard no person's word. I wear my
" dress in nobody's fashion, but follow that
" appointed by the Supreme. I perform
" no worship to stones, nor imitate the
" ceremonies of any one. I pronounce
" the infinite name, and have attained to
" the supreme Being. I wear no bristling

176 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

H locks on my head, nor adorn myself with

" ear-rings. I receive no person's words in

" my ears ; but as the Lord speaks, I act.

" I meditate on the sole name, and attain

" my object. To no other do I perform

" the Jap, in no other do I confide : I

" meditate on the infinite name, and attain

" the supreme light. On no other do I

" meditate; the name of no other do I

" pronounce.

" For this sole reason, to establish virtue,

" was I sent into the world by Gur(i Deva.

" ' Every where/ said he, ' establish virtue,

" and exterminate the wicked and vitious/

" For this purpose have I received mortal

" birth ; and this let all the virtuous under-

" stand. To establish virtue, to exalt piety,

" and to extirpate the vitious utterly.

" Every former Avatar established his own

" Jap ; but no one punished the irreligious,

" no one established both the principles

" and practice of virtue, (Dherm Carm).

" Every holy man (Gh6us), and prophet

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 177

" (Ambia), attempted only to establish his
" own reputation in the world ; but no one
" comprehended the supreme Being, or
" understood the true principles or practice
" of virtue. The doctrine of no other is of
" any avail ; this doctrine fix in your minds.
" There is no benefit in any other doctrine,
" this fix in your minds.

" Whoever reads the Koran, whoever
". reads the Puran, neither of them shall
" escape death, and nothing but virtue
" shall avail at last. Millions of men may
" read the Koran, they may read innu-
" merable Purans; but it shall be of no
" avail in the life to come, and the power
" of destiny shall prevail over them."

Guru Govind, after this account of the
origin of his mission, gives a short account
of his birth and succession to the spiritual
duties at his father's death.

" At the command of God I received
ff mortal birth, and came into the world.

178 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

" This I now declare briefly; attend to

" what I speak.

" My father journeyed towards the East,

" performing ablution in all the sacred

" springs. When he arrived at Triveni,

" he spent a day in acts of devotion and

" charity. On that occasion was I mani-

" fested. In the town of Patna I received

" a body. Then the Madra Des received

" me, and nurses nursed me tenderly, and

" tended me with great care, instructing

" me attentively every day. When I

" reached the age of Dherm and Carm

" (principles and practice), my father de-

" parted to the Deva Loca. When I was

" invested with the dignity of Raja, I

" established virtue to the utmost of my

" power. I addicted myself to every spe-

" cies of hunting in the forests, and daily

" killed the bear and the stag. When I

" had become acquainted with that coun-

" try, I proceeded to the city of Pavata,

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 179

" where I amused myself on the banks of
" the Calindri, and viewed every kind of
" spectacle. There I slew a great number
" of tigers ; and, in various modes, hunted
" the bear."

The above passages will convey an idea
of that impression which Guru G6vind
gave his followers of his divine mission. I
shall shortly enumerate those alterations he
made in the usages of the Sikhs, whom
it was his object to render, through the
means of religious enthusiasm, a warlike
race.

Though Guru Govind was brought up in
the religion of Nanac, he appears, from
having been educated among the Hindu
priests of Mathura, to have been deeply
tainted with their superstitious belief; and
he was, perhaps, induced by considerations
of policy, to lean still more strongly to their
prejudices, in order to induce them to be-
come converts to that religious military
community, by means of which it was

180 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

his object to destroy the Muhammedan
power.

The principal of the religious institutions
of Guru Govind, is that of the Pahal, — the
ceremony by which a convert is initiated
into the tribe of Sikhs ; or, more properly
speaking, that of Singhs. The meaning of
this institution is to make the convert a
member of the Khalsa, or Sikh common-
wealth, which he can only become by
assenting to certain observances ; the de-
voting himself to arms for the defence of
the commonwealth, and the destruction of
its enemies ; the wearing his hair, and put-
ting on a blue dress*.

* It] has been before stated, that all the fol-
lowers of G6vind do not now wear the blue dress,
but they all wear their hair; and their jealous re-
gard of it is not to be described. Three inferior
agents of Sikh chiefs were one day in ray tent;
one of them was a Khalsa Singh, and the two
others of the Khalasa tribe of Sikhs. I was laugh-
ing and joking with the Khalsa Singh, who said

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 181

The mode in which Guru Govind first
initiated his converts, is described by a Sikh
writer; and, as I believe it is nearly the
same as that now observed, I shall shortly
state it as he has described it. Guru
Govind, he says, after his arrival at Mak'-

he had been ordered to attend me to Calcutta. Among
other subjects of our mirth, I rallied him on trusting
himself so much in my power. " Why, what is the
" worst," said he, " that you can do to me, when
" I am at such a distance from home ?" I passed my
hand across my chin, imitating the act of shaving.
The man's face was in an instant distorted with rage,
and his sword half drawn. " You are ignorant," said
he to me, " of the offence you have given. I cannot
" strike you, who are above me, and the friend of my
" master and the state. But no power," he added,
" shall save these fellows," alluding to the two Kha-
lasa Sikhs, " from my revenge, for having dared to
« smile at your action." It was with the greatest
difficulty, and only by the good offices of some Sikh
chiefs, that I was able to pacify the wounded honour
of this Singh.

182 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

haval, initiated five converts, and gave
them instructions how to initiate others.
The mode is as follows. The convert is
told that he must allow his hair to grow.
He must clothe himself from head to foot
in blue clothes. He is then presented with
the five weapons : a sword, a firelock, a
bow and arrow, and a pike*. One of
those who initiate him then says, " The
" Guru is thy holy teacher, and thou art
" his Sikh or disciple." Some sugar and
water is put into a cup, and stirred round
with a steel knife, or dagger, and some
of the first chapters of the Adi-Grant'h,
and the first chapters of the Dasama Pad-
shah ka Grant'h, are read ; and those who

* The goddess of courage, Bhavani Durga, repre-
sented in the Dasama Padshah ka Grant'h, or book of
kings of Guru Govind, as the soul of arms, or tutelary
goddess of war, and is thus addressed : " Thou art the
" edge of the sword, thou art the arrow, the sword,
" the knife, and the dagger."

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 183

perform the initiation exclaim, WaJ Guruji
ka Khdlsa! TVa! Guruji ki Fateh! (Success
to the state of the Guru ! Victory attend
the Guru !) After this exclamation has
been repeated five times, they say, " This
" sherbet is nectar. It is the water of life ;
" drink it." The disciple obeys ; and some
sherbet, prepared in a similar manner, is
sprinkled over his head and beard. After
these ceremonies, the disciple is asked if he
consents to be of the faith of Guru Govind.
He answers, " I do consent." He is then
told, " If you do, you must abandon all
" intercourse, and neither eat, drink, nor sit
" in company with men of five sects which
" I shall name. The first, the Mina D'hir-
" mal ; who, though of the race of Nanac,
" were tempted by avarice to give poison
" to Arjun ; and, though they did not suc-
" ceed, they ought to be expelled from
" society. The second are the Musandia ;
" a sect who call themselves Gurus, or
" priests, and endeavour to introduce he-

184 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

" terodox doctrines*. The third, Ram
" Rayi, the descendants of Ram Ray,
" whose intrigues were the great cause of
" the destruction of the holy ruler, Tegh
" Singh. The fourth are the Kud i-niar,
" or destroyers -f of their own daughters.
" Fifth, the Bhadani, who shave the hair
" of their head and beards/' The disciple,
after this warning against intercourse with
sectaries, or rather schismatics, is instructed
in some general precepts, the observance of
which regard the welfare of the community
into which he has entered. He is told to
be gentle and polite to all with whom he
converses, to endeavour to attain wisdom,
and to emulate the persuasive eloquence of
Baba Nanac. He is particularly enjoined,
whenever he approaches any of the Sikh
temples, to do it with reverence and re-
spect, and to go to Amritsar, to pay his

* Guru Govind put to death many of this tribe.
t This barbarous custom still prevails among the
Rajaputs in many parts of Hindustan.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 185

devotions to the Khalsa, or state ; the
interests of which he is directed, on all
occasions, to consider paramount to his
own. He is instructed to labour to in-
crease the prosperity of the town of Arn-
ritsar; and told, that at every place of
worship which he visits he will be con-
ducted in the right path by the Guru (Guru
Govind). He is instructed to believe, that
it is the duty of all those who belong to the
Khalsa, or commonwealth of the Sikhs,
neither to lament the sacrifice of property,
nor of life, in support of each other ; and
he is directed to read the Adi-Grant'h and
Dasama Padshah ka Grant'h, every morn-
ing and every evening. Whatever he has
received from God, he is told it is his duty
to share with others. And after the dis-
ciple has heard and understood all these
and similar precepts, he is declared to be
duly initiated.

Guru Govind Singh, agreeably to this
Sikh author, after initiating the first five

186 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

disciples in the mode above stated, order-
ed the principal persons among them* to
initiate him exactly on similar occasions,
which he did. The author from whom the
above account is taken, states, that when
Govind was at the point of death, he ex-
claimed, " Wherever five Sikhs are as-
" sembled, there I also shall be present!"
and, in consequence of this expression, five
Sikhs are the number necessary to make
a Singh, or convert. By the religious
institutions of Guru Govind, proselytes are
admitted from all tribes and casts in the
universe. The initiation may take place
at any time of life, but the children of the
Singhs all go through this rite at a very early
age.

The leading tenet of Guru Govind's reli-

• Agreeably to this author, Guru Govind was ini-
tiated on Friday, the 8th of the month B'hadra, in the
year 1753 of the sera of Vicramaditya; and on that
day his great work, the Dasama Padshah ka Grant'h,
or book of the tenth king, was completed.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 187

gious institutions, which obliges his fol-
lowers to devote themselves to arms, is
stated, in one of the chapters of the Dasama
Padshah ka Grant'h, or book of the tenth
king, written in praise of Durga B'havani,
the goddess of courage : " Durga," Guru
G6vind says, " appeared to me when I
" was asleep, arrayed in all her glory. The
" goddess put into my hand the hilt of
" a bright scimitar, which she had before
" held in her own. ' The country of the
" Muhammedans/ said the goddess, ' shall
" be conquered by thee, and numbers of
" that race shall be slain/ After I had
" heard this, I exclaimed, ' This steel shall
" be the guard to me and my followers,
" because, in its lustre, the splendour of
" thy countenance, O goddess! is always
« reflected*/"

* An author, whom I have often quoted, says,
Guru Govind gave the following injunctions to his
followers : " It is right to slay a Muhammedan wher-

188 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

The Dasama Padshah ka Grant'h of
Guru Govind appears, from the extracts
which I have seen of it, to abound in fine
passages. Its author has borrowed largely
from the Sastras of the Brahmens, and the
Koran. He praises Nanac as a holy saint,
accepted of God ; and grounds his faith,
like that of his predecessors, upon the
adoration of one God; whose power and
attributes he however describes by so many
Sanscrit names, and with such constant
allusions to the Hindu mythology, that it
appears often difficult to separate his purer
belief from their gross idolatry. He, how-
ever, rejects all worship of images, on an
opinion taken from one of the ancient
Vedas, which declares, " that to worship

" ever you meet him. If you meet a Hindu, beat
" him and plunder him, and divide his property
" among you. Employ your constant effort to destroy
" the countries ruled by Muhammedans. If they
" oppose you, defeat and slay them."

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 139

" an idol made of wood, earth, or stone, is
" as foolish as it is impious ; for God alone
" is deserving of adoration."

The great points, however, by which
G6ru Govind has separated his followers
for ever from the Hindus, are those which
have been before stated ; — -the destruction
of the distinction of casts, the admission of
proselytes, and the rendering the pursuit of
arms not only admissible, but the religious
duty of all his followers. Whereas, among
the Hindus, agreeable to the Dherma
Sastra, (one of the most revered of their
sacred writings,) carrying arms on all occa-
sions, as an occupation, is only lawful to
the Cshatriya or military tribe. A Brah-
men is allowed to obtain a livelihood by
arms, if he can by no other mode. The
Vaisya and Sudra are not allowed to make
arms their profession, though they may use
them in self-defence.

The sacred book of Guru Govind is not
confined to religious subjects, or tales of

190 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

Hindu mythology, related in his own way ;
but abounds in accounts of the battles
which he fought, and of the actions which
were performed by the most valiant of his
followers. Courage is, throughout this work,
placed above every other virtue ; and G6-
vind, like Muhammed, makes martyrdom
for the faith which he taught, the shortest
and most certain road to honour in this
world, and eternal happiness in the future.
The opinion which the Sikhs entertain of
Govind will be best collected from their
most esteemed authors.

" Gurti Govind Singh/' one* of those
writers states, " appeared as the tenth
" Avatar. He meditated on the Creator
" himself, invisible, eternal, and incom-
" prehensible. He established the Khalsa,
" his own sect, and, by exhibiting singular
" energy, leaving the hair on his head, and
" seizing the scimitar, he smote every

* B'hai Gtirvi Das Bhale.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. igi

" wicked person. He bound the garment

" of chastity round his loins, grasped the

" sword of valour, and, passing the true

" word of victory, became victorious in

" the field of combat; and seizing the

" Devatas, his foes, he inflicted on them

" punishment ; and, with great success, dif-

" fused the sublime Guru Jap (a mystical

" form of prayer composed by Guru G6-

" vind) through the world. As he was

" born a warlike Singh, he assumed the

" blue dress ; and, by destroying the wicked

" Turks, he exalted the name of Hari

" (God). No Sirdar could stand in battle

" against him, but all of them fled ; and,

" whether Hindu Rajas, or Muhammedan

" lords, became like dust in his presence.

" The mountains, hearing of him, were

" struck with terror ; the whole world was

" affrighted, and the people fled from their

" habitations. In short, such was his fame,

" that they were all thrown into conster-

" nation, and began to say, ' Besides thee.

192 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

" O Sat Guru! there is no dispeller of
" danger/ — Having seized and displayed
" his sword, no person could resist his
" might."

The same author, in a subsequent pas-
sage, gives a very characteristic account
of that spirit of hostility which the religion
of Guru Govind breathed against the Mu-
hammedans ; and of the manner in which
it treated those sacred writings, upon which
most of the established usages of Hindus
are grounded.

" By the command of the Eternal, the
" great Guru disseminated the true know-
" ledge. Full of strength and courage, he
" successfully established the Khalsa (or
" state). Thus, at once founding the
" sect of Singh, he struck the whole world
" with awe : overturning temples and sacred
" places, tombs and mosques, he levelled
" them all with the plain : rejecting the
" Vedas, the Purans, the six Sastras, and
" the Koran ; he abolished the cry of

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 193

" Namaz (Muhammedan prayer), and slew
the Sultans ; reducing the Mirs and Pirs
* (the lords and priests of the Muham-
' medans) to silence, he overturned all
1 their sects; the Moullahs (professors), and
' the Kazis (judges), were confounded,
' and found no benefit from their studies.
<■ The Brahmens, the Pandits, and the
' Jotishis (or astrologers), had acquired a
' relish for worldly things : they worship-
4 ped stones and temples, and forgot the
6 Supreme. Thus these two sects, the
8 Muhammedan and Hindu, remained in-
4 volved in delusion and ignorance, when
the third sect of the Khalsa originated in
purity. When, at the order of Guru
Govind, the Singhs seized and displayed
the scimitar, then subduing all their
enemies, they meditated on the Eternal ;
and, as soon as the order of the Most
High was manifested in the world, cir-
cumcision ceased, and the Turks trem-
bled, when they saw the ritual of Mu-

194

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

" hammed destroyed : then the Nakara
" (large drum) of victory sounded through-
" out the world, and fear and dread were
" abolished. Thus the third sect was
" established, and increased greatly in
" might."

These extracts, and what I have before
stated, will sufficiently show the character
of the religious institutions of Guru G6-
vind ; which were 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. Exhortations respecting their civil
rights, and the wrongs which they sus-
tained, would have been wasted on minds
enslaved by superstition, and who could
only be persuaded to assert themselves men.

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 195

by an impression that it was the will of
Heaven they should do so. His success
is a strong elucidation of the general cha-
racter of the Hindu natives of India. That
race, though in general mild and peaceable,
take the most savage and ferocious 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 Bairagi
Banda to alter the religious institutions of
Guru Govind, and its failure. The tribe of
Acalis (immortals), who have now assumed
a dictatorial sway in all the religious cere-
monies at Amritsar, and the Nirmala and
Shahid, who read the sacred writings, may
hereafter introduce some changes in those
usages which the Sikhs revere : but it is
probable that the spirit of equality, which
has been hitherto considered as the vital
principle of the Khalsa or commonwealth,
and which makes all Sikhs so reluctant to
own either a temporal or spiritual leader,

196 SKETCH OF THE SIKHS.

will tend greatly to preserve their insti-
tutions from invasion : and it is stated, in
a tradition which is universally believed
by the Sikhs, and has, indeed, been in-
serted in their sacred writings, that Guru
Govind, when he was asked by his fol-
lowers, who surrounded his death-bed, to
whom he would leave his authority ? replied,
' I have delivered over the Khalsa (com-
' mon wealth) to God, who never dies. I
' have been your guide, and will still pre-
' serve you ; read the Grant'h, and attend
' to its tenets ; and whoever remains true
' to the state, him will I aid." From these
dying words of Guru Govind, the Sikhs
believe themselves to have been placed, by
their last and most revered prophet, under
the peculiar care of God : and their attach-
ment to this mysterious principle, leads
them to consider the Khalsa (or com-
monwealth) as a theocracy ; and such
an impression is likely to oppose a very
serious obstacle, if not an insuperable

SKETCH OF THE SIKHS. 197

barrier, to the designs of any of their
chiefs, who may hereafter endeavour to
establish an absolute power over the whole
nation.

THE END.

Printed by J. Moyeg, Greville Street, London.

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