The
tenth and the last Guru or Prophet-teacher of the Sikh faith, was born
Gobind Rai Sodhi on Poh 7,
1723 sk/22 December 1666 at Patna, in Bihar. His father, Guru Tegh
Bahadur,
the Ninth Guru, was then travelling across Bengal and Assam. Returning
to Patna in 1670, he directed his family to return to the Punjab. On the
site of the house at Patna in which Gobind Rai was born and where he
spent his early childhood now stands a sacred shrine, Takht Srl Harimandar
Sahib, one of the five most honoured seats of religious authority
(takht, lit. throne) for the Sikhs. Gobind Rai was escorted to Anandpur
(then known as Chakk Nanaki) the foothills of the Sivaliks where he
reached in March 1672 and where his early education included reading
and writing of Punjabi, Braj, Sanskrit and Persian. He was barely
nine years of age when a sudden turn came in his life as well as in
the life of tile community he was destined to lead. Early in 1675, a group
Kashmirt Brahmans, drivels to desperation by the religious fanaticism of
the Mughals General, Iftikar Khan, visited Anandpur to seek Guru
Tegh Bahadur's intercession. As the Guru sat reflecting what to do,
young Gobind Rai, arriving there in company With his playmates,
asked Why he looked so preoccupied. The father, as records
Kuir Singh in his Gurbilas Patshahi 10, replied, "Grave are the burdens
the earth bears. She will be redeemed only if a truly worthy person
comes forward to lay down his head. Distress will then be expunged
and happiness ushered in." "None could be worthier than yourself
to make such a sacrifice," remarked Gobind Rai in his innocent manner.
Guru Tegh Bahadur soon afterwards proceeded to the imperial capital, Delhi, and courted death on 11 November 1675.
Guru
Gobind Singh was formally installed Guru on the Baisakhi
day of 1733 Bk/29 March 1676. In the midst of his engagement with the
concerns of the community, he gave attention to the mastery of physical
skills and literary accomplishment. He had grown into a comely youth—spare,
lithe of limb and energetic. He had a natural genius for poetic
composition and his early years were assiduously given to this pursuit.
The Var Sri Bhagauti Ji Ki, popularly called Chandi di Var.
written
in 1684, was his first composition and his only major work in the
Punjabi language. The poem depicted the legendary contest between
the gods and the demons as described in the Markandeya Purana . The
choice of a warlike theme for this and a number of his later compositions
such as the two Chandi Charitras, mostly in Braj, was made to
infuse
martial spirit among his followers to prepare them to stand up
against injustice and tyranny.
Much of
Guru Gobind Singh's creative literary work was done at
Paonta he had founded on the banks of the River Yamuna and to which
site he had temporarily shifted in April 1685. Poetry as such was,
however, not his aim. For him it was a means of revealing the divine
principle and concretising a personal vision of the Supreme Being
that had been vouchsafed to him. His Japu and the composition known
as Akal Ustati are in this tenor. Through his poetry he preached love
and equality and a strictly ethical and moral code of conduct. He
preached the worship of the One Supreme Being, deprecating idolatry
and superstitious beliefs and observances. The glorification of the
sword itself which he eulogised as Bhaguati was to secure
fulfilment
of God's justice. The sword was never meant as a symbol of aggression,
and it was never to be used for self-aggrandisement. It was the
emblem of manliness and self-respect and was to be used only in
self-defence, as a last resort. For Guru
Gobind Singh said in a Persian couplet in his Zafarnamah:
When all other means have failed,
It is but lawful to take to the sword.
During his stay at Paonta, Guru Gobind Singh availed himself
of his spare time to practice different forms of manly exercises, such
as riding, swimming and archery. His increasing influence among the people
and the martial exercises of his men excited the jealousy of the
neighbouring Rajpat hill rulers who led by Raja Fateh Chand of Garhval
collected a host to attack him. But they were worsted in an action at
Bhangam, about 10 km northeast of Paonta, on 18 Assu 1745 sk/18 September
1688. Soon there after Guua Gobind Singh left Paonta and returned to
 Anandpur which he fortified in view of the continuing hostility of the
Rajput chiefs as well as of the repressive policy of the imperial
government at Delhi. The Guru and his Sikhs were involved in a battle
with a Mughal commander, Alif Khan, at Nadaun on the left bank of the
Beas, about 30 km southeast of Kangra, on 22 Chet 1747 Bk/20 March
1691. Describing the battle in stirring verse in Bachitra Natak, he
said that Alif Khan fled in utter disarray "without being able to
give any attention to his camp." Among several other skirmishes
that occurred was the Husaim battle (20 Februaly 1696) fought against
Husain K an, an imperial general, which resulted in a decisive
victory for the Sikhs. Following the appointment in 1694 of the
liberal Prince Mutazzam (latcr Emperor Bahadur Shah) as viceroy
of north western region including Punjab, there was however a brief
respite from pressure from the ruling authority.
In
1698, Guru Gobind Singh issued directions to Sikh sangals
or communities in different parts not to acknowledge masands, the
local ministers, against whom he had heard complaints. Sikhs, he
instructed, should come to Anandpur straight without
any intermediaries and bring their offerings personally. The Guru
thus established direct relationship with his Sikhs and addressed
them as his Khalsa, Persian term used for crown-lands as distinguished
from feudal chiefs. The institution of the Khalsa was given concrete
form on 30 March 1699 when Sikhs had gathered at Anandpur in large
numbers for the annual festival of Baisakhi. Gurb Gobind Singh
appeared before the assembly dramatically on that day with a
naked sword in hand and, to quote Kuir Singh, Gurbilas Patshahz
10, spoke: "Is there present a true Sikh who would offer his head
to the Guru as a sacrifice?" The words numbed the audience who looked
on in awed silence. The Guru repeated the call. At the third call Daya
Ram, a Sobti Khatri of Lahore, arose and humbly walked behind the Guru
to a tent near by. The Guru returned with his sword dripping blood,
and asked for another head. At this Dharam Das, a Jatt from Hastinapur,
came forward and was taken inside the enclosure. Guru Gobind Singh
made three more calls. Muhkam Chand, a washerman from Dvarka, Himmat,
a water-carrier from Jagannathpurl, and Sahib Chand, a barber from
Bidar (Karnataka) responded one after another and advanced to offer
their heads. All the five were led back from the tent dressed alike
in saffron-coloured raiment topped over with neatly tied turbans
similarly dyed, with swords dangling by their sides. Guru Gobind
Singh then introduced khande da pahul, i.e. initiation by sweetened
water churned with a double-edged broadsword (khanda). Those five
Sikhs were the first to be initiated. Guru Gobind Singh called them
Panj Piare, the five devoted spirits beloved of the Guru. These five,
three of them from the so-called low-castes, a Ksatriya and a Jatt,
formed the nucleus of the self-abnegating, martial and casteless
fellowship of the Khalsa.
 All of them surnamed Singh, meaning lion,
were required to wear in future the five symbols of the Khalsa,
all beginning with the letter K—the kesh or long hair and beard, kanga, a comb in the kesh to keep
it tidy as against the recluses who kept it matted in token of their
having renounced the world, Sara, a steel bracelet, kachha, short
breeches, and kirpan, a sword. They were enjoined to succour the
helpless and fight the oppressor, to have faith in one God and to
consider all human beings equal, irrespective of caste and creed.
Guru Gobind Singh then himself received initiatory rites from
five disciples, now invested with authority as Khalsa, and had
his name changed from Gobind Rai to Gobind Singh. "Hail," as the
poet subsequently sang, "Gobind Singh who is himself Master as
well as disciple." Further injunctions were laid down for the
Sikhs. They must never cut or trim their hair and beards, nor
smoke tobacco. A Sikh must not have sexual relationship outside
the marital bond, nor eat the flesh of an animal killed slowly in
the Muslim way.
These
developments alarmed the caste ridden Rajput chiefs of the
Sivalik hills. They rallied under the leadership of the Raja of
Bilaspur, in whose territory lay Anandpur, to forcibly evict Guru
Gobind Singh from his hilly citadel. Their repeated expeditions
during 1700-04 however proved abortive . They at last petitioned
Emperor Aurangzeb for help. In concert with contingents sent under
imperial orders by the governor of Lahore and those of the faujdar
of Sirhind, they marched upon Anandpur and laid a siege to the fort
in Jeth 1762 sk/May 1705. Over the months, the Guru and his Sikhs
firmly withstood their successive assaults despite dire scarcity of
food resulting from the prolonged blockade. While the besieged
were reduced to desperate straits, the besiegers too were chagrined
at the tenacity with which the Sikhs held out. At this stagy the
besiegers offered, on solemn oaths of Quran, safe exit to the Sikhs if
they quit Anandpur. At last, the town was evacuated during the
night of Poh suds 1, 1762 sk/5-6 December 1705. But soon, as
the Guru and his Sikhs came out, the hill monarchs and their
Mughal allies set upon them in full fury. In the ensuing confusion
many Sikhs were killed and all of the Guru's baggage, including most
of the precious manuscripts, was lost. The Guru himself was able to
make his way to Chamkaur, 40 km southwest of Anandpur, with barely
40 Sikhs and his two elder sons. There the imperial army, following
closely on his heels, caught up with him. His two sons, Ajit Singh
(b. 1687) and Jujhar Singh (b. 1689) and all but five of the Sikhs
fell in the action that took place on 7 December 1705. The five
surviving Sikhs bade the Guru to save himself in order to reconsolidate
the Khalsa. Guru Gobind Singh with three of his Sikhs escaped into
the wilderness of the Malva, two of his Muslim devotees, Gani Khan and
Nabi Khan, helping him at great personal risk.
Guru
Gobind Singh's two younger sons, Zorawar Singh (b. 1696)
and Fateh Singh (b.1698), and his mother, Mata Gujari, were after
the evacuation of Anandpur betrayed by their old servant and escort,
Gangu, to the faujdar of Sirhind, who had the young children executed
on 13 December 1705. Their grandmother died the same day. Befriended
by another Muslim admirer, Ral Kalha of Raikot, Guru Gobind Singh
reached Dina in the heart of the Malva. There he enlisted a few
hundred warriors of the Brar clan, and also composed his famous
letter, Zafarnamah or the Epistle of Victory, in Persian verse,
addressed to Emperor Aurangzeb. The letter was a severe indictment
of the Emperor and his commanders who had perjured their oath and
treacherously attacked him once he was outside the safety of his
fortification at Anandpur. It emphatically reiterated the
sovereignty of morality in the affairs of State as much as
in the conduct of human beings and held the means as important
as the end. Two of the Sikhs, Daya Singh and Dharam Singh, were
despatched with the Zafarnamah to Ahmadnagar in the South
to deliver it to Aurangzeb, then in camp in that town.
From Dina,
Guru Gobind Singh continued his westward march until,
finding the host close upon his heels, he took position astride the water
pool of Khidrana to make a last-ditch stand. The fighting on 29 December
1705 was hard and desperate. In spite of their overwhelming numbers, the
Mughal troops failed to capture the Guru and had to retire in defeat. The
most valorous part in this battle was played by a group of 40 Sikhs who
had deserted the Guru at Anandpur during the long siege, but who, chided
by their womenfolk at home, had come back under the leadership of a
brave and devoted woman, Mai Bhago, to redeem themselves. They had
fallen fighting desperately to check the enemy's advance towards the
Guru's position. The Guru blessed the 40 dead as 40 mukte, i.e. the
40 Saved Ones. The site is now marked by a sacred shrine and tank
and the town which has grown around them is called Muktsar, the Pool
of liberations.
After
spending some time in the Lakkhi Jungle country, Guru Gobind
Singh arrived at Talwandi Sabo, now called Damdama Sahib, on 20 January
1706. During his stay there of over nine months, a number of Sikhs
rejoined him. He prepared a fresh revision of Sikh Scripture, the
Guru Granth Sahib, with the celebrated scholar, Bhai Mani Singh,
as his amanuensis. From the number of scholars who had rallied
round Gura Gobind Singh and from the literary activity initiated,
the place came to be known as the Guru's Kashi or seat of learning
like Varanasi.
The
epistle Zafarnamah sent by Guru Gobind Singh from Dina
seems to have touched the heart of Emperor Aurungzeb. He forthwith
invited him for a meeting. According to Ahkam-i-Alamgiri, the
Emperor had a letter written to the deputy governor of Lahore,
Mun'im Khan, to conciliate the Guru and make the required arrangements
for his journey to the Deccan. Guru Gobind Singh had, however,
already left for the South on 30 October 1706. He was in the
neighbourhood of Baghor, in Rajasthan, when the news arrived
of the death of the Emperor at Ahmadnagar on 20 February 1707.
The Guru there upon decided to return to the Punjab, via
Shahjahanabad (Delhi) . That was the time when the sons of
the deceased Emperor were preparing to contest succession.
Guru Gobind Singh despatched for the help of the eldest
claimant, the liberal Prince Muazzam, a token contingent
of Sikhs which took part in the battle of Jajau (8 June 1707),
decisively won by the Prince who ascended the throne with the
title of Bahadur Shah. The new Emperor invited Guru Gobind Singh
for a meeting which took place at Agra on 23 July 1707.
Emperor
Bahadur Shah had at this time to move against the
Kachhvaha Rajputs of Amber (Jaipur) and then to the Deccan where
his youngest brother, Kam Baksh, had raised the standard of
revolt. The Guru accompanied him and, as says Tarzkh-i-Bahadur
Shahi, he addressed assemblies of people on the way preaching
the word of Guru Nanak. The two camps crossed the River Tapti
between 11 and 14 June 1708 and the Ban-Ganga on 14 August,
arriving at Nanded, on the Godavari, towards the end of August.
While Bahadur Shah proceeded further South, Guru Gobind Singh
decided to stay awhile at Nanded. Here he met a Bairagl recluse,
Madho Das, whom he converted a Sikh administering to him the vows
of the Khalsa, renaming him Gurbakhsh Singh (popular name Banda Singh).
Guru Gobind Singh gave Banda Singh five arrows from his own quiver
and an escort, including five of his chosen Sikhs, and directed
him to go to the Punjab and carry on the campaign against the
tyranny of the provincial overlords.
Nawab
Wazir Khan of Sirhind had felt concerned at the Emperor's
conciliatory treatment of Guru Gobind Singh. Their marching together
to the South made him jealous, and he charged two of his trusted
men with murdering the Guru
before his increasing friendship with the Emperor resulted in any harm
to him. These two pathans Jamshed Khan and Wasil Beg are the names
given in the Guru Kian Sakhian— pursued the Guru secretly and overtook
him at Nanded, where, according to Sri Gur Sobha by Senapati,
 a contemporary writer, one of them stabbed the Guru in the left
side below the heart as he lay one evening in his chamber resting
after the Rahrasi prayer. Before he could deal another blow, Guru
Gobind Singh struck him down with his sahre, while his fleeing companion
fell under the swords of Sikhs who had rushed in on hearing the noise.
As the news reached Bahadur Shah's camp, he sent expert surgeons,
including an Englishman, Cole by name, to attend on the Guru. The
wound was stitched and appeared to have healed quickly but, as the
Guru one day applied strength to pull a stiff bow, it broke out
again and bled profusely. This weakened the Guru beyond cure and he passed
away on Kattak sudi 5, 1765 Bk/7 OC tober 1708. Guru Gobind Singh was seen
leaving this planet riding away on his blue horse, he gave parshad to his
fellow Sikhs before leaving. His body was never found, and it is known that
both him and his horse both left this world like that. Before he left,
Guru Gobind Singh had asked for the Sacred Volume to be brought forth.
To quote Bhatt Vahi Talauda Parganah Jind:
"Guru Gobind Singh, the Tenth Master, son of Guru Teg Bahadur,
grandson of Guru Hargobind, great-grandson of Guru Arjan, of the family
of Guru Ram Das Surajbansi, Gosal clan, Sodhi Khatri, resident of
Anandpur, parganah Kahlur, now at Nanded, in the Godavari country
in the Deccan, asked Bhai Daya Singh, on Wednesday, 6 October 1708,
to fetch Sri Granth Sahib. In obedience to his orders, Daya Singh
brought Sri Granth Sahib. The Guru placed before it five pice
and a coconut and bowed his head before it. He said to the sangat, "It is
my commandment: Own Sri Granthji in my place. He who so acknowledges it
will obtain his reward. The Guru will rescue him. Know this as the truth".
Guru
Gobind Singh thus passed on the succession with due
ceremony to the Holy Book, the Guru Granth Sahib, ending the line
of personal Gurus. "The Guru's spirit," he said, "will henceforth
be in the Granth and the Khalsa. Where the Granth is with any five
Sikhs representing the Khalsa, there will the Guru be." The Word
enshrined in the Holy Book was always revered by
the Gurus as well as by their disciples as of Divine origin.
The Guru was the revealer of the Word. One day the Word was to
take the place of the Guru. The inevitable came to pass when
Guru Gobind Singh declared the Guru Granth Sahib as his successor.
It was only through the Word that the Guru ship could be made
everlasting. The Word as contained in the Guru Granth Sahib
was henceforth, and for all time to come to be the Guru for
the Sikhs.
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