Gobind Singh

orig. Gobind Rai

born 1666, Patna, Bihar, India

died Oct. 7, 1708, Nanded, Maharashtra

Sikh Guru.

The son of Guru Tegh Bahadur (1664–75), he was trained in the martial arts in the Punjab. When he was nine his father was executed, and he became the 10th and last Guru of Sikhism, presiding over the Sikh court at Anandpur. A scholar and poet, he is credited with putting the Ādi Granth into its final form. His other great achievement was the founding (1699) of the Khalsa, the egalitarian community that gave Sikhism its political and religious definition and galvanized its martial energies. He was continually at war with local Hindu chiefs and the Mughal authorities, who together forced the Sikhs out of Anandpur in 1704 and killed his four sons. After the death of Aurangzeb, he supported the claim of the future emperor, Bahadur Shah (1643–1712), to the throne. He was assassinated before he could persuade Bahadur Shah to allow the Sikhs' return to Anandpur.

* * *

▪ Sikh Gurū

original name  Gobind Rāi  

born 1666, Patna, Bihār, India

died Oct. 7, 1708, Nānded, Mahārāshtra

      10th and last Sikh Gurū, known chiefly for his creation of the Khālsā (Khalsa), the military brotherhood of the Sikhs (Sikhism).

      Gobind Singh inherited his grandfather Gurū Hargobind's love of the military life and was also a man of great intellectual attainments. He was also the son of the ninth Guru, Tegh Bahādur, who suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Mughal (Mughal Dynasty) emperor Aurangzeb. He was a linguist familiar with Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit as well as his native Punjabi. He further codified Sikh law, wrote poetry, and was the reputed author of the Sikh work called the Dasam Granth (“Tenth Volume”).

      Giving the Sikhs a firm military basis was Gobind Singh's greatest achievement. According to one tradition, one morning after services, he sat in meditation before a great number of Sikhs and asked if any would sacrifice himself for the faith. Finally one man stepped out. The Gurū and his victim disappeared into a tent. A few minutes later Gobind Singh appeared with his sword dripping with blood, calling for another sacrificial volunteer. This ceremony continued until five men had volunteered. All five men then reappeared; according to one tradition the men had been slain but were miraculously restored to life, and according to another Gobind Singh had merely tested the men's faith and slaughtered five goats instead. Initiated with amrit (sweetened water or nectar) and given the title pañc-piāra (the five beloved), they formed the nucleus of the great Sikh military brotherhood known as the Khālsā (“pure”), founded in 1699.

      Every move Gobind Singh made was calculated to instill a fighting spirit in his Sikhs. He created a body of martial poetry and music. He developed in his people a love of the sword—his “sacrament of steel.” With the Khālsā as the guiding spirit of the reconstituted Sikh army, he moved against the Sikhs' enemies on two fronts: one army against the Mughals and the other against the hill tribes. His troops were totally devoted and totally committed to Sikh ideals, willing to risk everything in the cause of Sikh religious and political freedom. He paid a heavy price for this freedom, however. In one battle near Ambāla, he lost all four of his sons. Later the struggle claimed his wife, mother, and father. He himself was killed by a Pashtun tribesman in revenge for the death of his father.

      Gobind Singh proclaimed that he was the last of the personal Gurūs. From that point forward, the Sikh Gurū was to be the holy book, the Ādi Granth. Gobind Singh stands today in the minds of Sikhs as the ideal of chivalry, the Sikh soldier-saint.

* * *