Empire of the Sikhs (3 page)

It was the people of the Punjab, the land of the legendary five rivers – the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej and Beas
³
– who bore the brunt of centuries of invasions, and their rugged character was honed in the unceasing clash of arms. ‘From the remotest antiquity,' an Indian historian has written, ‘an interest has attached to the land of the five Rivers unequalled by that attaching to any other land of this great Peninsula'; it is ‘placed […] by nature in a locality which gives it a crowning position, and serving as the gateway to India' and ‘every invader from the North has, by its possession, sought the road to fame'.
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For hundreds of miles to the north of Punjab lie the Himalayan and Sub-Himalayan ranges, and nestling in them are the ancient centres of Nahan, Chamba, Mandi, Suket and Simla, which was the summer capital of British India. Then there are the flowering valleys of Kulu and Kangra, the upland herding towns of Lahaul and Spiti and the hill town of Dalhousie. To the west lie the Sulaiman and Safed Koh ranges, to the east the River Jamuna, and to the south are the deserts of Sind and Rajasthan and the River Sutlej. Covering an area of 100,436 square miles, well defined by its natural boundaries, amply watered by its five rivers, with extensive areas of rich alluvial soil deposited by them, the Punjab has always held rich agricultural potential. And when to all these natural assets are added the indomitable character of its people this region has been justifiably considered a
priceless jewel in the crown of whichever ruler sat on the throne of Delhi.

Ranjit Singh's accomplishments, his consolidation of the territories he conquered, the diverse backgrounds of the men he chose as his political advisers, military generals and ministers, can be fully appreciated only in long historical context: against the backdrop of India's self-destructive pressures rooted in religion, class, caste and customs and, above all, in the context of the actions and ethical, philosophical, spiritual and social goals of the founding fathers of Sikhism.

Nanak, founder of the Sikh faith, was born in times when wars, terror, turbulence and periodic invasions were savaging the subcontinent, although at the time of his birth on 15 April 1469 India was experiencing a spell of rare stability under the benign rule of Bahlol Khan, founder of the Lodhi Dynasty (1451-1526). Nanak's life coincided with the religious renaissance in Europe, and by an interesting coincidence Martin Luther (1483-1546) and John Calvin (1509-64) were his contemporaries.

Nanak, too, felt very early in life that the divisive and destructive trends which had been tearing his country, the Punjab, apart – and the very village of his birth, Talwandi near Lahore, on the direct route of invading armies that had not so long ago poured in through the Hindu Kush – could only be met by the resoluteness and impetus provided by a new religion which would revitalize people to meet these destructive forces. His resolve to give shape and form to such a movement led him to lay the groundwork for Sikhism. The new faith, he was determined, must give a new life, add a new cultural dimension and a wholly new dynamic to India's religious mosaic.

Nanak was born into a Hindu family and a very happy one at that.
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At a very young age he astonished his parents and the family's Brahmin priest with some forthright statements and
questions. ‘There is no Hindu. There is no Mussulman,' he pronounced.
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And at the age of eleven he baffled a gathering of family, friends and relations when he refused to wear the
janeu
or sacred thread of the Hindus which all male offspring are enjoined to wear from that age onwards, which consists of strands of cotton woven into a thin cord looped from the left shoulder around the right hip. Nanak asked the priest presiding over the ceremony to explain to him what difference wearing the thread would make to his life. If he was unconvinced it could make any real difference, he would prefer not to be a party to the ceremony. He then recited his own composition to him and the assembled guests:

Out of the cotton of compassion

Spin the thread of contentment

Tie the knot of continence, and the twist of virtue;

Make such a sacred thread,

O Pundit, for your inner self.
⁷

When he took his father's cattle out to graze he would spend hours listening to the sages and mystics who have always been a part of India's human mosaic. Although he was most attentive to what they had to say, he usually drew his own conclusions which were, more times than not, at odds with theirs.

At the age of sixteen, on the persuasion of his adoring sister Nanaki, he moved to the town of Sultanpur, a hundred miles away from the parental home, to live with her and her husband, who worked for Nawab Daulat Khan Lodhi, the region's powerful governor and a relative of the ruler of Delhi, Bahlol Khan. A refined and scholarly man, Daulat Khan was so impressed by Nanak that he offered him a job, which he accepted, even though a job wasn't exactly what he was looking for in life.

During his eight years in Sultanpur Nanak married at nineteen and became the father of two sons, Srichand and Lakhmidas.
When he was barely in his twenties word spread about his saintli-ness and scholarly insights into the purpose and meaning of life and the code by which it should be lived. This drew people – even from distant places – to him, and they listened to him with growing reverence. But Nanak knew that he still had much to probe, question and absorb before he could meaningfully communicate with the disciples who had begun to gravitate towards him.

At this stage he took an extraordinary decision: to visit all the centres of religious learning in his country that he could and to travel to those of far-off countries as well, to see and understand the essence of their beliefs and what helped to sustain them. He himself believed in the concept of one god and was increasingly of the view that only this could help a war-ridden, conflict-prone and utterly divided world in which millions of weak and demoralized victims of aggressors were left to their fate. He wished to meet the scholars and sages at the great religious centres and learn their view of these critical human concerns.

Starting in 1496, Nanak's travels lasted twenty-eight years. His journeys were a remarkable feat for those times. But Nanak's gentle and saintly appearance belied his iron will. His travels in India took him from Hardwar to Benares, Kamrup (Assam), Jagannath (Orissa) and to southern India and Ceylon. In the next phase of his travels he visited Tibet, Kabul, Mecca and Baghdad. Each new encounter with men of learning and philosophical bent helped him to define more sharply the contours of the faith he was shaping in a number of newly composed hymns, in which he drew on the basic compassion of Hinduism and the essential brotherhood of Islam, rejecting the demeaning role of the caste system which, in his view, was no less pernicious than the destruction of temples and places of worship.

The word ‘Sikh' comes from the Sanskrit word
shishya,
which means a devoted follower. It was very much in tune with the new faith. After Nanak's return from his travels he settled in a peaceful
spot by the River Ravi, where he spent the last fifteen years of his life. There he built a village which he called Kartarpur, where his devoted disciples gathered in increasing numbers. Its idyllic setting, the easy flow of the community's daily routine in which all participated, Nanak's reading of his own hymns – he composed 974 in all – and the philosophical discourses he initiated, all helped to establish a daily format which Sikhs have followed, with some variations, ever since.

This man of extraordinary vision, exemplary concern for fellow humans and a resoluteness which helped him achieve the seemingly impossible died a peaceful death in Kartarpur on 7 September 1539.

The founder of Sikhism was succeeded as Guru by Angad, who had been chosen by Nanak in preference to his two sons. He began the task of assembling all Guru Nanak's hymns – and sixty-two of his own – in a book. The script he chose was the Gurmukhi (which is also used for modern secular writing and printing); the hymns were composed in medieval Punjabi, in Hindi and other languages of the time. This book would be the precursor of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikhs. On his death in 1552 his chosen successor and close disciple Amar Das succeeded him.

Amar Das gave priority to organizationally strengthening the Sikh faith by meeting the many needs of the
sangats
or assemblies of Sikhs which were beginning to be formed in many parts of India. Guru Amar Das organized these into twenty-two
manjis
or districts, which brought a much-needed cohesiveness and continuity to the faith. He also institutionalized the concept of
langar,
a community kitchen where all, no matter what their caste or religion, could eat.

Guru Amar Das's major reform was the emancipation of women. He allowed widows to remarry and broke the tradition of
not appointing women preachers. He prohibited followers of the Sikh faith from practising
sati
– the self-immolation of widows on their husband's funeral pyres – and made clear that they were no longer obliged to wear veils. These decisions and others introducing equality between men and women were unprecedented in the subcontinent.

A scholar and thinker, Guru Amar Das also wrote 907 hymns which are included in the Guru Granth Sahib. Many of them emphatically reiterate Sikhism's unbending opposition to caste, cults, clergy and idols while expressing firm belief in one god.

There were no divisions of caste or rank, no sectarian antagonisms,

No idols nor temples, nor creeds of particular nations,

There were no clashing forms of prayer and worship,

Nor any to worship or pray.

There were no mullas or qazis or hadjis;

No Sufis and no disciples of the Sufis,

No proud Kings, nor their subjects,

Nor Masters either, nor slaves.

There did not exist either the cult based on adoring worship of Vishnu,

Nor that based on Siva, the passive male,

And Sakti, the active female:

There was neither friendship nor sexual appetite;

God was both creditor and debtor then,

Such being His pleasure.

GURU GRANTH SAHIB
,
Rag Maru,
p. 1035

Guru Amar Das also took the first steps to construct the holiest of all Sikh shrines, the Harmandir, which later came to be known as the Golden Temple, by choosing a site with a beautiful clear pool surrounded by a terrain of trees, flora and fauna. The
actual construction of the building destined to become the emblematic core of Sikhism would take several decades and owed much to the fourth and fifth Gurus, Ram Das and Arjan Dev.

When Amar Das died in 1574, the leadership of the faith passed to Ram Das, who had created a lasting impression on the third Guru by totally identifying himself with the principles and purposes of Sikhism. He took the development of the Golden Temple's site under his personal direction. None of the Sikh Gurus, it should be noted, used his position to lead a privileged life but worked alongside the congregation on everyday duties and anything else that needed to be done.

Guru Ram Das chose to live in a modest structure by the pool that had appealed to his predecessor. The site was between the rivers Ravi and Beas and about a hundred miles east of Lahore. The first step Ram Das took was to buy the pool and much of the land around it for building the Harmandir, to which Sikhs from far and near were to travel for the great joy of seeing their beloved shrine in the middle of the immortal pool. Around this place rose a holy city, which eventually came to be known as Amritsar. The name derives from the words
amrit,
which in Sanskrit means the elixir of life or water sanctified by the touch of the sacred, and
sarowar,
which means a lake or pool.

In the construction of the Harmandir and its surroundings Sikhism's enduring principles of voluntary labour and self-reliance were considered sacrosanct, which is why Guru Ram Das declined Emperor Akbar's offer to gift land for the Harmandir.