Guru Granth selections: Life of Guru Nanak and the Japji (The Sikh Religion vol. I)

The egg of superstition hath burst ; the mind is illumined : The Guru hath cut the fetters off the feet and freed the captive. I BRING from the East what is practically an unknown religion. The Sikhs are distinguished throughout the world as a great military people, but there is little known even to professional scholars regarding their religion. I have often been asked by educated persons in countries which I have visited, and even in India itself, what the Sikh religion was, and whether the Sikhs were Hindus, idolaters or Muhammadans. This ignorance is the result of the difficulty of the Indian dialects in which their sacred writings are contained. Judaism has its Old Testament ; Islam its Quran ; Hinduism its Veds, Purans, and Shastars ; Budhism its Tripitaka ; the Parsi religion its Zendavesta ; and Confucianism its Analects, its Spring and Autumn, its Ancient Poems and its Book of Changes. The languages in which the holy writings of these religions are enshrined, though all difficult, are for the most part homogeneous, and after preliminary study with tutors can generally be mastered by the aid of grammars and dictionaries ; but not so the mediaeval Indian dialects in which the sacred writings of the Sikh Gurus and Saints were composed. Hymns are found in Persian, mediaeval Prakrit, Hindi, Marathi, old Panjabi, Multani, and several local dialects. In several hymns the Sanskrit and Arabic vocabularies are freely drawn upon.

vi THE SIKH RELIGION There were no dictionaries of the Granth Sahib,1 or sacred book of the Sikhs, when the author commenced his labours. Some have been since published, but each lexicographer has adopted a system of his own which makes it difficult to find the word required, and even when found the interpretation is not always satisfactory. For these reasons it is necessary for the translator of the Sikh sacred writings to reside for long years in India, and work with the assistance of the few gyanis, or professional interpreters of the Sikh canonical writings, who now survive. It would probably be an exaggeration to say that there are ten such men in the world. Of these few or none is capable of giving an English interpretation. They generally construe in tedious paraphrases in their own local dialects. But more than this, there is hardly any one Sikh who is capable of making a correct translation of his sacred writings. A man who is a good Sanskrit scholar will not know Persian and Arabic, and he who knows Persian and Arabic will not know words of Sanskrit derivation. A man who knows Hindi will not know Marathi ; a man who knows Marathi will not know Panjabi and Multani, and so on. Moreover, there are words in the Sikh sacred writings which are peculiar to them, and cannot be traced to any known language. As to these one must accept the traditional inter pretations. The Granth Sahib thus becomes pro bably the most difficult work, sacred or profane,

1 Sahib is an Arabic word meaning lord or master. It is applied by Indians to Europeans and natives of position, but it is particularly used by the Sikhs to denote a thing revered or holy, as 'Darbar Sahib', the holy Sikh Darbar or temple at Amritsar, the Granth Sahib, the sacred book of the Sikhs, &c. that exists, and hence the general ignorance of its contents. A portion of the Granth Sahib was translated some years since by a German missionary at the expense and under the auspices of the India Office, but his work was highly inaccurate and unidiomatic, and furthermore gave mortal offence to the Sikhs by the odium theologicum introduced into it. When ever he saw an opportunity of defaming the Gurus, the sacred book, and the religion of the Sikhs, he eagerly availed himself of it. One of the main objects of the present work is to endeavour to make some reparation to the Sikhs for the insults which he offered to their Gurus and their religion. There are, however, many other advantages which I am hoping for, and which will probably be understood by the reader. All persons of discrimination acquainted with the Sikhs set a high value on them, but it appears that a knowledge throughout the world of the excellence of their religion would enhance even the present regard with which they are entertained, and that thus my work would be at least of political ad vantage to them. In the second place, there is now a large number of Sikhs who understand the English language, but who have no time for the study of the compositions of the Gurus, and I thought it would be useful to them, if only from a linguistic point of view, to read a translation in the very simple English in which I have endeavoured to write it. In the third place, the old gyanis or pro fessional interpreters of the Granth Sahib are dying out, and probably in another generation or two their sacred books will, owing to their enormous

viii THE SIKH RELIGION difficulty, be practically unintelligible even to other wise educated Sikhs. In the fourth place, the vernacular itself is rapidly altering and diverging more and more from the general language of the Granth Sahib. Words which men still in the prime of life were accustomed to use in their boyhood have now become obsolete, and new vocables have taken their place. It appears, therefore, that it would on every account be well to fix the translation of the many exceedingly difficult passages scattered broad cast through the Sikh sacred writings. In the fifth place there are local legends now rife which we have been able to gather, but which would otherwise pass into oblivion in a comparatively short period of time. Time was when it was not allowed to print the sacred book of the Sikhs. As ancient prejudice gave way, it was printed in parts which it was forbidden to unite in one volume lest it, as the embodiment not only of the wisdom of the Gurus, but of the Gurus themselves, might be treated with disrespect This prejudice has also vanished, and now the book is openly exposed for sale. There was also a prejudice on the part of Sikhs of the old school against trans lating the sacred volume, but those who held it forgot the injunction of Guru Arjan to translate it into Indian and foreign languages so that it might spread over the whole world as oil spreads over water.

Suraj Parkash, Ras III. There can be no doubt that, were the Gurus and Bhagats now alive, they would be pleased to see their com positions translated into a language like the English spoken by many peoples throughout the continents and islands which extend far and wide over the earth. Until the year 1893 I was engaged in judicial duties in India. In that year representative Sikh societies, knowing that I appreciated their litera ture, requested me to resign my appointment and undertake a translation of their sacred works. I acceded to their requests. My first intention was to make only a translation. This occupied my time for several years. It was prepared on what, I believe, is entirely a novel plan. Most translators, when they have completed their ren derings, proceed to publish without subjecting their work to native criticism. On this account there are few, if any, translations of Oriental works made in Europe, even by the most eminent scholars, which are accepted by the learned natives of the East. I resolved that mine should be an exception, and accordingly submitted every line of my work to the most searching criticism of learned Sikhs. This was done either by rough printed proofs or typed copies. I also published invitations in Sikh newspapers to all whom it might concern to visit me, inspect, and if necessary correct my translation. This entailed a voluminous correspondence which occupied a great amount of time, and inconveniently protracted my residence in India.

On the conclusion of the examination of my translation, Bhai Sardul Singh, the Gyani 1 of the 1 The word gyani in Panjabi means a professional interpreter of the Granth Sahib. x THE SIKH RELIGION Golden Temple, the late Bhai Sant Singh, a very learned Sikh of Kapurthala, and Bhai Prem Singh of Amritsar favoured me with the following : — We, through the agency of learned Sikhs acquainted with English, have carefully perused the translation of the hymns of the Granth Sahib by Mr. Macauliffe. The perusal cost us a month and a half of continuous labour. Wherever any of us found what seemed to be an error, we all met, discussed the passages, and either corrected it or allowed Mr. Macauliffe's translation to stand. Wherefore we now state that Mr. Macauliffe's translation has been fully revised by us, and is thoroughly correct. The greatest care has been taken in making the translation conformable to the religious tenets of the Sikhs. The translation is quite literal, and done according to all grammatical and rhetorical rules. We now request the Rajas, Maharajas, Sardars, and the learned and accomplished of the Sikh faith to specially read or listen to this translation, if only for once. They will thus become acquainted with Mr. Macauliffe's labours, and reap the advantage of the true instruction of their Gurus. They should also render all necessary aid to the translator, because he has resigned a high post under Government and spent untold wealth on this undertaking.

I have received piles of somewhat similar docu ments from learned and intelligent Sikhs, and seen numerous critical articles in Sikh, English, and foreign newspapers, which give expression to the strong desire felt for the production of a work such as that now offered. Among them I may be allowed to give the following from The Khalsa, a Sikh publication :— There can be no denying the fact that the publication of Mr. Macauliffe's work will be the introduction of a new era in our history. Our Scriptures, though written in our own language, have been so much neglected by our people, that it will be no exaggeration if we say that ninety per cent, of our co-religionists do not understand them. The Com munity receiving English education are without any idea of the sublime truths contained in the Granth Sahib. From infancy upwards their minds are moulded in such a way, that it becomes almost impossible for them to talk and write in any other language than English ; and we shall not be exaggerating if we say that a great many of them find it difficult even to think in their own mother tongue. This being the case, an English translation of our Scriptures will at once appeal to the ever increasing community of educated men who will be the leaders of thought from the very nature of things. Already prepared by western culture to think and act independently, they will be constitutionally fitted to understand the catholicity of Sikh principles, and will feel a pleasure in spreading Sikh ideas far and wide. Apart from this, a great deal of the misunderstanding that now obtains about the work of our Gurus and Martyrs will be removed, and the thinking public will see with their own eyes the drift of Sikh teachings. The trade of traitors among us who to please our wealthier and more influential neighbours, compromise our beliefs by ascribing to our great men thoughts that they never conceived and deeds that they never did, will languish, the promiscuousness in Sikh ideas will vanish, and Tat (pure) Khalsa will begin to start on a new career.

Not less important will be the result of Sikh teachings on the minds of religious Europe and America. Already the Khalsa has achieved a world-wide renown in the matter of bravery. In the matter of religion, too, the name of the Khalsa will shine resplendently when the glorious deeds of our illustrious ancestors in the moral and religious world are made known far and wide. The translations of Hindu Scriptures by Professors Max Miiller, Wilson, Monier Williams, and a host of other eminent writers on Oriental religions have drawn the attention of the whole civilized world to the Hindus and their literature. These transla- xii THE SIKH RELIGION tions have secured for the Hindus the sympathy of hundreds of savants and inquirers after religious truth. What will not the translations of our Scriptures achieve ? Unlike the Scriptures of other creeds, they do not contain love stories or accounts of wars waged for selfish considerations. They contain sublimest truths, the study of which cannot but elevate the reader spiritually, morally, and socially. There is not the least tinge of sectarianism in them. They teach the highest and purest principles that serve to bind man to man and inspire the believer with an ambition to serve his fellow men, to sacrifice all and die for their sake.

The late Sir Baba Khem Singh, K.C.I. E., Member of the Legislative Council, who held a most pro minent position among the Sikhs, wrote to me :— It is fortunate for the Sikh nation to have such a kind of friend as you, whose ideas are naturally inclined to their benefit, and they should ever bear you thankfulness and gratitude. I am glad to express my appreciation of your work, and the labour and trouble you have taken upon yourself to accomplish such a voluminous task. The late Baba Sumer Singh, the Mahant or Sikh Bishop of Patna, where Guru Gobind Singh was born, wrote to me as follows : — I fully appreciate your attempt to keep especial eye on the sense rather than on word-for-word rendering, and wherever the sense has been in danger of being absorbed in the language, suitable foot-notes have been interspersed throughout. The late Bhai Hazara Singh Gyani, who has pub lished a Dictionary of the Granth Sahib, wrote to me as follows, after seeing specimens of this work : — I have read through the English translation of Japji prepared by Mr. Macauliffe. The translator seems to have taken great care in keeping the rendering in accordance with the Sampardai arths (traditional interpretations). I wish the undertaking a thorough success, and nothing will give me more pleasure than to see the work brought out of press.

The following is a translation of an address presented to me by the Singh Sabha of Amritsar :— We are informed by very trustworthy gyanis, that you have been studying our sacred books for over twenty years, and that, resigning a good appointment, you have now laboured continually for some years at making an accurate translation of them ; that you have revised it seven times ; and have now made it as complete as can be done by human effort ; and in doing this you have not only spent your valuable time, but also a very large amount of money. Dr. Trumpp's translation is not only generally incorrect, but injurious to our religion ; and there was a great want felt for an accurate version when Akal Purukh (the Im mortal God) induced you to undertake it and fulfil our desires. It would have been well, had we executed the translation ourselves ; but Akal Purukh granted you the credit of the performance. As the holy Guru Teg Bahadur foretold that men would come from beyond the seas to assist the Sikhs, so you have been rendering us mental and bodily assistance ; and we now earnestly recommend the members of our faith, who can afford it, to render you all possible aid in publishing your work, and we trust our wishes will be fulfilled. We desire, now that you have become thoroughly acquainted with our customs, our sacred books, and the tenets of our religion, that you fulfil the promise made in your Circular letter to the Sikhs, in which you stated that you would write nothing prejudicial to their religion. In the lives of the Gurus which you are going to write, we desire you to consult the Gur Bilas, the Suraj Parkash, and such other works as have been com piled from ancient writings not corrupted by the Handalis, the followers of Kabir, and the poets who infused foreign

xiv THE SIKH RELIGION elements into our religion. The Khalsa and the whole Sikh race will be thankful to you for attending to this request. In conclusion we pray Akal Purukh to protect you in every way on your ocean journey, and fulfil your wishes and desires ; and that you may be ever a well-wisher and supporter of our sect and our faith. We earnestly hope that your translation of our sacred books will soon be in the library of every true Sikh.1 Notwithstanding these tributes to the accuracy of my work, to its utility and to my desire to do justice to the sacred writings of the Sikhs, some may possibly be found among them who will differ from the versions I have given. I have met socalled gyanis who could perform tours de force with their sacred work, and give different interpretations of almost every line of it. My Sikh readers may rest assured that in this work all rational inter pretations have been considered, and only those selected which seemed most suitable to the context and most in harmony with Sikh doctrines. When second and third interpretations seemed possible, they have been appended in the notes.

When my translation was thus completed and approved of by the most learned Sikh priests and scholars, I found that an account of the Sikh Gurus, saints, and authors was absolutely necessary, and indeed of equal, if not greater importance than even a correct interpretation of their writings. The late illustrious scholar, Professor Max Miiller, who had Indian literature so greatly at heart, expressed in his latest work, Auld Lang Syne, his 1 I did not intend, at first, to publish these extracts, and I regret having to do so now, but some Sikh friends have put pressure on me to adopt this course. regret that the world knew so little of the Sikh reformers. He wrote : — It is a pity that we possess so little information about the original Sikh reformers. Their sacred book the Granth Sahib exists, nay it has even been translated into English by the late Dr. Trumpp. But it turns out now that Dr. Trumpp was by no means a trustworthy translator. The language of the Granth is generally called old Panjabi ; and it was supposed that a scholar who knew modern Panjabi, might easily learn to understand the language as it was four hundred years ago. But this is not the case. The language of the Granth Sahib is full of local dialectic varieties and forgotten idioms, so much so that it has been said to be without any grammar at all. Mr. Macauliffe, who has spent many years among the Sikhs, and has with the help of their priests paid much attention to their Granth Sahib, has given us some most interesting and beautiful specimens of their poetry which form part of their sacred book.

On perusing the current lives and accounts of the Gurus I found them overladen with puerile, heterodox, or repulsive details ; and it required further years of study and consultation with learned Sikhs to complete biographies of the founders of their religion, which were not inconsistent with their sacred writings' The orthodox Sikhs who have read the lives of their Gurus in the voluminous Hindi work entitled Suraj Parkash, and in the current Panjabi works called ] 'anamsakhis , will understand, and, perhaps, be grateful to me for the manner in which I have presented their religion according to the desires and teachings of their Gurus. To prevent misconception it ought, perhaps, to be here stated that this work is intended to be an exact presentation of the teaching of the Sikh xvi THE SIKH RELIGION Gurus and orthodox writers as contained in their sacred books, and is by no means put forth as a portrayal of the debased superstitions and hetero dox social customs of Sikhs who have been led astray from their faith by external influences. It must also be stated that the intention of the author has been, in fulfilment of his promise to the Sikhs, to write this work from an orthodox Sikh point of view, without any criticism or expres sion of opinion of his own. Accordingly, miracles which are accepted by many Sikhs will be found reverently described in this work.

A very important question has arisen among the Sikhs as to how my translation of their sacred writings should be presented. The Granth Sahib, as already stated, is to them the embodiment of their Gurus, who are regarded as only one person, the light of the first Guru's soul having been transmitted to each of his successors in turn. Oi 5' avTt\aiJL-fyav KOL irapriyyti\av irp6cra>. The line of the Gurus closed with the tenth, Guru Gobind Singh. He ordered that the Granth should be to his Sikhs as the living Gurus. Accord ingly the Granth Sahib is kept in silken coverlets, and when it is removed from place to place is taken on a small couch by Sikhs of good repute. Many of my old orthodox Sikh friends feared that if my translation were printed in the order of the original, it would not receive the same respect and attention in foreign countries as in India, and they accordingly desired that it should be published in some other form. This desire of the most holy and respected Sikhs is a great relief to me, for it makes it competent to intersperse many of the sacred hymns in the lives of the Gurus, and thus present my work as much as possible in narrative form, which it is hoped will be more acceptable not only to European, but even to Sikh readers themselves.

Competent Sikhs have also advised me that when the Guru's instruction on various occasions is on the same subject and of the same tenor, it needs be given only once. For instance, in the Granth Sahib there are four hymns beginning with the words, ' In the first watch of night, my merchant friend/ Two of these hymns are by Guru Nanak, the third by Guru Ram Das, and the fourth by Guru Arjan. The hymns begin in the same manner, are of the same purport, and are only very slightly varied in diction, so the publication of the whole four appears unnecessary. It is intelligible that repetitions should be found in the sacred books of several religions, for the teachings of their prophets were orally addressed to crowds who clustered round them, and repetitions served to impress on the listeners the instruction accorded ; but in a printed work, which the reader may peruse and reperuse at pleasure, repetition does not appear so necessary. Moreover, this work is intended for the European as well as for the Sikh student. It is apprehended that repetition would prove tedious, and deter several even con scientious readers from its perusal. I find, however, that it is impossible for me to meet the wishes of all parties. Europeans will probably think my work too long, and Sikhs may possibly think it too short. As to the latter objec-

xviii THE SIKH RELIGION tion, I may state that I have followed the advice of the most learned Sikh scholars. They have decided that there is no omission of anything necessary to faith or morals, but that the whole substance of the Sikh sacred writings is here pre sented, and that if any Sikh shapes his conduct accordingly, he will be in no danger of failing to secure absorption in the Creator or a dwelling in the Creator's heaven. A few of the advantages of the Sikh religion to the State may be here enumerated. One day, as Guru Teg Bahadur was in the top story of his prison, the Emperor Aurangzeb thought he saw him looking towards the south in the direction of the Imperial zenana. He was sent for the next day, and charged with this grave breach of Oriental etiquette and propriety. The Guru replied, ' Em peror Aurangzeb, I was on the top story of my prison but I was not looking at thy private apart ments or at thy queens. I was looking in the direction of the Europeans who are coming from beyond the seas to tear down thy pardas and destroy thine empire/ Sikh writers state that these words became the battle-cry of the Sikhs in the assault on the mutineers in Dihli (Delhi) in 1857, under General John Nicholson, and that thus the prophecy of the ninth Guru was gloriously fulfilled.

When it was represented to Guru Gobind Singh that a Muhammadan army would eventually come to overpower his Sikhs, he replied, ' What God willeth shall take place. When the army of the Muhammadans cometh, my Sikhs shall strike steel on steel. The Khalsa shall then awake, and know the play of battle. . Amid the clash of arms the Khalsa shall be partners in present and future bliss, tran quillity, meditation, and divine knowledge. Then shall the English come, and, joined by the Khalsa, rule as well in the East as in the West. The holy Baba Nanak will bestow all wealth on them. The English shall possess great power and by force of arms take possession of many principalities. The combined armies of the English and the Sikhs shall be very powerful, as long as they rule with united councils. The empire of the British shall vastly increase, and they shall in every way obtain pros perity. Wherever they take their armies they shall conquer and bestow thrones on their vassals. Then in every house shall be wealth, in every house religion, in every house learning, and in every house happiness.' It is such prophecies as these, combined with the monotheism, the absence of superstition and restraint in the matter of food, which have made the Sikhs among the bravest, the most loyal and devoted subjects of the British Crown. As to their bravery and loyalty, the following, written by one of them, is by no means an exaggeration : ' As for the bravery and warlike spirit of the Sikhs, no Cossack, no Turk, no Russian, can measure swords with them. There is one trait very peculiar in them such as must make the enemies of the British fear them. The true blood of loyalty and devotion to their master surges in their veins. A true Sikh will let his body be cut to pieces when fighting for his master. The Sikh considers dying in battle a means of salvation. No superiority of the enemies in number, no shot, no shell, can make his heart quail, since his Amrit (baptism) binds him to

xx THE SIKH RELIGION fight single-handed against millions. Some people may say that a soldier sells his head for the small wage paid him every month. But the Sikh does not do so : he devotes his head, body, and every thing dear to him to preserving the influence of him whom he once makes his master. A Sikh who shows the least sign of reluctance to go, or goes with an expectation of remuneration, when called upon by his benefactor the King-Emperor to fight His Majesty's enemies, no matter how strong they may be, will be condemned by the Gurus.' If there is one superstition more strongly repro bated than another in the Sikh sacred writings, it is pilgrimages to the places deemed sacred by the Hindus. Some of the Sikh States, in ignorance of the teachings of the Gurus, have maintained temples and spiritual arenas at Hardwar and Rikhikesh for the reception of pilgrims. At Hardwar there are held great religious fairs every twelve years at the time when the sun enters the lunar mansion of Aquarius (Kumbh). It is calculated that at least one hundred thousand Sikhs were present at the last great fair at Hardwar. All these pilgrims bathe in the Ganges ; while bathing many recklessly yield to the necessities of nature ; others drink their excreta with the Ganges water as sacred nourish ment, and die of cholera either at the fair or on their homeward journey. The corpses of Sikhs, as well as Hindus, were pulled out of railway carriages after the last twelfth-year fair and poisoned the country. The pest then extended east and west in all directions. Kabul, of course, on the western boundary of India, was soon affected, and the further progress of the disease towards Europe was thus

described by the Paris correspondent of the Morning Post :- * Professor Chantemesse, Director-General of the Public Health Department, made a somewhat disquieting state ment at to-day's meeting of the Academy of Medicine. He pointed out that the cholera epidemic, which originated in India and spread east and west, had established itself last autumn in four European centres, namely Transcaspia, Transcaucasia, Anatolia, and the banks of the Volga between Astrakhan, Saratoff, and Samara. As the winter cold had merely checked the disease, instead of stamping it out, there was every reason to fear it would continue its progress westward, by way of the Baltic ports, the Black Sea, the Danube, or Constantinople.' According to another account, * seven thousand deaths from cholera occurred in the Punjab since the second week of April. The disease was originally disseminated by the returning pilgrims from Hardwar.' Of course there were also many Hindu pilgrims at the Hardwar fair, but let any one consider what a gain it would be to the world if the one hundred thousand Sikhs l who attended it possessed such a very elementary knowledge of their religion as to know that their action was reprobated by all their holy Gurus.

It is known to every Sikh that tobacco is forbidden by his religion, but it is not generally known that wine is equally forbidden. After I had quoted the Sikh tenets on this subject in public lectures at Simla, it was taken up by the enlightened Singh Sabha of Patiala; and a resolution in favour of total abstinence was signed by several of the best educated and most influential Sardars of the State. 1 At my request the Panjab Government ascertained from the Government of the United Provinces the approximate population of the Sikh pilgrims. xxii THE SIKH RELIGION The freedom of women and their emancipation from the tyranny of the parda may be inferred from the manner in which Bhai Budha received Mata1 Ganga the wife of Guru Arjan, from Guru Amar Das's refusal to receive a rani who had visited him when she was closely veiled, and from Kabir's address to his daughter-in-law. The high moral and enlightened teachings of the Gurus, their prohibition of the heinous crime of infanticide, and other injunctions for the public advantage will be found or understood from the composition of the Gurus and the Bhagats which we give in these volumes. The Hindu practice of the concremation of widows was forbidden by the Gurus ; though this was not generally known at the time of Lord William Bentinck, who had sufficient courage to issue an ordinance against it.

The Gurus most powerfully and successfully at tacked the caste system and the Hindu belief in impurity and defilement in many necessary and harmless acts of domestic life. It is admitted that a knowledge of the religions of the people of India is a desideratum for the British Officials who administer its affairs and indirectly for the people who are governed by them so that mutual sympathy may be produced. It seems, at any rate, politic to place before the Sikh soldiery their Guru's prophecies in favour of the English and the texts of their sacred writings which foster their loyalty. An advantage of a literary or historical nature is 1 The Sikhs give the title Mata or mother to the wives of the Gurus, in the same way as they give the title Baba or father to Guru Nanak. also anticipated from this work. It is hoped that it will throw some light on the state of society in the Middle Ages and that it will also be useful for the student of comparative theology. Professor Geheimer Hofrath Merx, of the Heidelberg University, a very distinguished German savant, has recently written to me : ' The publication of your work is certainly very desirable. You save in this way materials for the history of religions which, without your help, would probably disappear.'

To sum up some of the moral and political merits of the Sikh religion : £t prohibits ido^try, hypo crisy, caste exclusiveness, the concremation of widows, the immurement of women, the use of wine and other intoxicants, tobacco-smoking, infanti cide, slander, pilgrimages to the sacred rivers and tanks of the Hindus; and it inculcates loyalty, gratitude for all favours received, philanthropy, justice, impartiality, truth, honesty, and all the moral and domestic virtues known to the holiest citizens of any country.') A movement to declare the Sikhs Hindus, in direct opposition to the teaching of the Gurus, is widespread and of long duration. I have only quite recently met in Lahore young men claiming to be descendants of the Gurus, who told me that they were Hindus, and that they could not read the characters in which the sacred books of the Sikhs were written. Whether the object of their tutors and advisers was or was not to make them disloyal, such youths are ignorant of the Sikh religion, and of its prophecies in favour of the English, and con tract exclusive social customs and prejudices to the extent of calling us Malechhas, or persons of impure xxiv THE SIKH RELIGION

desires, and inspiring disgust for the customs and habits of Christians. And here let me remark that the recognition of Panjabi as an official or optional official language in the Panjab, instead of the alien Urdu, would be a most powerful means of preserving the Sikh religion. Panjabi is the mother tongue of all natives of the Panjab, be they Sikhs, Hindus, or Muhammadans. If it were recognized as an official or optional official 'anguage, Sikhs would not have to resort to books written in foreign languages for religious instruction and consolation, and the exalted ethical instruction of the Granth Sahib would be open to all classes of His Majesty's subjects in the Panjab. After the English occupation of the Panjab the officers sent to administer it were transferred from what were then known as the North-Western Provinces. They took with them Urdu, or what was much the same — a bastard Persian with Urdu inflec tions — the only Asiatic language they knew, and they found it more convenient to continue to use it than to learn a foreign language which had at the time no status and no literature. The vernacular writers and the officers who brought them were equally igno rant of Panjabi, and so Urdu became the official lan guage of that province. That the officials did not understand the natives, nor the natives the officials, made no difference. The court officials gradually picked up a smattering of Panjabi, and were able to interpret for the Europeans. This state of things was allowed to continue. If the Panjabis remonstrated against neglect of their language their remonstrances were unheeded. Now the Pan jab has become more enlightened, the remonstrances

have grown louder, and it remains to be seen whether any Lieutenant-Governor will take the trouble or have the courage to make Panjabi an alternative language for the Panjab, and thus confer a lasting favour not only on the Sikhs, but on all the natives of the Land of the Five Rivers, whose medium of communication it is from their birth. At any rate, there appears nothing to hinder the native states of the Panjab from making Panjabi their official language. In our time one of the principal agencies for the preservation of the Sikh religion has been the practice of military officers commanding Sikh regi ments to send Sikh recruits to receive baptism according to the rites prescribed by Guru Gobind Singh, and endeavour to preserve them in their subsequent career from the contagion of idolatry. The military thus ignoring or despising the restraints imposed by the civil policy of what is called ' religious neutrality', have practically become the main hierophants and guardians of the Sikh religion. I have been at great pains and expense to obtain details of the lives of the Bhagats, or Indian saints, who preceded the Gurus, and whose writings are incorporated in the Granth Sahib, but I have not been completely successful. I shall be very grate ful to any one who can add to my information regarding them.

The hymns of the Bhagats will in some cases be found different from those preserved in the Hindi and Marathi collections of the saints' com positions in other parts of India. They were taken down by Guru Arjan from the lips of wandering minstrels or followers of the saints. xxvi THE SIKH RELIGION Parallel ideas and expressions to those of the Gurus and the Bhagats may be found in ancient and modern literature, sacred and profane, and could be largely quoted. Only a few such com parisons, which occurred to the author at the time of writing, have been given in the notes to this work. They are intended to show the catholicity of the Gurus' teachings, and they may also occa sionally relieve the tedium of perusal. The writers of the Janamsakhis had no maps to guide them, and accordingly in some cases assigned to the Gurus, notably Guru Nanak, impossible itineraries. Accordingly efforts have been made in this work to revise the Gurus' travels and render them consistent with scientific Indian geography. Should learned Sikhs, after full consideration at a general council, prepare maps of the Gurus' travels, they will be inserted in any future edition of this work. So also should learned Sikhs con sider their own accounts of the Gurus, their own order of the Gurus' hymns, or their own versions of words or phrases in the Gurus' compositions superior to the gyanis' and mine, we shall be pleased to receive their suggestions.

H.H. Sir Hira Singh, Malvendar Bahadur, the Raja of Nabha, has at considerable expense caused the thirty-one Indian rags, or musical measures, to which the hymns of the Gurus were composed, to be written out in European musical notation by a professional musician whom he employed for the purpose. The rags were merging into oblivion, and have been collected with much difficulty by Mahant Gaja Singh, the greatest minstrel of the Sikhs. They will be found at the end of the fifth volume of this work. Though they may sound bizarre to European ears, they will be appreciated by the Sikhs and by many European lovers of art who regret the loss of the music to which the Odes of Pindar and Sappho and the choral exercises of the Greek tragedians were sung. There are also added pictures of the Gurus as far as ascertainable, of famous Sikh temples, and of some scenes memorable in Sikh history. These pictures have been prepared by Bhai Lai Singh under the auspices of the Honourable Tikka Ripudaman Singh, the young heir to the Nabha gadi. The expense attendant on the production of this work, which has been the labour of many years, and has been completed with the assistance for long periods of a large staff of Sikh scholars and of English and vernacular copyists, has been very con siderable, and I am indebted to His Highness the Raja of Nabha, His Highness Sir Rajindar Singh, the late much lamented Maharaja of Patiala, His Highness Raja Ranbir Singh, Raja of Jind, the Tikka Sahib of Nabha, and the late Sardar Ranjit Singh of Chichrauli for defraying a portion of it. His Highness the Gaekwar of Baroda has promised his patronage after the publication of the work.

Several persons have recommended this work to the patronage of the Indian Government and the Secretary of State for India. The distinguished scholar, Count Angelo de Gubernatis, president of the Roman Congress of Orientalists, thus addressed the Secretary of State for India in a letter dated October 19, 1899 :— Dans rinte"ret de la science, je prends la liberte" de vous signaler fort particulierement a votre attention la pro- xxviii THE SIKH RELIGION position de M. Macauliffe, accueillee avec tant d'interet et si chaleureusement recommandee par PAssemblee Generale du XIIme Congres des Orientalistes, dans sa seance du 8 octobre, pour edition et illustration critique des textes de la religion des Sikhs. Tout ce queP India Office decider a en faveur de cette noble entreprise ne pourra etre que tres meritoire. Et a ce titre, j'ose vivement recommander a la protection de 1' India Office les interessantes recherches de M. Macauliffe sur les textes canoniques des Sikhs du Panjab. Count de Gubernatis's letter covered the following proceedings of the Roman Congress : — A propos de la conference de M. Macauliffe, M. le Prof. L. von Schroeder, Professeur de Sanskrit a PUniversite de Vienne, estime qu'il serait tres desirable de posseder une traduction des livres sacres des Sikhs, telle que M. Macauliffe en a con9u le plan et prepare P execution, tra duction dans laquelle se trouverait incorporee et utilisee la tradition orale des Sikhs eux-memes qui menace de disparaitre rapidement. II recommande instamment Pentreprise de M. Macauliffe a Pappui materiel tant du Gouvernement de PInde que des chefs Sikhs. Get appui a ete autrefois genereusement accorde a la tentative meritoire mais insuffisante de Dr. Trumpp ; il peut seul assurer le succes d'une ceuvre aussi considerable et aussi couteuse.

M. 6mile Senart, Membre de ITnstitut de France, et VicePresident de la Societe Asiatique a Paris, a son tour, demande a appuyer la proposition faite par M. von Schroeder, et prie la reunion de recommander instamment a 1'appui, soit du Gouvernement de 1'Inde, soit des chefs Sikhs, 1'entreprise de M. Macauliffe. II insiste sur 1'interet special que presente dans 1'histoire religieuse de PInde le developpement de la religion des Sikhs, la seule qui y ait pris P allure militante et guerriere que ne semblaient pas faire prevoir ses debuts. Le plus essentiel de la traduction projet ee sera dans cette circonstance, qu'elle preservera d'une perte menagante la tradition orale et Pinterpretation orthodoxe. Nulle part la tradition n'a plus d'importance que dans une doctrine comme celle-ci, qui est voilee d'un syncretisme complique, et dont Toriginalite speculative n'a pu se degager que peu a peu. Lord Reay, the President of the Royal Asiatic Society, a nobleman who is never wanting to any benevolent or philanthropic enterprise, strongly recommended my work to the favourable con sideration of the Lieutenant-Go vernor of the Panjab. Mr. L. W. Dane (now Sir Louis W. Dane, Lieu tenant-Go vernor of the Panjab) has always adopted a sympathetic attitude towards my labours, and, as far as in him lay, assisted in bringing them to a successful conclusion.

And Lord Kitchener of Khartoum, after presiding at my public lecture on ' How the Sikhs became a Militant People ', thus expressed himself :— It must be a matter of great satisfaction to Mr. Macauliffe that the Amritsar Singh Sabha have accepted his trans lations as being thoroughly accurate. We may say with confidence that in putting the study of the Sikh sacred writings within our reach Mr. Macauliffe has earned the approbation of all who know the great value of the Sikh soldier ; the cordial recognition of the rulers of the country, and the gratitude of the chiefs, sardars, and people of the Sikh community — a feeling of gratitude which I feel sure will be much increased when Mr. Macauliffe has translated the sacred writings into the ordinary Panjabi of the day, a labour which, I understand, he is about to commence, and which I hope will result in their general dissemination through every Sikh household in the country. For literary assistance I must acknowledge my indebtedness to Sardar Kahn Singh of Nabha, one of the greatest scholars and most distinguished authors among the Sikhs, who by order of the Raja xxx THE SIKH RELIGION of Nabha accompanied me to Europe to assist in the publication of this work and in reading the proofs thereof ; to Diwan Lila Ram Watan Mai, a subordinate judge in Sind ; to the late Bhai Shankar Dayal of Faizabad ; to Bhai Hazara Singh and Bhai Sardul Singh of Amritsar, to the late Bhai Dit Singh of Lahore, to the late Bhai Bhagwan Singh of Patiala, and to many other Sikh scholars for the intelligent assistance they have rendered me.

In my translation from the Sikh sacred writings I freely use the subjunctive mood which is fast disappearing from the English language. The solemn form of the third person singular of the present tense I have employed for obvious reasons. My Sikh readers may easily learn that this form is not now used in conversation or ordinary prose. I have avoided the arbitrary nomenclature invented by European scholars, such as Brahmanism, a word which is not used in India ; self for soul or con science, &c. The Sikh Gurus were simple men who generally chose colloquial language for the expression of their ideas, and avoided learned words and meta physical subtleties. Hence in my translation I have endeavoured to use such simple language as I believe was intended by them and the reformers who pre ceded them. My aim has been to interpret the sacred books of the Sikhs, subject to what I deem a necessary solemnity of form, in the current language of the day, and without any effort to produce new or startling expressions. In my efforts to use simple language, however, I cannot claim complete success. The ideas of the Gurus and particularly their epithets of the Creator cannot always be translated without

unwieldy periphrasis into any Anglo-Saxon words in ordinary use. Somewhat analogous words and ex pressions may often be found, but they do not con vey precisely the meanings intended by the Sikh sacred writers. Archaisms, though deemed necessary by poets, and though they often contribute to ornateness of style, I have done my utmost to avoid. In this way I hope my book will be more useful to the Sikhs, and assist them in forming an acquaintance with the English tongue. Indian proper names I have spelled as they are written and pronounced in India at the present time, and not as they were written and pronounced in the Sanskrit age. In this I am but following the practice of all modern languages. Nobody would now call London Londinium, or Marseilles Massilia, or Naples Neapolis. Nor can I adopt the spelling of Oriental words which has been adopted in this country ostensibly for the use of continental scholars, which causes sh to be printed ^, f, or s\ j, g; ch, k, &c. Such spelling is repulsive to many persons, and it can hardly be necessary for the Oriental scholars of any country. The different n's, £'s, r's, and s's of Indian languages I have found it hopeless to represent, nor would it be useful for my work, for they are often confounded in Sikh literature. The spelling of English words is that accepted by the Clarendon Press.

In the languages and dialects with which we have been dealing there is no short e corresponding to the e in bed and no short o corresponding to the o in not. Whenever, therefore, the vowels e and o are found in Indian names in this work, they xxxii THE SIKH RELIGION are always long. E is always pronounced as it is in eh or as the French 4. 0 is always pronounced as in note. The vowel i may be long or short. It is always long at the end of an Indian word, and is then pronounced like the English double e (ee) . When it is long in the body of Indian words found in the notes it is marked with a makron, thus l. The vowel a may also be either short or long. When long in Indian words in the notes, it is crowned with a makron, thus a. The final a in Indian words may be generally considered short, like the a in sofa. In the text, in order not to distract the reader's attention, diacritical marks are rarely employed. This being essentially a work on the Sikh religion we have commenced with Guru Nanak ; but if the reader desires to follow the historical development of the Sikh reformation, he had better begin with the sixth volume. This was probably the intention of Guru Arjan himself, for otherwise he could not have included in his compilation hymns quite opposed to the principles and tenets of his predecessors.

The author feels that his work suffers from a special disadvantage, because the scholars of Europe and America are hardly in a position to criticize on its merits the translation of hymns composed in dialects which can only be learned in India from the lips of the few exponents of the Sikh faith who now survive. Nor have European and American scholars had an opportunity of perusing the Indian works which form the basis of our lives of the Gurus and of the saints who preceded them. The diffi culty and extent of the author's labours cannot therefore be understood. It is believed that a work of this nature cannot be accomplished again. In any age it could not be done out of India for want of expert assistance. In India, even under the most favourable con ditions, and when a student had acquired a knowledge of some Indian languages and dialects, the translation of the sacred books of the Sikhs, and the compilation of the lives of their Gurus and holy men, would be the work of years. No one while in the service of the Indian Government could find leisure to accomplish it; and few Euro peans after their retirement from Indian service would care to spend long years and lonely lives in India wrestling with mediaeval Indian dialects and submitting to the caprices of gyanis ; but even should such martyrs to the cause of science be found, they would not be able to obtain the requisite assistance, because the principal inter preters of the sacred books of the Sikhs will have passed away with this generation, and, owing to want of patronage, there will be none to supply their place. This fact, too, would soon render a Sikh, even if thoroughly acquainted with the English tongue, and possessed of sufficient resource and in dustry, incapable of producing an authoritative and exhaustive work in our language on his religion.

The preacher of old said that 'of making many books there is no end'. For the last century their publication has increased in geometrical ratio, and prodigious must be the number which find their way into the streets and shops which sell quicquid chartis amicitur ineptis. The author fondly hopes that this work, which contains an account of the last great religion of the world t SIKH. I C xxxiv THE SIKH RELIGION which remains to be exploited, may escape the general fate. At the same time a glance at the shelves of any large library must convince a writer of the vanity of most literary labour, if haply the love of fame is dearer to him than the love of his subject. The blurred and hoary volumes, elaborately illuminated and bound, which no one now ever peruses, were often produced at the expense of years of toil — nay, of health and even life itself — and now remain sad monuments of the transitoriness of fame and the frequent futility of human effort. But there is even a worse fate than this, namely, the obloquy so often meted out to authors instead of the legiti mate recompense of lives of strenuous toil devoted to literary or scientific investigation. Even under favourable circumstances the author of an elaborate work of this description, the production of which has occupied several years of his life, cannot always hope even for temporary reward in the approba tion of those dear to him, those whom he would wish to please ; for either their measure of years has grown full, or separation and varied interests have dulled the feelings of mutual pleasure which would result from his success.

GURU NANAK'S HYMNS . . . . <l*ftf ADDITIONAL SLOKS . . . . . . . 379 THE AUTHOR AND SOME OF HIS SIKH ASSISTANTS Frontispiece GURU NANAK, THE FOUNDER OF THE SIKH RELIGION . i GURU ANGAD AND A PUPIL i GURU RAM DAS RECEIVING HIS DISCIPLES . . . 253 GURU ARJAN READING THE GRANTH SAHIB . . i THE TANK AND TEMPLE OF AMRITSAR . .13 GURU HAR GOBIND ..«,... i THE AKAL BUNGA . . . . . . 4 GURU HAR RAI BLESSING YOUNG PHUL . . . 275 GURU HAR KRISHAN . . . . . 315 GURU GOBIND SINGH ...... i THE SIKH TEMPLE (HAZUR SAHIB) AT NANDER . . 246 NAMDEV'S SHRINE AT GHUMAN ..... 39 FOLLOWERS OF RAMANUJ AND RAMANAND . . .105

THE fifteenth century of the Christian era was a period of singular mental and political activity. Both in Europe and India men shook off the torpor of ages, and their minds awoke to the consciousness of intellectual responsibility. For this result, it is true, important preparations had been made in the fourteenth century, when the Christian reformers, Walter Lollard and John Huss, preached and suffered death for their opinions ; l when the poetical literature of England assumed a tangible form from the genius of Chaucer and Gower ; when the Musalmans in Europe penetrated into Thrace and Hungary ; and when, after the overthrow and expulsion of Budhism from India by the astute and powerful Brahmans, there flourished the great exponents of Indian monotheism, the saint Kabir, and the enlightened Ramanand. But it was reserved for the fifteenth century to bear the full fruits of the mental awakening of the fourteenth. In England the ancient language of Greece began to be studied ; a further impulse was given to the reformation of the Christian religion ; and villenage disappeared as a political institution. In France the Government was consolidated by the union of the great fiefs to the crown ; and the daring monarch Charles VII made his successful expedition against the picturesque capital of Southern Italy. In Germany occurred the birth of Luther, and the revival and development of the invaluable art of printing in movable types.2 In Italy there was a marvellous resuscitation of the fine arts, and

1 Lollard and Huss were burned for heresy. Wickliffe would have suffered the same fate, had not a paralytic attack anticipated the executioner. 2 Block printing was known in China before the Christian era. xl THE SIKH RELIGION then were born the renowned navigators Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci, the great masters Michael Angelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci, and the illustrious patron of letters Lorenzo di Medici. In Spain Ferdinand and Isabella, though they organized the inquisition in their intemperate religious zeal against the Saracens and Jews, were yet conspicuous for a worldly liberality which deserves the acknowledgement of posterity. In Portugal was born Vasco da Gama, who under the enter prising King Emanuel discovered the maritime route by the Cape of Storms to India. The Musalmans in Europe conquered Turkey and Greece, and seized on the ancient Italian city of Otranto. And in Asia, Taimur extended his victorious arms from Siberia on the north to the Arabian Sea on the south, and from the Ganges on the east to the Hellespont on the west. There is a wonderful analogy between the spiritual con dition of Europe and India during the dark ages. In Europe most religious works were written in Latin, in India they were in Sanskrit. In both continents all learning was in the hands of the priesthood, and this admittedly led to serious abuses. A great cyclic wave of reformation then overspread both continents. During the very period that Luther and Calvin in Europe were warning men of the errors that had crept into Christianity, several Indian saints were denouncing priestcraft, hypocrisy, and idolatry, and with very considerable success. Several of those great men who led the crusade against superstition, founded sects which still survive ; but the most numerous and powerful of all is the great Sikh sect founded by Guru Nanak, which already forms a considerable section of the population of the Panjab, and which is scattered in greater or less numbers not only throughout the whole of India but Kabul, Kandahar, China, and Southern Asia.

A cognate cause is frequently assigned for the establish ment of new religions, namely, that they appear at periods of great political or social depression, when it becomes necessary for men to have recourse to the superhuman for guidance and consolation. Then when the hour is darkest some prophet is born, perhaps in a lowly hamlet, to solace the heavy-laden and lift their thoughts to a brighter and happier world. A signal instance has been remarked by historians. Judaea was smarting from the tyranny and cruelty of Herod when he whom the most advanced races of the world call the Messiah was born. The Gurus too appear to have been of the opinion that God sends a divine guide whenever required by the con dition of the age and country. Guru Amar Das, the third Guru, wrote : — When the world is in distress, it heartily prayeth. The True One attentively listeneth and with His kind disposition grant eth consolation. He giveth orders to the Cloud and the rain falleth in torrents. That is, the Guru comes by God's order and gives abundant instruction to all who may be prepared to receive it. Indeed several events occurred during the Muhammadan conquests of India in the Middle Ages to force the Hindus to consider life in a serious aspect. Though many of the followers of Vishnu, Shiv, and the other gods of the Hindu dispensation adopted during that period the faith of the Arabian prophet, as the result of force or with a view to worldly advantages, yet others whose minds were powerfully directed to religious speculation sought safety from perse cution and death in the loneliness of the desert or the retirement of the forest, and lived single-minded investigators of religious truth as in the primitive golden age of their country.

We shall here give, from the written accounts of Muham madan historians, some examples of the treatment of Hindus by Muhammadan conquerors of India. Shahab-uP-Din, King of Ghazni, the virtual founder of the Muhammadan Empire in India (1170-1206), put Prithwi Raja, King of Ajmer and Dihli, to death in cold blood. 1 The I is generally silent in such combinations. xlii THE SIKH RELIGION He massacred thousands of the inhabitants of Ajmer who had opposed him, reserving the remainder for slavery. After his victory over the King of Banaras the slaughter of the Hindus is described as immense. None were spared except women and children, and the carnage of the men was carried on until, as it has been said, the earth grew weary of the monotony.1 In the Taj-ul-Mcfasir by Hasan Nizam-i-Naishapuri it is stated that when Qutb-ul-Din Aibak (A.D. 1194-1210) conquered Merath he demolished all the Hindu temples of the city and erected mosques on their sites. In the city of Koil, now called Aligarh, he converted Hindu inhabitants to Islam by the sword and beheaded all who adhered to their religion. In the city of Kalinjar he destroyed one hundred and thirteen Hindu temples, built mosques on their sites, massacred over one hundred thousand Hindus, and made slaves of about fifty thousand more. It is said the place became black as pitch with the decomposing bodies of the Hindus. And in the Tabaqat-i-Nasiri by Minhajul-Siraj it is stated that when Muhammad Bakhtyar Khilji conquered Bihar he put to the sword about one hundred thousand Brahmans, and burnt a valuable library of ancient Sanskrit works.

Abdulla Wassaf writes in his Tazjiyat-ul-Amsar wa Tajriyat ul Asar that when Ala-ul-Din Khilji (1295-1316) captured the city of Kambayat at the head of the gulf of Cambay, he killed the adult male Hindu inhabitants for the glory of Islam, set flowing rivers of blood, sent the women of the country, with all their gold, silver, and jewels, to his own home, and made about twenty thousand maidens his private slaves. Ala-ul-Din once asked his qazi what was the Muhammadan law prescribed for Hindus. The qazi replied, ' Hindus are like the earth ; if silver is demanded from them, they ought with the greatest humility to offer gold. And if a Muham madan desire to spit into a Hindu's mouth, the Hindu should 1 The Kamilu-t Tawarikh by ibn Aslr. See also Elphinstone's History of India. open it wide for the purpose. God created Hindus to be slaves of the Muhammadans. The Prophet hath ordained that, if the Hindus do not accept Islam, they should be imprisoned, tortured, and finally put to death, and their property confiscated.' At this the monarch smiled and said he had not been waiting for an interpretation of the sacred law. He had already issued an order that Hindus should only possess corn and coarse clothes sufficient to last them for six months.

During the reign of the same monarch men formerly in easy circumstances were reduced to beggary, and their wives obliged to resort to menial labour for their main tenance. In front of the palace were generally seen the corpses of forty or fifty Hindus. Hindus were punished with merciless severity for the most trifling offences. The monarch had his own brother and nephew flayed alive on the mere suspicion of disloyalty. He then had their flesh cooked and forced their children to eat it. What remained after the repast was thrown to the elephants to trample on. The historian, Ibn Batuta, who visited India in the time of the Emperor Muhammad Bin Tughlak, wrote of him : ' Such was his inexorable and impetuous character that on one occasion when the inhabitants of Dihli revolted against his oppression and wrote him a letter of remon strance, he ordered them to quit the place for Daulatabad, a city in the Dakhan (Deccan), at a distance of forty days' journey. The order was so literally obeyed that when the Emperor's servants searched the city after the removal, and found a blind man in one of the houses and a bedridden one in another, the bedridden man was projected from a catapult and the blind one dragged by his feet to Daulatabad. But the latter's limbs dropped off on the way, and at the end of the journey only one leg was left, which was duly thrown into the new city, "for the order had been that all should go to this place." We shall subsequently see how Muhammad bin Tughlak persecuted the Maratha saint Namdev, an account of whose life and writings will be given in this work.

xliv THE SIKH RELIGION Amir Khusrau writes in his Tawarikh Alai or Khazainul-Futuh that when the Emperor Firoz Shah Tughlak (A.D. 1351-88) took the city of Bhilsa in Bhopal, he destroyed all its Hindu temples, took away their idols, placed them in front of his fort, and had them daily bathed with the blood of a thousand Hindus. Firoz Shah twice plundered the country of Malwa, and took away everything he could find except earthen pots. Farishta relates that a Brahman called Budhan, who dwelt in a place called Kayathan or Kataen near Lakhnau (Lucknow), was put to death by Sikandar Khan Lodi for stating that as Islam was true, so also was the Hindu religion. The saint Kabir lived under Sikandar Khan Lodi, and was tortured by him.1 The Emperor Babar's cruelty to the inhabitants of Saiyidpur we shall find described by Guru Nanak, who was an eye-witness. Both he and his attendant were taken prisoners and obliged to work as slaves. The Guru thus describes the Muhammadan rulers and the state of India in his time : — This age is a knife, kings are butchers ; justice hath taken wings and fled. In this completely dark night of falsehood the moon of truth is never seen to rise.

I have become perplexed in my search ; In the darkness I find no way. Devoted to pride, I weep in sorrow ; How shall deliverance be obtained ? 2 There is a glamour of romance cast round the person of the Emperor Jahangir, partly owing to the poetry of Moore and partly owing to his possession of Nur Jahan, the most beautiful and gifted woman of the East ; but Jahangir 's memory is entitled to no historical commiseration. His 1 Farishta elsewhere describes Sikandar Khan Lodi as just, God fearing, and religious. He prayed five times a day, bestowed large sums of money on indigent and religious persons, and was, according to the historian, a model of a Musalman prince. 2 Majh ki War. father Akbar was disposed to free thought in religion, and it was believed that in this he was encouraged by Abul Fazal, the famous Persian historian. Jahangir caused Abul Fazal to be cruelly assassinated. After his accession he compassed the death of Nur Jahan's husband in order to possess her. He tells in his Memoirs how he disposed of robbers. * I accomplished about this period the suppression of a tribe of robbers, who had long infested the roads about Agra ; and whom, getting into my power, I caused to be trampled to death by elephants.'

Sir Thomas Roe, the British Ambassador at his Court, gives the following further information regarding Jahangir 's method of dispensing justice : * A band of one hundred robbers were brought in chains before the Great Mogul. Without any ceremony of trial, he ordered them to be carried away for execution, their chief being ordered to be torn in pieces by dogs. The prisoners were sent for execu tion to several quarters of the city, and executed in the streets. Close by my house the chief was torn in pieces by twelve dogs ; and thirteen of his fellows, having their hands and feet tied together, had their necks cut by a sword, yet not quite through, and their naked and bloody bodies were left to corrupt in the streets.' * The trials are conducted quickly, and the sentences speedily executed ; culprits being hanged, beheaded, im paled, torn by dogs, destroyed by elephants, bitten by serpents, or other devices, according to the nature of the crimes ; the executions being generally in the market-place. The governors of provinces and cities administer justice in a similar manner.' The following gives Jahangir 's treatment of harmless lovers : ' Happening to catch a eunuch kissing one of his women whom he had relinquished, he sentenced the lady to be put into the earth, with only her head left above the ground, exposed to the burning rays of the sun, and the eunuch to be cut in pieces before her face.'

Sir Thomas Roe describes how Jahangir vented his dis pleasure on some of his nobles : ' Some nobles who were xlvi THE SIKH RELIGION near his person he caused for some offence to be whipped in his presence, receiving 130 stripes with a most terrible instrument of torture, having, at the ends of four cords irons like spur-rowels, so that every stroke made four wounds. When they lay for dead, he commanded the standers-by to spurn them with their feet, and the door keepers to break their staves upon them. Thus, cruelly mangled and bruised, they were carried away, one of them dying on the spot.' Jahangir's son Khusrau rose in rebellion against him, and it is not a matter for surprise that he found many adherents. * After Khusrau's arrest he was brought before his father, with a chain fastened from his left hand to his left foot, according to the laws of Changhez Khan. On the right hand of the Prince stood Hasan Beg, and on his left, Abdulrahim. Khusrau trembled and wept. He was ordered into confinement ; but the companions of his rebel lion were put to death with cruel torments. Hasan Beg was sewed up in a raw hide of an ox, and Abdulrahim in that of an ass, and both were led about the town on asses, with their faces towards the tail. The ox's hide became so dry and contracted, that before the evening Hasan Beg was suffocated ; but the ass's hide being continually moistened with water by the friends of Abdulrahim, he survived the punishment. From the garden of Kamran to the city of Lahore two rows of stakes were fixed in the ground, upon which the other rebels were impaled alive ; and the unhappy Khusrau, mounted on an elephant, was conducted between the ranks of these miserable sufferers.'

Further on we shall see that Jahangir caused Guru Arjan, the fifth Sikh Guru, to be tortured to death, partly on account of his religion and partly because he had extended to Prince Khusrau a friendly reception and hospitality. Jahangir's grandson the Emperor Aurangzeb was brought up a very strict Muhammadan. The following, according to the Mirat-i-Alam of the historian Bakhtawar Khan, shows how he treated Hindus and their temples for the honour and glory of God and the success of what he considered the only true religion : * Hindu writers have been entirely excluded from holding public offices ; and all the wor shipping places of the infidels, and the great temples of these infamous people have been thrown down and de stroyed in a manner which excites astonishment at the successful completion of so arduous an undertaking.' The following is from the Maasir-i-Alamgiri : ' It reached the ears of His Majesty, the Protector of the Faith, that in the provinces of Thatha, Multan, and Banaras, but especially in the latter, foolish Brahmans were in the habit of expounding frivolous books in their schools, and that students, learned Mussalmans as well as Hindus, went there even from long distances, led by a desire to become acquainted with the wicked sciences there taught. The Director of the Faith consequently issued orders to all the governors of provinces to destroy with willing hands the temples and schools of the infidels, and to put an entire stop to the teaching and practice of idolatrous forms of worship. It was subsequently reported to his religious Majesty, leader of the Unitarians, that in obedience to his orders, the Government officers had destroyed the temple of Vishwanath at Banaras. In the thirteenth year of Aurangzeb's reign this justice-loving monarch, the constant enemy of tyrants, commanded the destruction of the Hindu temple of Mathura, and soon that stronghold of falsehood and den of iniquity was levelled with the ground. On its site was laid at great expense the foundation of a vast mosque.'

There arose a sect called Satnamis founded by Jagjivan Das, a native of Awadh (Oude). They appear to have taken many of their doctrines from the Sikhs. Their moral code is thus described : * It is something like that of all Hindu quietists, and enjoins indifference to the world, its pleasures or its pains, implicit devotion to the spiritual guide, clemency and gentleness, rigid adherence to truth, the discharge of all ordinary, social, or religious obligations, and the hope of final absorption into the one spirit which pervades all things.' l 1 H. H. Wilson's Religion of the Hindus. xlviii THE SIKH RELIGION The Muhammadan historian thus describes this pious sect and their treatment by the Emperor Aurangzeb : ' A body of bloody miserable rebels, goldsmiths, carpenters, sweepers, tanners, and other ignoble beings, braggarts and fools of all descriptions became so puffed up with vain glory as to cast themselves headlong into the pit of de struction. Aurangzeb sent an army to exterminate and destroy these unbelievers. The heroes of Islam charged with impetuosity and crimsoned their sabres with the blood of these desperate men. The struggle was terrible. At length the Satnamis broke and fled, but were pursued with great slaughter.

'General Khan Jahan Bahadur arrived from Jodhpur bringing with him several cartloads of idols taken from the Hindu temples which had been razed to the ground. Most of these idols, when not made of gold, silver, brass, or copper, were adorned with precious stones. It was ordered that some of them should be cast away in cutoffices and the remainder placed beneath the steps of the grand mosque to be trampled under foot. There they lay a long time until not a vestige of them was left. ' In 1090 A.H. (A.D. 1680) Prince Muhammad Azam and Khan Jahan Bahadur obtained permission to visit Udaipur. Two other officers at the same time proceeded thither to effect the destruction of the temples of the idolaters, which are described as the wonders of the age, erected by the infidels to the ruin of their souls. Twenty Rajputs had resolved to die for their faith. One of them slew many of his assailants before receiving his death blow. Another followed and another until all had fallen. Many of the faithful also had been dispatched when the last of these fanatics had gone to hell. ' Soon after Aurangzeb himself visited the Rana's lake and ordered all its temples to be levelled with the ground. Hasan Ali Khan then made his appearance with twenty camels taken from the Rana, and reported that the temple near the palace and one hundred and twenty-two more in the neighbouring districts had been

destroyed. He was rewarded by the emperor with the title of Bahadur. ' When Aurangzeb went to Chitaur, still one of the most beautiful of all ancient cities, he caused sixty-three temples there to be demolished. The Rana had now been driven forth from his country and his home, the victorious Ghazis had struck many a blow, and the heroes of Islam had trampled under their chargers' hoofs the land which this reptile of the forest and his predecessors had possessed for a thousand years.' Aurangzeb's iconoclastic fury knew no bounds or modera tion. * Abu Turab, who had been commissioned by him to effect the destruction of the idol temples of Amber, the ancient capital of Jaipur, reported in person that three score and six of these edifices had been levelled with the ground.' l We shall further on see that it was Aurangzeb who put Guru Teg Bahadur, the ninth Guru of the Sikhs, to death in Dihli. According to the author of the Dabistan the emperor ordered the Guru's body to be quartered and the parts thereof to be suspended at the four gates of the city.2 Aurangzeb also persecuted Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth and last Guru of the Sikhs, and forced him to fly from the Panjab ; and it was a result of the same monarch's tyranny that Guru Gobind Singh's four sons lost their lives and that none of his descendants survived.

Many earnest thinkers and reformers lived under the above and other Muhammadan emperors of India, but they were either executed and none dared record their teachings and their fate, or accounts of them belong to Hindu religious history, and lie beyond the scope of the present work. 1 On the conduct of the Muhammadan Emperors we have largely availed ourselves of the translations and narratives in Sir Henry Elliot's History of India. The original Persian histories are many of them difficult of access, and could not be consulted. 1 The Sikh chroniclers, as we shall subsequently see, give a different version of the mode of execution of Guru Teg Bahadur.

The great Pandits and Brahmans of Hinduism communi cated their instructions in Sanskrit, which they deemed the language of the gods. The Gurus thought it would be of more general advantage to present their messages in the dialects of their age. When Guru Amar Das was asked the reason for this, he replied : ' Well-water can only irrigate adjacent land, but rain-water the whole world. On this account the Guru hath composed his hymns in the language of the people, and enshrined them in the Gurumukhi characters, so that men and women of all castes and classes may read and understand them.' A Brahman urged : That religious instruction ought not to be communicated to every one, it being forbidden to instruct Sudars and women in the sacred lore.1 The Guru thus oracularly replied : — 0 father, dispel such doubts. It is God who doeth whatever is done ; all who exist shall be absorbed in Him. The different forms, O God, which appear are ever Thine, and at the last they shall all be resolved in Thee. He who is absorbed in the Guru's word, shall thoroughly know Him who made this world. Thine, O Lord, is the word ; there is none but Thee ; where is there room for doubt ? 2

Guru Nanak spoke of himself as neither continent nor learned, and was in every respect the essence of humility. His advent was heralded by no prophecies, and conse quently he was not obliged to make or invent incidents in 1 It is laid down in the twelfth chapter of the Institutes of Gautam that if a Sudar even hear the Veds his ears must be stopped either with molten lead or wax ; if he read the Veds, his tongue must be cut out; and if he possess the Veds, his body must be cut in twain. In the eighteenth slok of the ninth chapter of the Institutes of Manu it is laid down that women may not take part in any Vedic rites. Their doing so, or having any concern with Vedic texts, would be con trary to dharm. Women were therefore deemed as Sudars, and beyond the pale of religion. his life conformable thereto. He preached against idolatry, caste distinction, and hypocrisy, and gave men a most comprehensive ethical code ; but in so doing he never uttered a word which savoured of personal ambition or an arrogation of the attribuies_.oi .the Creator. He appears to have been on fairly good terms with Muhammadans, but his disregard of caste prejudices and his uncompromising language led him into occasional difficulties with the Hindus, though he was never embroiled in violent scenes. On the whole he was generally beloved during his life, and at his death Hindus and Muhammadans quarrelled as to which sect should perform his obsequies.

The Granth- Sahib contains the compositions of Guru Nanaky -Gura Angad, Guru Amar. Das, Guru Ram Das, Guru Arjan, Guru Teg Bahadur (the ninth Guru), a couplet of Guru Gobind Singh (the tenth Guru), panegyrics of bards who attended on the Gurus or admired their characters, and hymns of mediaeval Indian saints, a list of whom will subsequently be given. The cardinal principle of the Gurus and Bhagats whose writings find place in the sacred books of the Sikhs was the unity of God. This is everywhere inculcated in the Sikh sacred writings with ample and perhaps not unnecessary iteration, considering the forces Sikhism had to contend with in an age of ignorance and superstition. The hymns of the Gurus and saints are not arranged in the holy volume according to their authors, but according to the thirty-one rags or musical measures to which they were composed. The first nine Gurus adopted the name Nanak as their nom de plume, and their compositions are distinguished by Mahallas or quartiers. The Granth Sahib is likened to a city and the hymns of each Guru to a ward or division of it. Thus the compositions of Guru Nanak are styled Mahalla one, that is, the first ward ; the compositions of Guru Angad the second ward, and so on. After the hymns of the Gurus are found the hymns of the Bhagats under their several musical measures.

The Granth which passes under the name of Guru lii THE SIKH RELIGION Gobind Singh, contains his Japji, the Akal Ustat or praise of the Creator, the Vachitar Natak or Wonderful Drama, in which the Guru gives an account of his parentage, his divine mission, and the battles in which he had been engaged. Then come three abridged translations of the Devi Mahatamya, an episode in the Markandeya Puran, in praise of Durga the goddess of war. Then follow the Gyan Parbodh, or awakening of knowledge; accounts of twenty-four incarnations of the Deity, selected because of their warlike character; the Hazare de Shabd; quatrains called sawaiyas, which are religious hymns in praise of God and reprobation of idolatry and hypocrisy ; the Shastar Nam Mala, a list of offensive and defensive weapons used in the Guru's time, with special reference to the attributes of the Creator ; the Tria Charitar, or tales illustrating the qualities, but principally the deceit of women ; the Zaf arnama, containing the tenth Guru's epistle to the Emperor Aurangzeb ; and several metrical tales in the Persian lan guage. This Granth was compiled by Bhai Mani Singh after the tenth Guru's death. There are two great divisions of Sikhs, Sahijdharis and Singhs. The latter are they who accept the baptism in augurated by Guru Gobind Singh, which will be described in the fifth volume of this work. All other Sikhs are called Sahijdharis. The Singhs, after the time of Guru Gobind Singh, were all warriors, the Sahijdharis those who lived at ease, as the word denotes, and practised trade or agricul ture.1 In the Singhs are included theNirmalas andNihangs. The Sahijdharis include the Udasis founded by Sri Chand, son of Guru Nanak ; the Sewapanthis founded by a watercarrier of Guru Gobind Singh ; the Ramraiyas, followers of Ram Rai, son of Guru Har Rai ; the Handalis, to be sub sequently described, and other sects of minor importance.

The Sikh religion differs as regards the authenticity of 1 Some say that the Sahijdharis received their name from the promises of certain Sikhs in the time of Guiu Gobind Singh, that they would not accept his baptism at the time, but that they would gradually do so. its dogmas from most other great theological systems. Many of the great teachers the world has known have not left a line of their own composition, and we only know what they taught through tradition or second-hand informa tion. If Pythagoras wrote any of his tenets, his writings have not descended to us. We know the teaching of Sokrates only through the writings of Plato and Xenophon. Budha has left no written memorials of his teaching, Rung fu-tze, known to Europeans as Confucius, left no documents in which he detailed the principles of his moral and social system. The Founder of Christianity did not reduce his doctrines to writing, and for them we are obliged to trust to the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Arabian Prophet did not himself reduce to writing the chapters of the Quran. They were written or compiled by his adherents and followers. But the compositions of the Sikh Gurus are preserved, and we know at first hand what they taught. They employed the vehicle of verse, which is generally unalterable by copyists, and we even become in time familiar with their different styles. No spurious compositions or extraneous dogmas can, therefore, be represented as theirs.

It is not clear, however, that this contributes to the success of the Sikh religion. It appears that the very authenticity of the sacred books of a religion may militate against its general or permanent acceptance. The teach ings of which there is no authentic record, are elastic and capable of alteration and modification to suit foreign countries and the aspirations and intellectual conditions of ages long subsequent to those in which they arose. No religion in its entirety is permanently adopted by a foreign country ; and no religion when it spontaneously migrates can escape the assimilation of local ideas or super stitions. The followers of all religions are prone to indulge in the luxury of eclecticism. By a universal law they adhere to the dogmas most suitable for themselves, and reject what they deem the least important or the least practicable enjoined by the founders of their faiths. liv THE SIKH RELIGION It is curious that the greatest religious reforms have been effected by the laity. The clergy, apart from their vested interests, are too wedded to ancient systems, and dare not impugn their utility or authority. Pythagoras, who founded a religio-philosophical school and taught the transmigra tion of souls, was the son of a gem-engraver and not a priest by early training or association. Isaiah, the Hebrew poet, who gave consistency and splendour to Jewish sentiments, was not an ecclesiastic by profession. Moses had a brother who was a high priest, but he was not himself designed for the priesthood. Sokrates was a profound thinker and moral guide, but still a member of the laity who had emerged from the schools of the sophists. Budha was a prince brought up without any sacerdotal instruction. He conceived ideas of reform by profound contemplation and introspection. Christ was by trade a carpenter, and was never intended to expound the law, or play the part of a Jewish Rabbi. Muhammad of Makka was born an idolater, herded sheep and goats in early life, and appears to have had no religious instruction whatever until he had met the Hanif Waraka, his wife's cousin. The renowned Indian teacher Kabir was a weaver, who was so little of a professional priest that he denounced the Hindu and Muhammadan preachers of his age. And, as we shall see, Guru Nanak was not a priest either by birth or education, but a man who soared to the loftiest heights of divine emotionalism, and exalted his mental vision to an ethical ideal beyond the conception of Hindu or Muhammadan.

The illustrious author of the Vie de Jesus asks whether great originality will again arise or the world be content to follow the paths opened by the daring creators of ancient ages. Now there is here presented a religion totally un affected by Semitic or Christian influences. Based on the concept of the unity of God, it rejected Hindu formularies and adopted an independent ethical system, ritual, and standards which were totally opposed to the theological beliefs of Guru Nanak's age and country. As we shall see hereafter, it would be difficult to point to a religion of greater originality or to a more comprehensive ethical system.

India contains a population who profess many religions. It would be a great mistake to put them all on the same footing. Some make for loyalty and others for what we may call independence. Some religions appear to require State support, while others have sufficient vitality to dispense with it. The Jewish religion has survived for many centuries without a temporal head and in the face of endless persecu tions. Islam has spread in many lands, and does not solicit or require much support from temporal power. Muhammadans only claim the free exercise of their religion, and this is allowed them in India. Many members of other religions, believing that they are direct emanations from heaven, may not suppose that they require State countenance or support, but the student of comparative theology must be allowed to entertain a different opinion. Our little systems have their day ; They have their day and cease to be. To enumerate a few instances. When Constantine, the Roman Emperor of the West, after his conversion to Christianity, withdrew his support from the ancient religion of his country, it rapidly declined. Then vanished, in the words of Coleridge, The intelligible forms of ancient poets, The fair humanities of the old religion, Its power, its beauty, and its majesty.

Budhism flourished in India, its parent home, many centuries ago, but the successors of the renowned Asoka, who were not so spiritual or enlightened as he, allowed their religion to be completely banished from Indian soil, like an exile, to find in foreign lands the repose and accept- Ivi THE SIKH RELIGION ance it had vainly sought in its own country. The great Emperor Akbar, by an eclectic process, evolved what he considered a rational religion from Islam, Hindusim, and Zoroastrianism, but it perished when it received no support but rather opposition from his son Jahangir. The religion of the Cross was banished from its parent home of Judaea and supplanted by the religion of the Crescent. Christianity, however, or the civilization which passes under its name, gained in other countries much more than it lost in its own. Organization and the material forces by which it is main tained have obviously contributed to that result. The Emperor Akbar's historian, Abul Fazl, very clearly saw the advantage of State support to a religion. He says in his Ain-i-Akbari : 'Men of deep insight are of opinion that even spiritual progress among a people would be impossible, unless emanating from the king, in whom the light of God dwells.'

As Budhism without State support completely lost its hold in India, so it is apprehended that without State sup port Sikhism will also be lost in the great chaos of Indian religious systems. The dialects and languages of the Gurus are now largely forgotten. There are no readable or trustworthy com mentaries or translations of their compositions in any lan guage, and the Sikhs find it difficult or impossible to under stand them. Added to this is the custom of writing the sacred hymns without any separation of words. As there is no separation of words in Sanskrit, the gyanis, or inter preters of the Gurus' hymns, deem it would be a profanation to separate the words of their sacred writings. It cannot be said that the object of the gyanis has been to keep all divine knowledge to themselves, but at any rate the result is, that the Sikh laity have now thrust aside the gyanis and their learning, and are content to dispense with both. The sequel is a general relapse to Hinduism, which is princi pally a system of domestic ritual. Hinduism has six philo sophical systems, two of which, the Sankhya and Mimansa, if pushed to their legitimate consequences, are practically

atheistical. The followers of the Hindu god Shiv may curse the followers of the Hindu god Vishnu, and the followers of Vishnu may retaliate on the followers of Shiv. To be deemed an orthodox Hindu it is only necessary to be born in Hinduism and to conform to certain external observances, such as not eating or touching what its followers believe to be unclean, avoiding contact with persons who are deemed of lower caste, cooking food in a particular manner, and not allowing the shadow of strangers to fall on it. The old Levitical Law of Moses and its accessory regulations were sufficiently strict, but Hinduism surpasses all the religions that have ever been invented in a social exclusiveness which professes to be based on divine sanction. Truly wonderful are the strength and vitality of Hinduism. It is like the boa constrictor of the Indian forests. When a petty enemy appears to worry it, it winds round its opponent, crushes it in its folds, and finally causes it to disappear in its capacious interior. In this way, many centuries ago, Hinduism on its own ground disposed of Budhism, which was largely a Hindu reformation ; in this way, in a prehistoric period, it absorbed the religion of the Scythian invaders of Northern India ; in this way it has converted uneducated Islam in India into a semi-paganism ; and in this way it is disposing of the reformed and once hopeful religion of Baba Nanak. Hinduism has embraced Sikhism in its folds ; the still comparatively young religion is making a vigorous struggle for life, but its ultimate destruc tion is, it is apprehended, inevitable without State support. Notwithstanding the Sikh Gurus' powerful denunciation of Brahmans, secular Sikhs now rarely do anything without their assistance. Brahmans help them to be born, help them to wed, help them to die, and help their souls after death to obtain a state of bliss. And Brahmans, with all the deftness of Roman Catholic missionaries in Protestant countries, have partially succeeded in persuading the Sikhs to restore to their niches the images of Devi, the Queen of Heaven, and of the saints and gods of the ancient faith.

Iviii THE SIKH RELIGION

A few brief paragraphs, unburdened with detail, on the origin and progress of religion until it received its mono theistic consummation accepted by Guru Nanak appear to be necessary. Statius, the Latin poet, expressed his opinion that it was fear which first made gods in the world.1 Miserable and resourceless primitive man felt the inclemency and fury of the elements, and prayed and sacrificed to avert their wrath or to gain their favour. But as there were malignant, so there were benignant natural agencies which received devout and earnest worship. The Sun, which gives light and heat, appears to have been worshipped by all primitive peoples. He was, however, distant and non-tangible ; but when fire was discovered, long ages after man had appeared on the surface of the earth, it appears to have received the greatest homage from the human race in all parts of the globe. By its means men warmed themselves, cooked their food, and smelted metals. It was to fire (Agni) the Indians of the Vedic period addressed some of their sublimest hymns ; and its discovery and importance led the ancient Greeks to suppose that it must have been stolen from heaven, which had so long been parsimonious of its gifts.

As civilization progressed and the fruits of agriculture were added to the spontaneous gifts of nature, the bounty of the heavens was deemed necessary for man's comfort and sustenance. It was then that the sky, under the various names of Dyaus, Zcik, and Varuna, Ovpavos, was invoked, both in India and Greece, to shed its choicest blessings on crops and men.2 Other deities arose as prompted or required by human necessities. Prithwi, the earth, as the parent of sustenance, logically and necessarily received, as the 1 ' Primus in orbe decs fecit timor/ Theb. iii. 66 1. 2 For long years after the discovery and study of Sanskrit there was no doubt whatever cast on the identity of Varuna with Ouranos. Doubts have now arisen in the minds of some persons on account, it is stated, of phonetic difficulties. spouse of the sky, divine honours both in India and Europe.1 Each deity addressed received all the homage and adoration that poetic fancy could lavish or imagine. His worshippers endeavoured to make him feel that he was the great god who ruled the world and controlled man and nature ; and they hoped that by judicious flattery and plenteous sacrifice he would listen to and grant their passionate supplica tions.

The gods as well as their votaries appear to have lived in friendly contiguity both in India and in Greece. Jupiter had his temple near that of Venus as they are found to-day in the disentombed city of Pompeii. Near Delphi Apollo had exclusive sway even to the extent of relegating Jupiter into a subordinate position. Each province selected in the wide domain of Olympus some deity which it worshipped to the exclusion of all others. In India, though the worship of Shiv, which is associated with knowledge, is different from that of Vishnu, which is associated with devotion, and though the worshippers of both gods frequently quar relled and addressed each other in injurious language, yet they were united by the common bond of Hinduism, and sometimes celebrated their worship in harmony.2 When man extended his horizon, the sufficiency and omnipotence of the gods ordinarily invoked began to be canvassed. In Greece the minor deities became completely subordinated to Zeus, the great ruler of Olympus. They could do everything but regulate human fate and action. That was reserved for the supreme deity alone : — 7rAr)i> fleouri yap ouris eori 7rA.T)i> Ato's.3 In India a belief in an infinite, illimitable, and supreme power was gradually evolved by seers and philosophers

1 Tacitus wrote of the ancient Germans — ' Herthum, id est terram matrem, colunt eamque intervenire rebus hominum, invehi populis arbitrantur/ Germania, cap. xl. 2 An idol in a temple, Harihareshwar, on the outskirts of the Maisur (Mysore) State contains the conjoint emblems of Vishnu and Shiv. 3 Aesch. Prom. Vine. 49. Ix THE SIKH RELIGION ages before the emigration of the Aryans to Europe. Prajapati, who was represented as the father of the gods, the lord of all living creatures, gradually received excep tional human homage. There was also Aditi, who appears under various guises, being, in one passage of the Rig Veda, identified with all the deities, with men, with all that has been and shall be born, and with air and heaven. In this character she corresponded to the Greek Zeus ; Zevs eorti; al6r)p, Zeus 6e y?j, Zevs rot TO. TTCLVTOL \&TI Tcoi>5' and to the Latin Jupiter : — lupiter est quodcunque vides, quocunque moveris.2 But there appears again to have been even a more ex alted concept of a divinity who was inexpressible and who could only be described by a periphrasis. He was bright and beautiful and great. He was One, though the poets called Him by many names.

Before there was anything, before there was either death or immortality, before there was any distinction between day and night, there was that One. It breathed breathless by itself. Other than it nothing has since been. Then was darkness, everything in the beginning was hidden in gloom, all was like the ocean, without a light. Then that germ which was covered by the husk, the One, was produced.3 Guru Nanak, as we shall see, gave expansion to this conception of the one God : — 1 Aesch. Frag. 2 Lucan, Pharsalia ix. 3 Rig Veda,X, 129. Tacitus indicates one God worshipped under different names by the Germans, and only perceived by the light of faith : ' Deorum nominibus appellant secretum illud quod sola reverentia vident/ It may be here noticed that Tacitus' account of Germany and its people is much more trustworthy than that of Caesar, who was a less philosophical writer. Caesar states that the Germans worshipped the sun, fire, and the moon, and them only. In the beginning there was indescribable darkness ; Then was not earth or heaven, naught but God's unequalled order. Then was not day, or night, or moon, or sun ; God was meditating on the void.

Then were not continents, or hells, or seven seas, or rivers, or flowing streams. Nor was there paradise, or a tortoise, or nether regions ; Or the hell or heaven of the Muhammadans, or the De stroyer Death ; Or the hell or heaven of the Hindus, or birth or death ; nor did any one come or go. Then was not Brahma, Vishnu, or Shiv ; No one existed but the One God. Then was not female, or male, or caste, or birth ; nor did any one feel pain or pleasure. There was no caste or religious garb, no Brahman or Khatri. No horn, no sacred feasts, no places of pilgrimage to bathe in, nor did any one perform worship. There was no love, no service, no Shiv, or Energy of his ; Then were not Veds or Muhammadan books, no Simritis, no Shastars ; The Imperceptible God was Himself the speaker and preacher ; Himself unseen He was evei When He pleased He created the world ; Without supports He sustained the sky. He created Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiv, and extended the love of Mammon. He issued His order and watched over all.1 For many centuries thinking men in India have rejected gods and goddesses, and made no secret of their faith in the sole primal Creator, by whatsoever name called.

An important question arose how the Supreme Being should be represented. He could not be seen, but He was believed to exist. The highest conception that primitive man could form of Him was that He was in man's own image, subject to the human passions of wrath, jealousy, revenge, love of praise, and adoration. This conception is what has been termed anthropomorphism — that is, that 1 The Indian words in this hymn will subsequently be explained. Ixii THE SIKH RELIGION God is in man's image, or, conversely, that God made man in his own image.1 When man's conception of God extended, and it was admitted that He had created the heavens and the earth, and held control over His boundless creation, it became difficult for the philosopher to imagine Him in human form. Were He such, it would appear to be a limitation of His omnipotence and omnipresence, and, moreover, the belief that God is infinite and governs His infinite creation, but at the same time is not included in it, though possibly intelligible to faith, is not equally so to reason. To over come this difficulty the belief arose that God is diffused through all matter, and that it is therefore a part of Him. This belief is known as pantheism.

In India, pantheism may be said to be the creed of intel lectual Hindus, but it cannot be held to be a generally satisfying or useful cult to the world. When a man believes that he is a part of God, and that God, who pervades space, pervades him also, moral obligation must obviously be relaxed. Nor can supplications be satisfactorily addressed to nature, with its elemental forces, even though God be held to reside therein. Pantheism is too cold and too abstract to satisfy the reasonable aspirations of the human soul. And the fact admitted by most philosophers, that men are endowed with free will, must make them pause before they accept the pantheistic philosophy in its entirety. Moreover, to gratify his emotional instinct, man must have access in spirit to a personal God to appeal to in order to grant him favours, to afford him solace in affliction, to love him as a son, and as a kind and merciful friend to take an interest in him when he needs assistance. According to the Sikh Gurus, God was a being to be approached and 1 The ancient Greeks also believed that God made man in the divine image. Thus Plato — 'Os Se KwqGev avrb KCU £tov evo^cre r&v cu'SiW 0€oiv yeyovos ayaXfJia 6 yevvrjo-as Traryp, rjyda-Or) re KCU ev</>/>av$€ts en. 8r) jMaXXov o/x-otov ?rpos TO TrapdScLyfjLa cTrevorj&fV d-rrepydcraa-OaL (' The creative Father seeing that this image of the immortal gods had both motion and life was pleased, and in his delight considered how he might fashion it still more like its prototype'), Timaeus.

loved as a fond and faithful wife loves her spouse, and human beings were to be regarded with equality as brothers, and not to be considered as divided into castes which were at variance with or despised one another. But though the Sikhs believe in a personal God, He is not in man's image. Guru Nanak calls Him, Nirankar — that is, without form. Gur Das speaks of Him as formless, without equal, wonderful, and not perceptible by the senses. At the same time all the Gurus believed that He was diffused throughout creation. Guru Nanak wrote, 1 Think upon the One who is contained in everything.' This same belief was again enunciated by Guru Ram Das, 'Thou, O God, art in everything and in all places.' And, according to Guru Gobind Singh, even God and His worshipper, though two, are one, as bubbles which arise in water are again blended with it. This belief, according to the Guru, admitted of no doubt or discussion.1 It is the error of men in supposing distinct existence, together with the human attributes of passion and spiritual blindness, which produces sin and evil in the world and renders^ the soul liable to trans migration.

No religious teacher has succeeded in logically dissociating theism from pantheism. In some passages of the Guru's writings pantheism is, as we have seen, distinctly implied, while in other texts matter is made distinct from the Creator, but an emanation from Him. Although anthropomorphic theism is a religion, while pantheism is a philosophy, and anthropomorphic theism is generally held orthodox and pantheism heterodox, yet, on account of the difficulty of describing the Omnipresent and Illimitable in suitable human language, both religion and philosophy are inextricably 1 Compare 'Ai/$p<o7rov y« ^Xn-> e*Trep TL KOL oAAo roiv avOpniirivuV) TOV 0€tov /xcrcxet, Xenoph. Memor. ; ' Humanus autem animus decerptus ex divina mente cum alio nullo nisi cum ipso Deo, si hoc est fas dictu, comparari potest/ Cicero, Tusc. Disp. Compare also the expressions attributed to Christ in the Gospel according to St. John, ' I and My Father are One,' ' I am in the Father and the Father in Me/ and again, 'I am in My Father, and ye in Me and I in you.' Ixiv THE SIKH RELIGION blended by sacred as well as profane writers. Let us take a few examples : — Doth not the Lord fill heaven and earth ? — JEREMIAH.

God in whom we live, and move, and have our being. — ST. PAUL. Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem, et magno secorporemiscet. — VIRGIL. Estne Dei sedes nisi terra, et pontus, et aer, Et caelum et virtus ? Superos quid quaerimus ultra ? lupiter est quodcunque vides, quocunque moveris !— • All in all and all in every part. — COWLEY. Lives through all life, extends through all extent. Spreads undivided, operates unspent. — POPE. Deum rerum omnium causam immanentem, non vero transeuntem statuo. — SPINOZA. Se Dio veder tu vuoi, Guardalo in ogni oggetto ; Cercalo nel tuo petto ; Lo trover ai in te ! — METASTASIO. An indefinite number of such examples might be cited.

In the hymns of the Gurus, Nirvan, or absorption in God, is proposed as the supreme object of human attainment; but a paradise called Sach Khand is also promised to the blest. There they recognize one another and enjoy ever lasting beatitude. Several learned Sikhs, however, maintain that Nirvan and Sach Khand are practically the same. Contrary to the practice of the ancient Indian ascetics, the Gurus held that man might obtain eternal happiness without forsaking his ordinary worldly duties. Reunion with the Absolute should be the supreme object of all Sikh devotion and aspirations. My soul, seek shelter in God's holy name ; Pondering on this should'st thou all thought employ. No more thou'lt grieve, hemmed in by mortal frame, But gain in God Nirvana's final joy. Nirvan, from nir out and va to blow, means in Sikh literature the cessation of individual consciousness caused by the blending of the light of the soul with the light of God. The Sikhs compare it to water blending with water:— As water blends with water, when Two streams their waves unite, The light of human life doth blend With God's celestial light. No transmigrations then await The weary human soul ; It hath attained its resting-place,

Its peaceful crowning goal. Nirvan is to be obtained by meditation on God, with sufficient attention and iteration, and by a life spent in conformity with the Guru's teachings. Individual con sciousness then ceases, and there is no further pain or misery. A man may have performed good works on earth, but, if they be unattended with devout meditation and mental absorption in God, he cannot expect either Nirvan or Sach Khand, but must undergo purgation after death. After this the soul returns to a human body and begins anew its career, to end in either the supreme bliss of ultimate absorption or the supreme misery of countless trans migrations. If man have done evil and laid up demerits, his punish ment after death must be severe. When the punishment corresponds to his misdeeds, his soul must enter some lower animal and pass through a greater or lesser number of the eight million four hundred thousand forms of existence in creation, until its turn comes to enter the offspring of human parents. The soul thus reborn in a human being has again to proceed in its long struggle to obtain the boundless reward of Nirvan. Ixvi THE SIKH RELIGION Longa dies, perfecto temporis orbe, Concretam exemit labem, purumque reliquit Aetherium sensum atque aurai simplicis ignem.1

Mind, whether known as reason or instinct of a greater or less degree, and whether an attribute of the brain, of the nervous system, or of the heart, is common to all animals. It is held in most religious systems to be distinct from the soul.2 It induces the soul, under the impulse of goodness or passion, to perform good or evil acts. Both the mind and the soul are concomitants of life, which is a particular com bination of certain elements existing in the body, and abides as long as the bodily mechanism is in order and harmonious operation. When the mechanism has fallen out of gear by illness, accident, or old age, life departs, and with it the soul, which in some religious systems is held to perish with the body, in others to be immortal and individual, and in others again to transmigrate from one living creature to another. We are in this work only con cerned with the soul in its migratory aspect. In the Mosaic system God is represented as jealous and visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children even to future generations. The Indian philosopher feels that this belief is derogatory to God, and holds that the state of the soul after the death of the body depends on its acts (called Karma) while contained in the body. These acts attach to the soul, follow it, and determine its next abode.

Hindus, and all who have sprung from them, have never entertained any doubt as to the possibility of the wanderings of the soul in the bodies of all created animals. And not only Hindus, but some Europeans of exquisite intellectual fibre have accepted or coquetted with this belief, as if the 1 Virgil, Aeneid vi. 745. 2 In the Tusculan Disputations Cicero quotes a paragraph he had written in a work on Consolation, in which he appears to treat soul and mind as identical. After referring to the soul as that which possesses feeling, understanding, life, and vigour (' quicquid est illud, quod sentit, quod sapit, quod vivit, quod viget'), he states that the human mind is of the same kind and nature (' Hoc e genere atque eadem e natura est humana mens'), Tusc. Disp. i. 27. minds of men of vivid imagination were of necessity recalling from the misty past — gathering from the fount of original knowledge — ideas evolved by primitive man long anterior, not only to European civilization, but to all Semitic history. Many persons have thought on beholding for the first time, in this life at any rate, scenes in foreign lands, that they had been previously familiar with their beauties and derived no new gratification from them. The tenacity with which the Greek philosopher Pythagoras held this doctrine, which he called metempsychosis, is well known. Well known, too, is the success with which he and his followers for a long time imparted their views to the Dorian aristocracy on this and kindred subjects, such as, for instance, the non-destruction of life. And according to the Phaedo of Plato, Sokrates appears to have proved the doctrine of Pythagoras to his own satisfaction.

To some of our English poets the belief has been one of curious interest and satisfaction. Thus Wordsworth :— Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting ; The soul that rises with us, our life's star Hath had elsewhere its setting, And cometh from afar ; Thus, too, Browning :— At times I almost dream I too have spent a life the sages' way, And tread once more familiar paths. And also Rossetti :— I have been here before, But how or when I cannot tell. The soul when it separates from the body is likened in ancient Indian works to the moon on the day when it is invisible on account of its conjunction with the sun. The soul exists as the moon exists, though it is not perceptible ; and as the moon shines again when it progresses in its motion, so does the soul when it moves into another body. The soul being in a state of mobility, and at the same Ixviii THE SIKH RELIGION time immortal, seeks a body for the performance of its functions, and, as it were, enters into a matrimonial alliance with it for the completion and perfection of both. As the same thread will penetrate a gold bead, a pearl, or an earthen ball, so the soul, bearing its burden of acts, will enter any body with which it conies in contact. This the soul is enabled to do by its possession of a covering of finer or grosser texture, which it takes with it from the last body it has inhabited. The soul thus passes from body to body in a revolving wheel, until it is purged of its im purities and deemed fit to blend with the Absolute, from which it originally emanated.

Paramatama, the primal spirit, is the Supreme Being considered as the pervading soul of the universe. It is represented as light. Jlvatama, the soul of each living being, is also light, an emanation from the Paramatama and not material. The lines of Milton may be accepted as a definition of the deity according to the Sikh conception : — . . . . Since God is light And never but in unapproached light Dwelt from eternity — Bright effluence of bright essence increate. And of Thomas Campbell nearly to the same effect : — This spirit will return to Him Who gave its heavenly spark. The Paramatama is likened to an illimitable ocean, the Jivatama to a glass of water immersed in it. The glass is the subtile body or covering of the soul. If the glass itself be broken or taken away, the water in it, which corresponds to the jivatama, blends with the water of the ocean. This is an exemplification of Nirvan. According to Sikh ontology all animals have two bodies, one a solid material body and the other a subtile intangible body.1 The jivatama is separated from the former at the 1 St. Paul speaks of a spiritual body (i Cor. xv. 44)*

time of death, but not from the latter unless the state oi Nirvan supervenes. While the jivatama is encased in a subtile body, it is susceptible of punishment. Sokrates, in discussing the possibility of a separate existence after death, dilates on the pleasure it would afford to meet such men as Homer, Hesiod, &c. ; but Plato has not recorded what Sokrates' sensations would be on meeting his tormentors and persecutors in the same happy region. John Stuart Mill, too, thought * that the most serious loss which would result to mankind from a disbelief in an after existence would be the despair of reunion with those dear to us who have ended their earthly life before us. An aspiration for such a reunion is easy to understand, and the hope of its realization has soothed the death-bed of many a believer in the soul's immortality. But all people are not equally dear to us, and it did not apparently occur to that eminent philosopher that, granted the hope of meeting those we love beyond the grave, there is also the possibility of meeting those who are not equally the objects of our affection — those who have perhaps embittered or even abridged our terrestrial existence, and who, it may be as the result of predestination or elective grace, are admitted to the sempiternal joys of paradise. To the believer in Nirvan there is no apprehension of such associations. Only those who are sufficiently purified can be absorbed in the Absolute, in the all-dazzling fount of God's infinite perfection and love. Here individual consciousness ceases, the supreme goal of existence is attained, and neither sorrow, misery, nor remembrance of earthly evils can be apprehended.

About thirty miles south-west of the city of Lahore, the capital of the Panjab, and on the borders of the present civil districts of Gujranwala and Montgomery, stands the town of Talwandi, deep in a lonely forest. It is on the margin 1 Kssay on the Utility of Religion. Ixx THE SIKH RELIGION of the Bar or raised forest tract which occupies the centre of the Pan jab. The town is still girdled by a broad expanse of arborescent vegetation, which, when not wrhitened by the sand blown by the winds of the desert, wears through all seasons a cheerful appearance. The jal (Salvadora Persica) predominates, but there are also found the phulahi (Acacia modesta) and the jand (Prosopis spicigera). The wild deer is seen occasionally to appear startled at the traveller who disturbs the solitude of its domain, and the hare and the partridge cower cautiously among the thickets, deprecating molestation. In this retreat was born Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion. His birth took place on the third day of the light half of the month of Baisakh (April-May) in the year 1526 of the Vikramaditya era, corresponding to A. D. 1469. As to the month in which he was born there are strange diversities of statement, which we shall subse quently notice. Guru Nanak's father was Kalu of the Bedi l section of the Khatri caste. He was by profession a village accountant, but added the practice of agriculture to this avocation. Kalu's father was Shiv Ram and his mother Banarasi. Kalu had one brother called Lalu, of whom little is known besides his name. Kalu was married to Tripta, daughter of Rama, a native of the Manjha2 country. Tripta had a brother called Krishan, of whom history is as silent as of Lalu. Tripta bore to Kalu one daughter, Nanaki, and one son, Nanak. Nanaki married Jai Ram, a revenue official of high repute at Sultanpur, which is in the present native state of Kapurthala, and was then the capital of the Jalandhar Doab.

When Taimur had spread anarchy and devastation over Northern India, a dynasty of Saiyids, or descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, aspired to rule in Dihli in the name of the Mughal conqueror. To Dihli there was hardly any territory attached, and Ala-ul-din, the last of the Saiyid 1 The meaning of this name will be explained when we come to the writings of the tenth Guru. 2 The Manjha is the country between the rivers Ravi and Bias. rulers, in contemptuous disregard for the small and trouble some dominion meted out to him by destiny, retired to the distant city of Badaun to end his days in religious and political tranquillity. He left Dihli and the fortunes of empire to Bahlol Khan Lodi, a man whose ancestors had been enriched by commerce, and whose grandfather had been Governor of Multan under the famous monarch Firoz Shah Tughlak. Bahlol Khan Lodi reigned from A. D. 1450 to A.D. 1488, and it was consequently near the middle of his reign that Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, was born. After the accession of Bahlol Khan Lodi, Daulat Khan, a relative of his, obtained power in the Panjab, and governed under the paramount authority of his kinsman. He lived in state at Sultanpur till defeated and deprived of his possessions by the Emperor Babar. The Panjab appears to have been already parcelled out to Musalman chiefs who were retainers of the sovereigns of Dihli. One of these chiefs, called Rai Bhoi, a Musalman Rajput of the Bhatti tribe, had been Zamindar or proprietor of Talwandi. After his death his heritage descended to his son Rai Bular, who governed the town at the birth and during the youth of Nanak.

Talwandi is said to have been originally built by a Hindu king called Raja Vairat. It was sacked and destroyed by fire and crowbar, like most Hindu towns and cities, during the Musalman invasions. Rai Bular restored it and built a fort on the summit of the tumulus, in which he lived the secure and happy ruler of a small village, some limited acres of cultivated land, and a boundless wilderness. Although the age was one of religious intolerance and persecution, Rai Bular appears to have been the very reverse of a bigot. His father and he were converted Hindus, doubtless added to the ranks of Islam by a hasty circumcision and an enforced utterance of some Arabic sentences which they did not perfectly comprehend. 1 1 The descendants of Rai Bular still exist in that part of the country. Ixxii THE SIKH RELIGION In such a solitude Rai Bular could not have been under the less worthy influences of Islam ; and indifference, the parent of toleration, appears to have supervened on his Muhammadan religious training. But the human mind is so constituted, and the religious or emotional instinct so dominant in human nature, that most men at some period of their lives are irresistibly impelled to religious speculation. Something, too, must be allowed for Rai Bular's patriotic prejudices for a suffering though renounced faith. Talwandi shared not the tumults and excitements of the outer political world. It was a theatre meet for the training of a prophet or religious teacher who was to lead his countrymen to the sacred path of truth, and disenthral their minds from the superstitions of ages. Rai Bular in his little realm had ample time for reflection, and when he heard of Nanak's piety and learning, felt a mysterious interest in the clever and precocious son of Kalu.

The house in which Nanak was born lay a little distant from the fort. Probably Rai Bular and his family alone inhabited the ancient tumulus, while his tenants dwelt in the town of Talwandi on the plain. The town has now lost its old name, and is known as Nankana, in memory of the religious teacher to whom it had the honour of giving birth. When the Sikh religion had gained prominence, there was a temple erected on the spot where the Guru was born. It was afterwards rebuilt and enlarged by Raja Tej Singh, at the time when the Sikh arms had attained their greatest power and the Sikh commonwealth its widest expansion. Within the temple is installed the Granth Sahib, or sacred volume of the Sikh faith, intoned by a pro fessional reader. The innermost shrine contains some cheap printed pictures of the Guru, and musicians beguile the day chanting the religious metrical compositions of the Gurus.

We shall now examine the principal current accounts of Guru Nanak and give brief notices of their authors. The oldest authentic account of the Guru was written by Bhai Gur Das, who flourished in the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century, dying in A.D. 1629. He was first cousin of the mother of Guru Arjan, the fifth Guru of the Sikhs. He was Guru Arjan's amanuensis, and wrote out from his dictation the Adi1 Granth , or sacred book of the Sikhs, which then contained the hymns of the first five Sikh Gurus and of the saints who preceded them. He next wrote what he called Wars or religious cantos. These are forty in number. The first War begins with the Sikh cosmology, and ends with a brief account of Guru Nanak and the succeeding Gurus to the date of Gur Das's composition. Gur Das's object was essentially religious. He delighted in singing the greatness of God, the littleness of man, and the excellence of the Guru. Besides the Wars, Gur Das wrote Kabits, which contains the Sikh tenets and a panegyric of the Gurus. The details which Gur Das has given of Guru Nanak will be utilized in the life of that Guru. It is a matter of regret that he did not write a complete life of the Guru, as its details could at that time have been easily obtained. The date of the composition of his work is not given, but it is admitted on all hands that it was during the time of Guru Arjan. Making due allowance for Gur Das's pro tracted employment in copying and collating the sacred volume for Guru Arjan — a task which was completed in A.D. 1604 — it may fairly be assumed that Gur Das wrote his own work not much more than sixty years after the demise of Guru Nanak, when some of his contemporaries

1 The epithet Adi, which means primitive or first, was bestowed on the Granth Sahib of Guru Arjan to distinguish it from the Grantli of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru, which was subsequently com piled by Bhai Mani Singh. Ixxiv THE SIKH RELIGION were still alive, and one of them at least retained the vigour of his intellectual faculties. There was then living in the village of Ramdas1 about twenty miles north of Amritsar, Bhai Budha, who had embraced the Sikh religion under Guru Nanak at Kartarpur, and who used to attend him on some of his peregrinations. This man was in the prime of life when Gur Das copied the Granth Sahib for Guru Arjan, and the latter made him reader and custodian of the sacred volume at Amritsar. Bhai Budha subsequently lived until the Guruship of Guru Har Gobind, when he died at the ripe age of one hundred and seven years. In such estimation was he held that he was specially appointed to impress the saffron tilak, or patch of Gurudom, on the foreheads of the Gurus of his time ; and his descendants had the same honoured privilege as long as legitimate Gurus remained to be thus distinguished. He, however, has left no memoirs of the founder of his religion.

Mani Singh was the youngest of five sons of Bika of Kaibowal, in the Malwa country, and belonged to the Dullat section of the Hindu Jats. The ruins of Kaibowal may now be seen near the village of Laugowal. When Guru Gobind Singh was going to Kurkhetar on a preaching excursion, Bika and his son Mani went to a place called Akoi to meet him and offer him their homage. Bika in due time returned home, leaving his son with the Guru. The Guru one day asked Mani to wipe the vessels from which the Sikhs had eaten, and, as an inducement, promised that as the vessels became bright so should his under standing. Mani wiped the dishes with great humility and devotion, and received baptism from the Guru as his reward. He remained a celibate and devoted his life to the Guru's service. 1 This was Bhai Budha's original name, and the village was called after him. The name Bhai Budha was given him by Guru Nanak. The word ' Bhai ' means brother. Guru Nanak, who disregarded caste and preached the doctrine of the brotherhood of man, desired that all his followers should be deemed brothers, and thus he addressed them. The title ' Bhai ' is now bestowed on Sikh priests and others who have made a special study of the Sikh sacred writings.

When the tenth Guru found it necessary to go to the south of India, he took Mani Singh, among others, with him. At Nander, or Abchalanagar, as it is now called by the Sikhs, the Guru expounded to his followers, among whom Mani Singh was an enthusiastic listener, the recon dite language of the Granth Sahib or the book par excellence. After the Guru's death Bhai Mani Singh remained as Grant hi, or reader of the Granth in the Har Mandar in Amritsar.1 The Sikhs commissioned him, while so employed, to write them a life of Guru Nanak. They represented that the Minas, or descendants of Prithi Chand, had interpolated much incorrect matter in the biography of the Guru, whereby doubts were produced in the minds of orthodox Sikhs ; and they commissioned Mani Singh to discriminate the true from the false, and compile a trustworthy life of the founder of their religion. He accordingly expanded the first of Bhai Gur Das's Wars into a life of Guru Nanak. It is called the Gyan Ratanawali. Mani Singh wrote another work, the Bhagat Ratanawali, an expansion of Gur Das's eleventh War, which contains a list of famous Sikhs up to the time of Guru Har Gobind. After the demise of Bhai Mani Singh the copyists interlarded several Hindu ideas in his works.

The hymns of the Adi Granth are arranged under the musical measures to which they were intended to be sung. Mani Singh thought it would be better and more con venient to compile the hymns of each Guru separately. He therefore altered the arrangement of the Granth Sahib, on which he was censured by the Sikhs. He apologized, and was subsequently pardoned by the members of his faith. In A.D. 1738 Mani Singh asked permission of Zakaria Khan, the Viceroy of Lahore, to allow the Diwali 2 fair to 1 Bhai Gyan Singh's Panth Parkdsh. 2 The Diwali, originally a festival observed only by Hindus in honour of Lakshmi, their goddess of wealth, on the i$th day of Kartik (Oct.-Nov.). It was the date on which Bhai Budha the first Granthi Ixxvi THE SIKH RELIGION be held in Amritsar. The Viceroy gave permission on condition that Mani Singh undertook to pay a poll-tax for every Sikh who attended. Mani Singh accepted this con dition, and sent circulars to the Sikhs to attend and hold a special Sikh gathering. The Viceroy sent troops to watch the movements of the Sikhs, but the Sikhs, mistaking their intention, dispersed. The result was that Mani Singh was unable to pay the stipulated tax. Upon this he was taken to Lahore for punishment. Zakaria Khan asked his Qazi what the punishment should be. The Qazi replied that Mani Singh must either accept Islam or suffer disj ointment of his body. Mani Singh heroically accepted the latter alternative. The Viceroy adjudged this barbarous punishment, nominally on account of his victim's non payment of the tax, but in reality on account of his influence as a learned and holy man in maintaining the Sikh religion. Mani Singh manifested no pain on the occasion of his execution. He continued to his last breath to recite the Japji of Guru Nanak and the Sukhmani of Guru Arjan.

Bhai Santokh Singh, son of Deva Singh, was born in Amritsar in A. D. 1788. He received religious instruction in the Sikh faith from Bhai Sant Singh in his native city, and in the Hindu religion from a Pandit in Kaul in the Karnal district. He found a patron in Sardar Megh Singh of Buria, in the present district of Ambala in the Panjab, and under his auspices translated a work called Amar Kosh from the Sanskrit. In A. D. 1823 ne wrote the Nanak Parkash, an exposition of the life and teachings of Guru Nanak. After this Bhai Santokh Singh entered the employ of Maharaja Karm Singh of Patiala. In A. D. 1825, Bhai Ude Singh of Kaithal obtained his services from the Maharaja. In Kaithal Bhai Santokh Singh, with the aid of the Brahmans whom Bhai Ude Singh had placed at his disposal, translated several works from the Sanskrit. He then set about writing the lives of the remaining Gurus, completed his perusal of the Granth Sahib, and it consequently became a Sikh holiday also. and this task he completed during the rainy season of A. D. 1843 under the name of ' Gur Partap Suraj ', popularly known as the ' Suraj Parkash ', in six ponderous volumes. The lives of the Gurus, from the second to the ninth, inclu sive, are divided into twelve ras or sections, corresponding to the signs of the Zodiac. The life of the tenth Guru is pre sented in six ruts, or seasons, corresponding to the six Indian seasons, and into two ains, the ascending and descending nodes. The whole work is written in metre, and in difficult Hindi, with a large admixture of pure Sanskrit words. Santokh Singh's other works are a paraphrase of the Japji of Guru Nanak and of the Sanskrit works Atam Pur an and Valmik's Ramayan.

Bhai Ram Kanwar, a lineal descendant of Bhai Budha, was specially favoured by receiving the pahul, or baptism by the dagger, from Guru Gobind Singh himself ; and on that occasion the name of Bhai Gurbakhsh Singh was bestowed on him.1 Bhai Gurbakhsh Singh survived by twenty-five years the tenth and last Guru, and dictated his history to Bhai Sahib Singh. To the writings of the latter, which are now no longer extant, Bhai Santokh Singh is said to have been indebted. It is, however, doubtful whether Bhai Santokh Singh had access to any trustworthy authority. From his early education and environment he was largely tinctured with Hinduism. He was unquestionably a poet, and his imagination was largely stimulated by copious draughts of bhang and other intoxicants in which he freely indulged. The consequence was that he invented several stories discreditable to the Gurus and their religion. Some of his inventions are due to his exaggerated ideas of prowess and force in a bad as well as in a good cause — a reflex of the spirit of the marauding age in which he lived. His statements accordingly cannot often be accepted as even an approach to history. 1 The genealogy of Bhai Gurbakhsh Singh is as follows : Bhiii Budha, who lived from the time of Guru Nanak to that of Guru Har Gobind, begot Bhana, who begot Sarwan, who begot Jalal, who begot Jhanda, who begot Gurditta, who begot Bhai Ram Kanwar (Gurbakhsh Singh).

Ixxviii THE SIKH RELIGION We shall now notice works called Janamsakhis, which profess to be biographies of Guru Nanak. These com positions were obviously written at very different epochs after the demise of the Guru, and give very different and contradictory details of his life. In all of them miraculous acts and supernatural conversations are recorded. The question of these Janamsakhis is of such supreme impor tance, as showing the extent to which pious fiction can proceed in fabricating details of the lives of religious teachers,1 that we must devote some space to a considera tion of them. One of the most popular Janamsakhis is a large volume of 588 folio pages lithographed at Lahore. It is plentifully embellished with woodcuts, and its editor states that in its compilation he has expended vast pains, having collated books which he had brought from great distances at vast trouble and expense. He boasts that no one can produce such a book. If any one dare reprint it without his per mission, he shall be sued and mulcted in damages in a court of justice. The work is apparently based on Bhai Santokh Singh's Nanak Parkash. To gain credence for a biography it is of course necessary to have a narrator, and to be assured that the narrator is no fictitious person. In the present, and indeed in all the popular Janamsakhis, which no doubt have been compiled by altering some one original volume, a person called Bhai Bala is made the narrator. He is represented as having been three years younger than Guru Nanak, and as having accompanied him in the capacity of faithful and confidential

1 Compare the manner in which Janamsakhis or gospels were multiplied in the early Christian Church. ' Vast numbers of spurious writings bearing the names of apostles and their followers, and claiming more or less direct apostolic authority, were in circulation in the early Church — Gospels according to Peter, to Thomas, to James, to Judas, according to the Apostles, or according to the Twelve, to Barnabas, to Matthias, to Nicodemus, &c. ; and ecclesiastical writers bear abundant testimony to the early and rapid growth of apocryphal literature.' Supernatural Religion, vol. i, p. 292. It may be incidentally men tioned that it was the Gospel according to Barnabas which Muhammad used in the composition of the Quran. attendant in all his wanderings. Bala is said to have dictated the biography to Paira by order of Guru Angad, the Guru next in succession to Guru Nanak. What thr value of this Janamsakhi is we shall briefly consider. It is generally written in the current Panjabi dialect, with a slight admixture of archaic words, and no more corresponds with the dialect of the age of Guru Nanak and Guru Angad, whose compositions have descended to us and can be examined, than the English of the present day corresponds with that of Chaucer or Piers Plowman. If Paira wrote from Bala's dictation, where is the original volume, wrhich of course was written in the language of the time ? When Bala proffered to dictate the biography, Guru Angad, who was well acquainted with Guru Nanak, / knew so little of Bala that he is represented as having asked him whose disciple he was, and if he had ever seen Nanak. This does not appear as if Bala, supposing him to have ever existed, had been an eye-witness of Guru Nanak's deeds, or a trustworthy authority for the particulars of his life. If he had been, his fitness for the duty of biographer would have been well known to Guru Angad, who was a constant companion of Guru Nanak in the end of his life.

In Gur Das's eleventh War is found a list of well-known Sikhs up to his time. He does not state what Sikhs were converted by or lived in the time of each Guru. Mani Singh, in the Bhagat Ratanwali, has given the same list with fuller particulars of the Sikhs. Among them Bhai Bala is not mentioned. This Janamsakhi professes to have been written in the Sambat year 1592, ! when Guru Nanak was still alive, and three years before Angad had obtained the Guruship. An earlier recension of the same biography professes to have been written in Sambat 1582, or thirteen years before the demise of Guru Nanak. There were three great schisms of the Sikh religion which led to the falsification of old, or the composition of new Janamsakhis. The schismatics were known as the Udasis, 1 The Sambat or Vikramaditya era is fifty-seven years prior to annus domini. Ixxx THE SIKH RELIGION the Minas, and the Handalis. The first schism of the Sikhs began immediately after the demise of Guru Nanak.1 Some of his followers adopted Sri Chand, his elder son, as his successor, and repudiated the nomination of Guru Angad. The followers of Sri Chand were termed Udasis, or the solitary ; and they now constitute a large body of devout and earnest men. Anand Ghan, one of their number, has in recent times written the life of Guru Nanak. It contains an apotheosis of Sri Chand, and states that he was an incar nation of God, and the only true successor of Guru Nanak.