The Sikhs. John James Hood Gordon
away the mass of old Sirhind as ballast on which to lay the iron track—the iron made sacred by the martial Guru, and which every true Singh was commanded to wear always in some shape, either as a sword, a small hatchet, or as a bangle. The Sikh now in the railway carriage has the satisfaction of crushing under the wheels the ruins of the cursed city of Sirhind. Towards the close of the reign of his enemy Aurangzeb, Govind Singh remained in peace. He felt it a duty to save all that could be saved of the Sikhs for the time, to recuperate the race, and enable them to emerge more powerful after so much tribulation, as he no doubt saw that the Emperor's bigoted intolerance towards Hindus had weakened the Moghul power. In the meantime he was gaining many disciples, and had given them confidence in fighting. In a letter to the Emperor he wrote, "Beware! I will teach the sparrows to strike the eagle to the ground," an allusion to his inspiring the peasantry with valour and ambition.
Aurangzeb while in the Deccan felt nervous about the Khalsa, and summoned Govind Singh to his Court. He replied in a letter, setting forth the calamities and persecution to which he had been subjected by the Imperial Government. He had been rendered childless and homeless; he had lost all his family. The day of reckoning would at last come when the oppressor would have to account before the Creator for the wrongs done by him; that for himself he despised death and was weary of life; that he feared no one and was willing to die, but that if he was killed his death would be avenged. The Emperor did not resent this letter, but again desired the Guru to come to him, in which case he would be kindly received. He accordingly set out in 1707 to visit Aurangzeb, but on his way he heard of the Emperor's death. The new Emperor, Bahadur Shah, received Govind Singh with distinction, and as he had to contend with the younger brother for the crown, invited his aid and gave him a command of 5000 horse in his army in the Deccan. While there he was mortally wounded by a Pathan assassin. He left no successor; he was the last lineal descendant of the Gurus. He said the appointed ten Gurus of the Sikhs had done their mission, the dispensation was ended, and that he in-trusted his beloved Khalsa to the care of God, "the never-dying." "The 'Granth' shall support you in all troubles in this world and be a true guide to the hereafter. The Gurus shall dwell in the society of the Khalsa, and wherever there shall be five Sikhs gathered together there the true Guru shall be present also." They must have "firm belief in one God, and look to the 'Granth' as His inspired law." Feeling faint, he said to his disciples, "Bathe me, put on me new clothes, and arm me with all my weapons. When my breath departs do not take off these clothes, but burn me with them and with all my weapons."[3] He was placed on the funeral pyre dressed and armed, and expired in the performance of his devotions, his last words being, "O Holy God, Thy mercy is such that though I have not perceived Thee by touch of hand, yet have I fully recognised Thee." He died in 1708 at Nader, on the banks of the Godavari river, in the forty-eighth year of his age, having reigned as Guru for nearly thirty-three years.
The rule of the Gurus had now lasted for two hundred years, and the reformed religion established by them had taken firm root among the Jats. The dry bones of an oppressed peasantry were stirred into life, and the institution of the Sikh baptismal rite at the hands of a few disciples anywhere—in a place of worship, in the house, or by the roadside—brought about the more full and widespread development of the new faith. In Govind were united the qualities of religious leader, king, warrior, and lawgiver. He was the right man for the needs of the Sikhs of his day. He devoted them to steel, and hence the worship of the Sword. He imbued them with a warlike spirit, and made them a people separated from their Indian countrymen in political constitution and ambition as well as in religious tenets, leading them to reject caste and to abandon the institutes of Hinduism for a fraternity of arms and military daring. Faced by the intolerance and persecution of the Moghul Government, the time had gone for the preservation or diffusion of the Sikh faith in Nanak's spirit of meekness and humility. Nanak laid the broad foundations of religious reform, on which Govind built his militant doctrine to suit the changed times. He wished to infuse his own spirit into Nanak's 'Granth,' as he said it only instilled into the minds of the Sikhs a spirit of meekness and humility; but the guardians of the book signed by Arjun the compiler refused to let this be done, so Govind decided to make an additional book for his followers which should rouse their military valour and inflame them to deeds of courage. He completed it in 1696, calling it the 'Granth of the tenth King,' or reign, as the rule of the Gurus is termed—the 'Granth of the Govindi Sikhs,' as distinguished from the 'Adi Granth,' the first book. In it he treats of the knowledge of God and the way to salvation; urges the necessity of leading an active and useful life, giving lofty ideas of social freedom and rousing his disciples to deeds of valour, military glory, and national ascendancy. His 'Book of Guidance' contains the principles by which the Singhs were to adhere to the commands of the Guru in all affairs of life and conduct, and to preserve their separation from all other sects. He instituted the "Guru Mata," or National Council, to which all Sikhs were admitted and given the opportunity to express their opinions on political matters. This with the 'Granth' for guidance formed the Sikh constitution.
By converting a horde of undisciplined peasants into enthusiastic soldiers animated with religious fervour, by inuring them to warfare, and by his new ordinances moulding them into the distinct community of the Khalsa—the Commonwealth bonded together to fight until they triumphed—Govind Singh contributed much to the weakening of the Mahomedan power at a time when the Emperor Aurangzeb, by his bigotry towards Hindus, was paving the way for the disintegration of his Empire. Under his strong hand the Sikhs rose by a feeling of nationality among a people who had none. He well and truly laid the corner-stone of that nation which Ranjit Singh a hundred years later, by the force of the religious bond of the Khalsa, raised in the Punjab on the ruins of the Moghul Empire, emancipating the land of his ancestors from thraldom and persecution.
1 ↑ The tradition is that as the water was being poured into the iron dish, Govind's wife happened to pass by carrying five kinds of sugared sweetmeats. She was hailed by him as auspicious. He took some sugar from her hands and mixed it in the baptismal water.
2 ↑ Herodotus refers to the worship of the Sword which prevailed among the Scythian Getæ.
3 ↑ The ancient Scythian custom.
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