DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0178
166 The Sikh Sect.
Amritsar, which is still the metropolis of the Sikh religion.
He was the first Sikh Pope who aimed at temporal as well
as spiritual power. It is not surprising, then, that his death is
said to have been brought about by the Emperor Jahangir.
The lives of the sixth, seventh, and eighth Gurus may be
passed over as unimportant. The ninth Guru, Teg-Bahadur,
attracted the attention of the Emperor Aurangzib. This
fanatical monarch, who was bent on forcing the whole world
to embrace Islam, did not long leave the Sikhs undisturbed.
He imprisoned Teg-Bahadur, and tortured him so cruelly
that the Guru, despairing of life, induced a fellow-prisoner to
put an end to his sufferings, But Aurangzlb's tyranny was
quite powerless to suppress the Sikh movement. It was rather
the chief factor in Sikh progress. The murder of the ninth
Guru was the great turning-point in the history of the sect.
Thenceforward the Sikhs became a nation of fighting men.
Teg-Bahadur's son, Govind-Sinh, succeeded as tenth Guru.
Burning to revenge his father's death, he formed the am-
bitious design of establishing an independent dominion on the
ruins of the Muhammadan Empire. He was a man of
extraordinary energy and strength of will, but, born and
brought up at Patna, was deeply imbued with Hindu super-
stitious feelings. The better to prepare himself for what he
felt was too gigantic a task to be accomplished without
supernatural assistance, he went through a course of severe
religious austerity. He even so far abjured the principles of
his predecessors as to propitiate the goddess Durga. Nay, it
is even affirmed that, instigated by the Brahmans to offer one
of his own sons as a sacrifice, and unable to obtain the
mother's consent, he allowed one of his disciples to be be-
headed as a substitute at the altar of the bloody goddess.
The story is noteworthy as pointing to the probable preva-
lence of human sacrifice at that time in Upper India.
In fact, it was the tenth Guru, Govind, who converted the
Sikhs into a nation of fighting men. His character was a
Amritsar, which is still the metropolis of the Sikh religion.
He was the first Sikh Pope who aimed at temporal as well
as spiritual power. It is not surprising, then, that his death is
said to have been brought about by the Emperor Jahangir.
The lives of the sixth, seventh, and eighth Gurus may be
passed over as unimportant. The ninth Guru, Teg-Bahadur,
attracted the attention of the Emperor Aurangzib. This
fanatical monarch, who was bent on forcing the whole world
to embrace Islam, did not long leave the Sikhs undisturbed.
He imprisoned Teg-Bahadur, and tortured him so cruelly
that the Guru, despairing of life, induced a fellow-prisoner to
put an end to his sufferings, But Aurangzlb's tyranny was
quite powerless to suppress the Sikh movement. It was rather
the chief factor in Sikh progress. The murder of the ninth
Guru was the great turning-point in the history of the sect.
Thenceforward the Sikhs became a nation of fighting men.
Teg-Bahadur's son, Govind-Sinh, succeeded as tenth Guru.
Burning to revenge his father's death, he formed the am-
bitious design of establishing an independent dominion on the
ruins of the Muhammadan Empire. He was a man of
extraordinary energy and strength of will, but, born and
brought up at Patna, was deeply imbued with Hindu super-
stitious feelings. The better to prepare himself for what he
felt was too gigantic a task to be accomplished without
supernatural assistance, he went through a course of severe
religious austerity. He even so far abjured the principles of
his predecessors as to propitiate the goddess Durga. Nay, it
is even affirmed that, instigated by the Brahmans to offer one
of his own sons as a sacrifice, and unable to obtain the
mother's consent, he allowed one of his disciples to be be-
headed as a substitute at the altar of the bloody goddess.
The story is noteworthy as pointing to the probable preva-
lence of human sacrifice at that time in Upper India.
In fact, it was the tenth Guru, Govind, who converted the
Sikhs into a nation of fighting men. His character was a