Tempo:
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
62 1606-45.
CHAP. Ill
and one was conferred as a gift on the Kazi or Judge The Guru recovered this one animal by pretending to purchase it; the judge was deceived, and his anger was further roused by the abduction of, the of Lahore.
Sikhs say his daughter, the Muhammadans his favouconcubine, who had become enamoured of the Guru. Other things may have rendered Har Gobind obnoxious, and it was resolved to seize him and to disperse his followers. He was assailed by one Mukhlis Khan, but he defeated the imperial troops near Amritsar, fighting, it is idly said, with five thousand men against seven thousand. Afterwards a Sikh, a converted robber, stole two of the emperor's prime horses from Lahore, and the Guru was again attacked by the provincial levies, but the detachment was routed and Har Gobind now deemed it prudent its leaders slain. to retire for a time to the wastes of Bhatinda, south of the Sutlej, where it might be useless or dangerous to follow him; but he watched his opportunity and speedily returned to the Punjab, only, however, to become engaged in fresh contentions. The mother of one Painda Khan, who had subsequently risen to some local eminence, had been the nurse of Har Gobind, and the Guru had ever been liberal to his foster brother. Painda Khan was moved to keep to himself a valuable hawk, belonging to the Guru's eldest son, which had flown to his house by chance: he was taxed with the detention of the bird; he equivocated before the Guru, and became soon after his avowed enemy. The presence of Har Gobind seems ever to have raised a commotion, and Painda Khan was fixed upon as a suitable leader to coerce him. He was attacked; but the warlike apostle slew the friend of his youth with his own hand, and proved again a victor. In this action a soldier rushed furiously upon the Guru; but he warded the blow and laid the man dead at his feet, exclaiming, 'Not so, but thus, is the sword used'; an observation from which the author of the Dahistan draws the inference 'that Har Gobind struck not in anger, but deliberately and to give instruction; for the function rite
Har Gobind retires to
the wastes of Hariana.
Returns to Punjab.
the
Slays in
one Painda Khan, his fight
friend.
of a
Guru is to teach.' ^ Har Gobind appears to have had other difficulties
and adventures of a similar kind, "and occasionally to have been reduced to great straits; but the Sikhs always rallied round him, his religious reputation in1
See the Dabistan, ii. 275; but native accounts, Sikh and
Muhammadan, have been mainly
followed in narrating the
Compare, however, the Dabistan, ii. 284, for the seizure of horses belonging to a disciple of the Guru.
sequence of events.
62 1606-45.
CHAP. Ill
and one was conferred as a gift on the Kazi or Judge The Guru recovered this one animal by pretending to purchase it; the judge was deceived, and his anger was further roused by the abduction of, the of Lahore.
Sikhs say his daughter, the Muhammadans his favouconcubine, who had become enamoured of the Guru. Other things may have rendered Har Gobind obnoxious, and it was resolved to seize him and to disperse his followers. He was assailed by one Mukhlis Khan, but he defeated the imperial troops near Amritsar, fighting, it is idly said, with five thousand men against seven thousand. Afterwards a Sikh, a converted robber, stole two of the emperor's prime horses from Lahore, and the Guru was again attacked by the provincial levies, but the detachment was routed and Har Gobind now deemed it prudent its leaders slain. to retire for a time to the wastes of Bhatinda, south of the Sutlej, where it might be useless or dangerous to follow him; but he watched his opportunity and speedily returned to the Punjab, only, however, to become engaged in fresh contentions. The mother of one Painda Khan, who had subsequently risen to some local eminence, had been the nurse of Har Gobind, and the Guru had ever been liberal to his foster brother. Painda Khan was moved to keep to himself a valuable hawk, belonging to the Guru's eldest son, which had flown to his house by chance: he was taxed with the detention of the bird; he equivocated before the Guru, and became soon after his avowed enemy. The presence of Har Gobind seems ever to have raised a commotion, and Painda Khan was fixed upon as a suitable leader to coerce him. He was attacked; but the warlike apostle slew the friend of his youth with his own hand, and proved again a victor. In this action a soldier rushed furiously upon the Guru; but he warded the blow and laid the man dead at his feet, exclaiming, 'Not so, but thus, is the sword used'; an observation from which the author of the Dahistan draws the inference 'that Har Gobind struck not in anger, but deliberately and to give instruction; for the function rite
Har Gobind retires to
the wastes of Hariana.
Returns to Punjab.
the
Slays in
one Painda Khan, his fight
friend.
of a
Guru is to teach.' ^ Har Gobind appears to have had other difficulties
and adventures of a similar kind, "and occasionally to have been reduced to great straits; but the Sikhs always rallied round him, his religious reputation in1
See the Dabistan, ii. 275; but native accounts, Sikh and
Muhammadan, have been mainly
followed in narrating the
Compare, however, the Dabistan, ii. 284, for the seizure of horses belonging to a disciple of the Guru.
sequence of events.
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