Tempo:
SIKH GURUS; HAR GOBIND
CHAP. Ill
53
creased daily, and immediately before his death he was 16O6-45 visited by a famous saint of the ancient Persian faith.^ He died in peace in 1645, at Kiratpur on the Sutlej, a ceath of place bestowed upon him bv the hill chief of Kahlur, Har Gobind and the veneration of his followers took the terrible '^°- ^®*^form of self-sacrifice. A Rajput convert threw himself seif-sacriamid the flames of the funecal pyre, and walked several ^^^ °* '^^A Jat his paces till he died at the feet of his master. I'^^^^J^ pjnre. disciple did the same, and others, wrought upon by these examples, were ready to follow, when Har Rai, the succeeding Guru, interfered and forbade them.^ .
During the ministry of Har Gobind, the Sikhs The body increased greatly in numbers, and the fiscal policy of of Sikhs forms a Arjun, and the armed system of his son, had already separate _ _ formed them into a kind of separate state within the estabhshempire. The Guru was, perhaps, not unconscious of ment within his latent influence, when he played with the credulity the empire, or rebuked the vanity of his Muhammadan friend. 'A Raja of the north', said he, 'has sent an ambassador to Some anecask about a place called Delhi, and the name and ^°^^ °^ parentage of its king. I was astonished that he had ^^ Gobmd. not heard of the commander of the faithful, the lord of the ascendant, Jahangir.' But during his busy life he never forgot his genuine character, and always styled himself 'Nanak', in deference to the firm belief of the Sikhs, that the soul of their great teacher ani-^
1
The Dabistan, ii. 280.
-
This
is
related on the authority of the Dabistan,
ii.
280,
Har Gobind's death is also given agreeably to the text of the Dabistan as having occurred on the 3rd Mohurrum, 281.
1055 Hijri, or on the 19th Feb., A. D. 1645. Malcolm, Sketch, and Forster, Travels, i. 299, give a. d. 1644 as the exact or probable date, obviously from regarding 1701 Sambat (which Malcolm also quotes) as identical throughout, instead of for about the first nine months only, with a. d. 1644, an error which may similarly apply to several conversions of dates in this history. The manuscript accounts consulted place the Guru's death variously in a. d. 1637, 1638, and 1639; but they lean to the middle term. All, however, mffst be -too early, as Muhsin Fani (Dabistan, ii. 281) says he saw Har Gobind in a. d. 1643. Har Gobind's birth is placed by the native accounts in the early part of 1652 Sambat, corresponding with the middle of p. 37,
1595.
A. D.
See the Dabistan, ii. 276, 277. The friend being Muhsin Fani himself. The story perhaps shows that the Sikh truly considered the Muhammadan to be a gossiping and somewhat credulous person. The dates would rather point to Shah Jahan as the emperor alluded to than Jahangir, as given parenthetically in the translated text of the Dabistan. Jahangir died in a. d. 1628, and Muhsin Fani's acquaintance with Har Gobind appears not to have taken place till towards the last years of the Guru's life, or till after a. d. 1640. '•
CHAP. Ill
53
creased daily, and immediately before his death he was 16O6-45 visited by a famous saint of the ancient Persian faith.^ He died in peace in 1645, at Kiratpur on the Sutlej, a ceath of place bestowed upon him bv the hill chief of Kahlur, Har Gobind and the veneration of his followers took the terrible '^°- ^®*^form of self-sacrifice. A Rajput convert threw himself seif-sacriamid the flames of the funecal pyre, and walked several ^^^ °* '^^A Jat his paces till he died at the feet of his master. I'^^^^J^ pjnre. disciple did the same, and others, wrought upon by these examples, were ready to follow, when Har Rai, the succeeding Guru, interfered and forbade them.^ .
During the ministry of Har Gobind, the Sikhs The body increased greatly in numbers, and the fiscal policy of of Sikhs forms a Arjun, and the armed system of his son, had already separate _ _ formed them into a kind of separate state within the estabhshempire. The Guru was, perhaps, not unconscious of ment within his latent influence, when he played with the credulity the empire, or rebuked the vanity of his Muhammadan friend. 'A Raja of the north', said he, 'has sent an ambassador to Some anecask about a place called Delhi, and the name and ^°^^ °^ parentage of its king. I was astonished that he had ^^ Gobmd. not heard of the commander of the faithful, the lord of the ascendant, Jahangir.' But during his busy life he never forgot his genuine character, and always styled himself 'Nanak', in deference to the firm belief of the Sikhs, that the soul of their great teacher ani-^
1
The Dabistan, ii. 280.
-
This
is
related on the authority of the Dabistan,
ii.
280,
Har Gobind's death is also given agreeably to the text of the Dabistan as having occurred on the 3rd Mohurrum, 281.
1055 Hijri, or on the 19th Feb., A. D. 1645. Malcolm, Sketch, and Forster, Travels, i. 299, give a. d. 1644 as the exact or probable date, obviously from regarding 1701 Sambat (which Malcolm also quotes) as identical throughout, instead of for about the first nine months only, with a. d. 1644, an error which may similarly apply to several conversions of dates in this history. The manuscript accounts consulted place the Guru's death variously in a. d. 1637, 1638, and 1639; but they lean to the middle term. All, however, mffst be -too early, as Muhsin Fani (Dabistan, ii. 281) says he saw Har Gobind in a. d. 1643. Har Gobind's birth is placed by the native accounts in the early part of 1652 Sambat, corresponding with the middle of p. 37,
1595.
A. D.
See the Dabistan, ii. 276, 277. The friend being Muhsin Fani himself. The story perhaps shows that the Sikh truly considered the Muhammadan to be a gossiping and somewhat credulous person. The dates would rather point to Shah Jahan as the emperor alluded to than Jahangir, as given parenthetically in the translated text of the Dabistan. Jahangir died in a. d. 1628, and Muhsin Fani's acquaintance with Har Gobind appears not to have taken place till towards the last years of the Guru's life, or till after a. d. 1640. '•
©
2026
Lehal.net