Tempo:
^
58 1664-75. "'
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
chap, hi
ready asylum to all fugitives, and their power interfered with the prosperity of the country; the imperial troops marched against them, and they were at last defeated and made prisoners. The Muhammadan saint # was banished, but Aurangzeb determined that the Sikh should be put to death. When Tegh Bahadur was on his way to Delhi, he sent for his youthful son, and girding upon him the sword of Har Gobind, he hailed him as the Guru of the Sikhs. He told him he was himself being led to death, he counselled him not to leave his body a prey to dogs, and he enjoined upon him the necessity and the merit of revenge. At Delhi, the story continues, he was summoned before the emperor, and half-insultingly, half-credulously, told to exhibit miracles in prqof of the alleged divinity of his mission. Tegh Bahadur answered that the duty of man was to pray to the Lord; yet he would do one thing, he would write a charm,
and the sword should fall harmless on the neck around which it was hung. He placed it around his own neck and inclined his head to the executioner: a blow severed it, to the surprise of a court tinged with superstition, and upon the paper was found written, "Sir Dia, Sirr na dia,' he had given his head but not his secret;
—
his life was gone, but his inspiration or apostolic virtue Such is the narrative of still remained in the world. Tegh pahadur 'it
to
dectth,
1675.
a rude and wonder-loving people; yet it is more certain that Tegh Bahadur was put to death as a rebel in 1675, gj^^ ^h^t the stern and bigoted Aurangzeb had the body of the unbeliever publicly exposed in the streets of Delhi.2 1 The author of the Siar ul Mutakharin (i. 112, 113) tions these predatory or insurrectionary proceedings of
menTegh
Bahadur, and the ordinary manuscript compilations admit that such charges were made, but deprecate a belief in them. For Makhowal the Guru is said to have paid 500 rupees to the Raja of Kahlur. - All the accounts agree that Tegh Bahadur was ignominiously put to death. The end of the year a.d. 1675 as Maugsar seems the most certain date is sometimes given as the month of his execution. His birth is differently placed in a.d. 1612 and 1621. [It was on this occasion that the famous prophecy on the ultimate sovereignty of the white race in Delhi is said to have been uttered (though some modern critics consider it a. later invention). 'I see', he said dauntlessly to the emperor, 'a power rising in the W^st which will sweep your empire into the dust.' His body was quartered and hung before the city gates; but the Sikhs never forgot his prophetic words. They have accounted largely for Sikh loyalty to British rule; and they were on the lips of the gallant Punjab regiments before Delhi in 1857 when at last they avenged in blood the martyrdom of their leader (Rawlinson, Indian Historical Studies, p. 177, and Macauliffe,
—
—
58 1664-75. "'
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
chap, hi
ready asylum to all fugitives, and their power interfered with the prosperity of the country; the imperial troops marched against them, and they were at last defeated and made prisoners. The Muhammadan saint # was banished, but Aurangzeb determined that the Sikh should be put to death. When Tegh Bahadur was on his way to Delhi, he sent for his youthful son, and girding upon him the sword of Har Gobind, he hailed him as the Guru of the Sikhs. He told him he was himself being led to death, he counselled him not to leave his body a prey to dogs, and he enjoined upon him the necessity and the merit of revenge. At Delhi, the story continues, he was summoned before the emperor, and half-insultingly, half-credulously, told to exhibit miracles in prqof of the alleged divinity of his mission. Tegh Bahadur answered that the duty of man was to pray to the Lord; yet he would do one thing, he would write a charm,
and the sword should fall harmless on the neck around which it was hung. He placed it around his own neck and inclined his head to the executioner: a blow severed it, to the surprise of a court tinged with superstition, and upon the paper was found written, "Sir Dia, Sirr na dia,' he had given his head but not his secret;
—
his life was gone, but his inspiration or apostolic virtue Such is the narrative of still remained in the world. Tegh pahadur 'it
to
dectth,
1675.
a rude and wonder-loving people; yet it is more certain that Tegh Bahadur was put to death as a rebel in 1675, gj^^ ^h^t the stern and bigoted Aurangzeb had the body of the unbeliever publicly exposed in the streets of Delhi.2 1 The author of the Siar ul Mutakharin (i. 112, 113) tions these predatory or insurrectionary proceedings of
menTegh
Bahadur, and the ordinary manuscript compilations admit that such charges were made, but deprecate a belief in them. For Makhowal the Guru is said to have paid 500 rupees to the Raja of Kahlur. - All the accounts agree that Tegh Bahadur was ignominiously put to death. The end of the year a.d. 1675 as Maugsar seems the most certain date is sometimes given as the month of his execution. His birth is differently placed in a.d. 1612 and 1621. [It was on this occasion that the famous prophecy on the ultimate sovereignty of the white race in Delhi is said to have been uttered (though some modern critics consider it a. later invention). 'I see', he said dauntlessly to the emperor, 'a power rising in the W^st which will sweep your empire into the dust.' His body was quartered and hung before the city gates; but the Sikhs never forgot his prophetic words. They have accounted largely for Sikh loyalty to British rule; and they were on the lips of the gallant Punjab regiments before Delhi in 1857 when at last they avenged in blood the martyrdom of their leader (Rawlinson, Indian Historical Studies, p. 177, and Macauliffe,
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—
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