In the Gurumukhi chronicles there is frequent mention of the Guru having gone outside his prison walls to meet and dine with his Sikhs. This is attributed to his thaumaturgic power. One day as he was on the top story of his prison, the Emperor thought he saw him looking towards the south in the direction of the imperial zanana. He was sent for next day and charged with this grave breach of Oriental etiquette and propriety. The Guru replied, ‘ Emperor Aurangzeb, I was on the top story of my prison, but I was not looking at thy private apartments or at thy queens. I was looking in the direction of the Europeans who are coming from beyond the seas to tear down thy pardas and destroy thine empire.’ A Sikh writer states that these words became the battle-cry of the Sikhs in the assault on Dihli in 1857 under General John Nicholson, and that thus the prophecy of the ninth Guru was gloriously fulfilled. 1
Mati Das, the Guru’s faithful Sikh, charged his master with practising too much humility, and talked of destroying the whole sect of Muhammadans and putting an end to the Mughal rule. The Guru remonstrated with him, and said that man must accept and obey the will of God. Mati Das replied that the
Guru’s sufferings were intolerable. A conversation ensued in which the Guru referred to Guru Nanak’s promise to Babar that his empire should abide for a time. Guru Teg Bahadur said, ‘ The gift the Holy Guru Nanak gave may not, it is true, be easily recalled. But I will offer my life and in doing so prove the Turks to be false and deprive them of sovereignty. If I lay not down my life here, the great Turkish Empire in India will long survive ; but since its monarchs have committed great enormities, I will now extirpate them and their line.’
This conversation was overheard by a priest who reported it to the Emperor. Mati Das was in consequence bound between two pillars and his body cut in twain with a saw. When the executioners began to apply the saw to his body, he began to repeat the Japji. It is said that, even when his body was divided in two, he continued to repeat the great morning prayer of the Sikhs, and only became silent when its repetition was complete.
On witnessing the martyrdom of Mati' Das, the Guru’s other Sikhs became sore afraid. They went to him at night and represented their danger. He told them that they were free to leave him. They pointed to the chains on their feet, and asked how their release could be effected ? Through the Guru’s miraculous interposition their fetters fell off, the prison doors all stood open, and the guards snored in the sleep of neglect. 1 One of the Sikhs, Bhai Gurditta, repented at last and remained with the Guru to suffer his fate. When the Guru was questioned by the jailor as to how his three Sikhs had escaped, he replied in the words of Guru Arjan :—
‘ God playeth in everything Himself ;
One man He rescueth, another He envelopeth in the wave ;
As He causeth men to dance, so they dance according to the past acts of each . 2
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‘ The great God who created them hath rescued them from prison. What hast thou to do with them now ? Thy business is with me. It is I who have been imprisoned. Those Sikhs only remained through their regard for me.’
The Guru sent a message by the departing Sikhs to his son to abide fearlessly in Anandpur. The time for him to leave his own body had arrived, and he would leave it in Dihli. He would have to leave it all the same had he remained in Anandpur. He enjoined his son to grieve not for him as he had brought his troubles on himself. He would turn to ashes the fruit of the meritorious acts which the Emperor had performed in former births, and by which he had obtained sovereignty.
Gobind Rai on hearing his father’s message, received it with equanimity, but his grandmother and mother began to weep. He tried to console them, and said, ‘ We will abide in Anandpur and destroy the Turks.’ His mother upon this cautioned silence lest some agent of the Emperor should hear his words. Gobind replied that that was not a time for silence or concealment.
Chapter XI
When the Governor of the Dihli jail reported that three of the Guru’s Sikhs had escaped, the Emperor ordered the Guru to be locked in an iron cage, and a sentry with a drawn sword placed on guard over him. The Guru on hearing this order calmly replied with a hymn of Guru Arjan :—
They who commit sin shall assuredly be ruined ;
Azrail shall seize and smite them ;
The Creator will put them into hell, and the Accountant there will ask for their accounts . 1
The Guru in reply to the further demand of the
officer sent by the Emperor answered as he had done on a former occasion—‘ I will not accept thy law or thy religion, and I will not abandon my faith. The glory of the Turkish power is now at an end since thou art forcibly depriving men of their religion. I will dig up the roots of the Turks and throw them into the briny ocean, since what is melted with salt never reviveth, and they shall never again have sway in Hindustan.’ The Guru is said to have also quoted the hymn of Guru Nanak :—
When kings, lions, headmen, and dogs,
Instead of watching, rest in sleep,
King’s servants inflict wounds with their nails,
And taste and drink the subjects’ blood.
Bhai Gurditta who was still fettered was allowed to wait on the Guru. Soon after this a messenger arrived bearing a letter from his wife and son. After making inquiries regarding them, the Guru wrote his first slok for the general instruction of his followers :—
He who singeth not God’s praises rendereth his life useless ;
Saith Nanak, worship God, O my soul, as the fish loveth water.
He then wrote the fiftieth slok for his wife Gujari’s special consolation :—
Ram passed away, Rawan passed away with his large family;
Saith Nanak, nothing is permanent; the world is like a dream.
For all in sorrow he wrote the fifty-first slok :—
Be anxious only regarding what is not expected ;
It is the way of the world, Nanak, that nothing is permanent.
To his son he sent the fifty-third slok :—
My strength is exhausted, I am in chains, and have no resource.
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Saith Nanak, God is now my refuge ; He will succour me as He did the elephant.
And also the fifty-fifth :—
My associates and companions have all abandoned me ; no one remaineth with me to the last;
Saith Nanak, in this calamity God is mine only support.
It is believed that the Guru during his captivity composed most of his other sloks and hymns, and sent them with the above by the messenger. The Guru said to him at parting : ' My end hath come; console all my people. We must all be satisfied with God’s will. Take this letter quickly, and bring me an answer.’
Gobind Rai replied to the slok addressed to him with the fifty-fourth slok in the collection bearing the name of the ninth Guru in the Granth Sahib :—
Strength is thine ; thy fetters are loosed ; thou hast every resource ;
Nanak, everything is in thy power ; it is only thou who canst assist thyself . 1
The Guru was very pleased at receiving this slok and message from his son, and remarked that he was fit for the Guruship. He sent into the city of Dihli for five paise and a coco-nut to forward him in token of his appointment to the Sikh spiritual sovereignty. When the five paise and the coco-nut arrived, the Guru placed them in front of him, meditated on his distant son, and bowed to him. He sent the articles to Gobind Rai with the fifty-sixth slok :—
The Name remaineth, saints remain, Guru Gobind remaineth ;
Saith Nanak, few are they who in this world follow the Guru’s instruction.
Before the messenger reached Anandpur the Guru's
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SIKH. IV
family was in great distress on account of a vision which his wife had had. She thought that she saw the Guru place five paise and a coco-nut before his son Gobind and bow to him in token of his appointment, and then she beheld the Guru’s head separated from his body. She requested her son to send a Sikh at once to ascertain if the vision had any reality. If the messenger met on the road the Sikh who was expected from Dihli, he was to let him come on, and himself proceed to Dihli to obtain the latest information regarding the Guru.
Meanwhile the Emperor kept his thoughts on the Guru’s conversion. He sent for a Muhammadan priest and told him to take one of the nobles with him to the prisoner with this message, ‘ Thou art to accept the Muhammadan religion or work a miracle. If thou work a miracle, thou mayest remain a Guru as thou art. If thou accept Islam, then shalt thou be advanced to an exalted position, and be happy. If thou fail to accept these offers, thou shalt be put to death. This is my final decision.’
The Guru replied in the same purport as before, and added—‘ I will never abandon my faith. I want no honour in this life ; I want honour hereafter. The threat of death possesseth no terrors for me, since I must one day assuredly leave this perishable body. For death I am prepared and I cheerfully accept it.’
The Emperor on hearing this reply was greatly incensed, and ordered that the Guru should be executed.
Meantime the messenger from the Guru’s son and wife arrived from Anandpur. The Guru said to him: ‘ My last hour hath come. Stand thou near me. My head shall fall into thy lap. Fear nobody, but take it to Anandpur, and cremate it there.’ On hearing this not only the Sikh, but the Muhammadan governor of the jail began to weep. The Guru gave them religious instruction, and consoled them. Then turning to his faithful companion,
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Gurditta, he said : ‘ Thou shalt be released after my death.’ Gurditta replied, ‘O great king, it is at thy feet I wish to leave my body.’ The Guru rejoined : —‘ O my brother, thy cremation-ground shall be where Bhai Budha used to graze the horses of Guru Har Gobind when he was in the fortress of Gualiar. The place is only about six miles distant. Thou shalt leave thy body there, and come to me in heaven.’
Then came Saiyid Adam Shah with a warrant for the Guru’s execution, accompanied by all the Emperor’s courtiers and Muhammadan priests of Dihli. Adam Shah, who revolted from the office of executioner of the Guru, asked him why he was bent on losing his life in vain, and begged him to embrace Islam. The Guru replied :—‘ The Sikh religion is dearer to me than life, and I cannot renounce it even under the pressure of immediate and certain death. The Guru was then taken out of his cage, and allowed to perform his ablutions at a neighbouring well. There appeared a great crowd to witness the execution. The Guru, leaving the well, went and sat under a banyan-tree, still extant, where he recited the Japji. He then told Adam Shah to take his sword and strike his neck when he bowed to God at the conclusion of his devotions. Adam Shah did so. It is said that the Guru’s head flew off into the faithful Sikh’s lap.
It is recorded that immediately afterwards a great storm arose which filled every one’s eyes with dust. The Sikh unobserved by anyone took away the Guru’s head to Anandpur, hasting with it as fast as his feet could carry him. The execution of Guru Teg Bahadur occurred on the afternoon of Thursday the fifth day of the light half of the month of Maghar in the Sambat year 1732 (a.d. 1675).
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Chapter XII
The Emperor on hearing of the Guru’s execution became sad and repentant. His mind is said to have been agitated like leaves moved by the wind. He reflected: ‘ As the Guru by his death hath fixed a stain on me, so I think that my own life will now be my guest for only a few days.’ His courtiers on hearing this endeavoured to console him: ‘ 0 mighty monarch, the Guru disobeyed thine orders, so what sin was there in killing him ? Thou didst flay and put to death such a great man as Sarmad, so why be distressed in the Guru’s case ? Why trouble regarding an accomplished fact ? ’ On hearing this the Emperor outwardly appeared consoled, but could never really regain his peace of mind.
A Sikh of the Labana tribe, on happening to see the Guru’s dead body was greatly grieved, and said to himself: ‘ A curse on the Sikhs who look on and allow this dishonour to the corpse of their Guru!’ The Labana went home, and reproached his tribesmen on the subject. They collected oxen on which they loaded sacks, and carts on which they loaded cotton, and drove them in the direction of the Guru’s corpse. In this way they hoped that their removing it for the performance of the last sad rites would not be noticed. They also hoped to elude pursuit in the dust-storm which arose after the Guru’s death. The city guards were greatly troubled by the storm, and dispersed in different directions. Five Sikhs then took up the Guru’s body, put it on a cart, and succeeded in taking it unobserved through the crowd. When they had taken it outside the city the dust-storm subsided.
The Sikhs’ houses were all thatched, so when the pyre was lighted in them, they would take fire, and in this way the Guru’s body would not be discovered. N’Jb.eu it was duly reduced to ashes, they cried out that their houses had caught lire, and called on their
LIFE OF GURU TEG BAHADUR 389
neighbours to assist them in extinguishing it. The houses, however, were soon burnt to ashes, and the call to their neighbours to help them was futile as it had been intended. Next day they collected the Giiru’s remains and buried them in a copper vessel in the earth immediately under his funeral pyre. Over his remains, at a spot now known as Rakab Gunj, a shrine was subsequently erected.
The Emperor censured his staff for allowing the Guru’s head and body to disappear, and deemed his own object frustrated in having put the Guru to death. In his general distress at what had occurred he was not able to take his dinner, and retired hungry. He dreamt that Bhai Mati Das appeared to him, upturned his bed, and ordered him to leave Dihli. The Emperor was unable to sleep for the remainder of the night, and endeavoured to lull his conscience by a repetition of the creed and the prayers of his religion.
While all this was taking place, the Guru’s family heard of his death, the efforts made to convert him, and his noble replies to all the overtures made. The messenger told how the Guru had sent for five paise and a coco-nut, bowed to his son Gobind, made him his successor, and infused his light into him. His message to his son was to extend the true religion, and destroy the wicked. The whole assembly began to weep, but the young Guru endeavoured to console them. He said that there should be no mourning for true men like his father, who on seeing the decline of religion had assumed human birth, and having placed religion on a firm basis returned to his heavenly home. ‘ According to the words of Guru Arjan:—
Philanthropic men have come who are beyondjbirth and death;
They give their lives, turn men to devotion, and cause them to meet God.
Consequently, my brethren, your mourning is vain.’
The young Guru who knew that his father’s head was being brought to Anandpur by the last messenger sent to Dihli, dispatched two Sikhs to meet and escort it. The Sikhs fell in with its bearer about a mile from Anandpur. He told them to return and ask Guru Gobind Rai if his father’s head was to be cremated at Anandpur or Kiratpur where were the shrines of the sixth and seventh Gurus and relations of theirs. The young Guru decided that Guru Teg Bahadur’s head should be taken to Anandpur for the last rites.
A pyre of sandal wood was constructed and attar of roses sprinkled on the head which the young Guru took and solemnly placed on the pyre. He then repeated the preamble of the Japji and ignited the pyre with his own hands. While the head was being cremated, the Sikh congregation sang hymns of the Guru. They called to memory and spoke of Guru Teg Bahadur’s philanthropic and self-sacrificing deeds. The Sohila was then read with a concluding benediction and sacred food distributed. When Guru Gobind Rai reached home, he caused the reading of the Gurus’ hymns to be begun, and this was continued for ten days, when alms were freely distributed. Guru Gobind Rai was in due time proclaimed the tenth Guru. There were great rejoicings on the occasion. Bards and poets assembled to sing the new Guru’s praises while certain Sikhs were sad at heart as they thought of the late Guru Teg Bahadur. The memory of their kind friend and spiritual leader ever occurred to them.
After the death of Guru Teg Bahadur the Muhammadans set at liberty his faithful attendant Gurditta, a lineal descendant of Bhai Budha. He then went to where Bhai Budha used to graze the sixth Guru’s horses, and there after seeing the seat of his ancestors gave up his spirit. His son Ram
LIFE OF GURU TEG BAHADUR 391
Kaur, who was then only thirteen years of age, became a very learned Gurumukhi scholar. It was he who gave the tenth Guru the tilak, or patch of spiritual sovereignty, in the presence of the descendants of all the Gurus. The enthronement of Guru Gobind Rai was performed on the fifth day of the first half of Phagan (February), a.d. 1676, with great state in a lofty building erected for the occasion.
One day the Labana who had cremated Guru Teg Bahadur’s body paid Guru Gobind Rai a visit, and detailed all the circumstances subsequent to Guru Teg Bahadur’s death. When the Labana said that the Sikhs were afraid to touch the body. Guru Gobind Rai vowed that he would make Sikhs such that one of them could hold his ground against one hundred thousand others. When the Labana told the Guru that he had buried the ashes of his father, the Guru ordered him to leave them where they were for the present. He would go there himself one day, and erect a temple on the spot.
The Labana continued to describe the mental state of Aurangzeb after the execution of the Guru. When Aurangzeb imprisoned his own father the latter gave him three counsels—not to try to convert the Hindus, to pay his State servants well, and not to engage in war in the Dakhan. All these counsels Aurangzeb disregarded, the first two through bigotry and greed, and the third through the advice of a wandering faqir who told him it would now be impossible for him to remain in Dihli. Aurangzeb therefore decided to make an expedition against King Tana Shah in the Dakhan. From that moment Aurangzeb's power declined, and now no trace is left of his imperial line.
Such is the account of the death of Guru Teg Bahadur given by the Sikh historians. The Muhammadan author of the Siyar-ul-Mutaakharin states that Aurangzeb had the Guru’s body cut up into pieces and suspended in different parts of the imperial
capital. Whether this be true or not, it is certain that the other circumstances related by the Muhammadan writer are utterly incompatible with the whole tenor of Guru Teg Bahadur’s life and writings, and cannot be accepted as even an approach to history. 1 Guru Gobind Rai thus writes of his father :—
He protected the frontal marks and sacrificial threads of the Hindus