GOBIND SIṄGH, GURŪ (1666-1708), the tenth and the last Gurū or Prophet-teacher of the Sikh faith, was born Gobind Rāi on Poh sudī 7, 1723 Bk/22 December 1666 at Paṭnā, in Bihār. His father, Gurū Tegh Bahādur, the Ninth Gurū, was then travelling across Bengal and Assam. Returning to Paṭnā in 1670, he directed his family to return to the Punjab. On the site of the house at Paṭnā in which Gobind Rāi was born and where he spent his early childhood now stands a sacred shrine, Takht Srī Harimandar Sāhib, one of the five most honoured seats of religious authority (takht, lit. throne) for the Sikhs. Gobind Rāi was escorted to Anandpur (then known as Chakk Nānakī) in the foothills of the Śivāliks where he reached in March 1672 and where his early education included reading and writing of Punjabi, Braj, Sanskrit and Persian. He was barely nine years of age when a sudden turn came in his own life as well as in the life of the community he was destined to lead. Early in 1675, a group of Kashmīrī Brāhmaṇs, driven to desperation by the religious fanaticism of the Mughal satrap, Iftikhār Khān, visited Anandpur to seek Gurū Tegh Bahādur's intercession. As the Gurū sat reflecting what to do, young Gobind Rāi, arriving there in company with his playmates, asked him why he looked so preoccupied. The father, as records Kuir Siṅgh in his Gurbilās Pātshāhī 10, replied, "Grave are the burdens the earth bears. She will be redeemed only if a truly worthy person comes forward to lay down his head. Distress will then be expunged and happiness ushered in." "None could be worthier than yourself to make such a sacrifice," remarked Gobind Rāi in his innocent manner. Gurū Tegh Bahādur soon afterwards proceeded to the imperial capital, Delhi, and courted death on 11 November 1675.

         Much of Gurū Gobind Siṅgh's creative literary work was done at Pāoṇṭā he had founded on the banks of the River Yamunā and to which site he had temporarily shifted in April 1685. Poetry as such was, however, not his aim. For him it was a means of revealing the divine principle and concretizing a personal vision of the Supreme Being that had been vouchsafed to him. His Jāpu and the composition known as Akāl Ustati are in this tenor. Through his poetry he preached love and equality and a strictly ethical and moral code of conduct. He preached the worship of the One Supreme Being, deprecating idolatry and superstitious beliefs and observances. The glorification of the sword itself which he eulogized as bhagautī was to secure fulfilment of God's justice. The sword was never meant as a symbol of aggression, and it was never to be used for self-aggrandizement. It was the emblem of manliness and self-respect and was to be used only in self-defence, as a last resort. For Gurū Gobind Siṅgh said in a Persian couplet in his Zafarnāmah:

        It is but lawful to take to the sword.

        During his stay at Pāoṇṭā, Gurū Gobind Siṅgh availed himself of his spare time to practise different forms of manly exercises, such as riding, swimming and archery. His increasing influence among the people and the martial exercises of his men excited the jealousy of the neighbouring Rājpūt hill rulers who led by Rājā Fateh Chand of Gaṛhvāl collected a host to attack him. But they were worsted in an action at Bhaṅgāṇī, about 10 km northeast of Pāoṇṭā, on 18 Assū 1745 Bk/18 September 1688. Soon thereafter Gurū Gobind Siṅgh left Pāoṇṭā and returned to Anandpur which he fortified in view of the continuing hostility of the Rājpūt chiefs as well as of the repressive policy of the imperial government at Delhi. The Gurū and his Sikhs were involved in a battle with a Mughal commander, Alif Khān, at Nadauṇ on the left bank of the Beās, about 30 km southeast of Kāṅgṛā, on 22 Chet 1747 Bk/20 March 1691. Describing the battle in stirring verse in Bachitra Nāṭak, he said that Alif Khān fled in utter disarray "without being able to give any attention to his camp." Among several other skirmishes that occurred was the Husainī battle (20 February 1696) fought against Husain Khān, an imperial general, which resulted in a decisive victory for the Sikhs. Following the appointment in 1694 of the liberal Prince Mu'azzam (later Emperor Bahādur Shāh) as viceroy of northwestern region including Punjab, there was however a brief respite from pressure from the ruling authority.

         These developments alarmed the caste-ridden Rājpūt chiefs of the śivālik hills. They rallied under the leadership of the Rājā of Bilāspur, in whose territory lay Anandpur, to forcibly evict Gurū Gobind Siṅgh from his hilly citadel. Their repeated expeditions during 1700-04 however proved abortive. They at last petitioned Emperor Auraṅgzīb for help. In concert with contingents sent under imperial orders by the governor of Lahore and those of the faujdār of Sirhind, they marched upon Anandpur and laid a siege to the fort in Jeṭh 1762 Bk/May 1705. Over the months, the Gurū and his Sikhs firmly withstood their successive assaults despite dire scarcity of food resulting from the prolonged blockade. While the besieged were reduced to desperate straits, the besiegers too were chagrined at the tenacity with which the Sikhs held out. At this stage, the besiegers offered, on solemn oaths, safe exit to the Sikhs if they quit Anandpur. At last, the town was evacuated during the night of Poh sudī 1, 1762 Bk/5-6 December 1705. But soon, as the Gurū and his Sikhs came out, the hill monarchs and their Mughal allies set upon them in full fury. In the ensuing confusion many Sikhs were killed and all of the Gurū's baggage, including most of the precious manuscripts, was lost. The Gurū himself was able to make his way to Chamkaur, 40 km southwest of Anandpur, with barely 40 Sikhs and his two elder sons. There the imperial army, following closely on his heels, caught up with him. His two sons, Ajīt Siṅgh (b. 1687) and Jujhār Siṅgh (b. 1691) and all but five of the Sikhs fell in the action that took place on 7 December 1705. The five surviving Sikhs bade the Gurū to save himself in order to reconsolidate the Khālsā. Gurū Gobind Siṅgh with three of his Sikhs escaped into the wilderness of the Mālvā, two of his Muslim devotees, Ghanī Khān and Nabī Khān, helping him at great personal risk.

         From Dīnā, Gurū Gobind Siṅgh continued his westward march until, finding the host close upon his heels, he took position astride the water pool of Khidrāṇā to make a last-ditch stand. The fighting on 29 December 1705 was hard and desperate. In spite of their overwhelming numbers, the Mughal troops failed to capture the Gurū and had to retire in defeat. The most valorous part in this battle was played by a group of 40 Sikhs who had deserted the Gurū at Anandpur during the long siege, but who, chided by their womenfolk at home, had come back under the leadership of a brave and devoted woman, Māī Bhāgo, to redeem themselves. They had fallen fighting desperately to check the enemy's advance towards the Gurū's position. The Gurū blessed the 40 dead as 40 mukte, i.e. the 40 Saved Ones. The site is now marked by a sacred shrine and tank and the town which has grown around them is called Muktsar, the Pool of Liberation.

         The epistle Zafarnāmah sent by Gurū Gobind Siṅgh from Dīnā seems to have touched the heart of Emperor Auraṅgzīb. He forthwith invited him for a meeting. According to Ahkām-i -'Ālamgīrī, the Emperor had a letter written to the deputy governor of Lahore, Mun'im Khān, to conciliate the Gurū and make the required arrangements for his journey to the Deccan. Gurū Gobind Siṅgh had, however, already left for the South on 30 October 1706. He was in the neighbourhood of Baghor, in Rājasthān, when the news arrived of the death of the Emperor at Ahmadnagar on 20 February 1707. The Gurū thereupon decided to return to the Punjab, via Shāhjahānābād (Delhi). That was the time when the sons of the deceased Emperor were preparing to contest succession. Gurū Gobind Siṅgh despatched for the help of the eldest claimant, the liberal Prince Mu'azzam, a token contingent of Sikhs which took part in the battle of Jājaū (8 June 1707), decisively won by the Prince who ascended the throne with the title of Bahādur Shāh. The new Emperor invited Gurū Gobind Siṅgh for a meeting which took place at Āgrā on 23 July 1707.

         Nawāb Wazīr Khān of Sirhind had felt concerned at the Emperor's conciliatory treatment of Gurū Gobind Siṅgh. Their marching together to the South made him jealous, and he charged two of his trusted men with murdering the Gurū before his increasing friendship with the Emperor resulted in any harm to him. These two Paṭhāns -- Jamshed Khān and Wāsil Beg are the names given in the Gurū kīāṅ Sākhīāṅ pursued the Gurū secretly and overtook him at Nāndeḍ, where, according to Srī Gur Sobhā by Senāpati, a contemporary writer, one of them stabbed the Gurū in the left side below the heart as he lay one evening in his chamber resting after the Rahrāsi prayer. Before he could deal another blow, Gurū Gobind Siṅgh struck him down with his sabre, while his fleeing companion fell under the swords of Sikhs who had rushed in on hearing the noise. As the news reached Bahādur Shāh's camp, he sent expert surgeons, including an Englishman, Cole by name, to attend on the Gurū. The wound was stitched and appeared to have healed quickly but, as the Gurū one day applied strength to pull a stiff bow, it broke out again and bled profusely. This weakened the Gurū beyond cure and he passed away on Kattak sudī 5, 1765 Bk/7 October 1708. Before the end came, Gurū Gobind Siṅgh had asked for the Sacred Volume to be brought forth. To quote Bhaṭṭ Vahī Talauḍā Parganah jīnd:

        Gurū Gobind Siṅgh, the Tenth Master, son of Gurū Tegh Bahādur, grandson of Gurū Hargobind, great-grandson of Gurū Arjan, of the family of Gurū Rām Dās, . Surajbaṅsī, Gosal clan, Sodhī Khatrī, resident of Anandpur, parganah Kahlūr, now at Nāndeḍ, in the Godāvarī country in the Deccan, asked Bhāī Dayā Siṅgh, on Wednesday, 6 October 1708, to fetch Srī Granth Sāhib. In obedience to his orders, Dayā Siṅgh brought Srī Granth Sāhib. The Gurū placed before it five pice and a coconut and bowed his head before it. He said to the saṅgat, "It is my commandment: Own Srī Granthjī in my place. He who so acknowledges it will obtain his reward. The Gurū will rescue him. Know this as the truth".

        Gurū Gobind Siṅgh thus passed on the succession with due ceremony to the Holy Book, the Gurū Granth Sāhib, ending the line of personal Gurūs. "The Gurū's spirit, " he said, "will henceforth be in the Granth and the Khālsā. Where the Granth is with any five Sikhs representing the Khālsā, there will the Gurū be."

1. Kuir Siṅgh Gurbilās Pātshāhī 10. Patiala, 1968
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2. Senapati, Srī Gur Sohhā. Patiala, 1967
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3. Harbans Singh Guru Gobind Siṅgh. Chandigarh, 1966
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4. Verma, Devinder, Guru Gobind Singh on the Canvas of History. Delhi, 1995
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5. Sher Siṅgh, Social and Political Philosophy of Guru Gobind Siṅgh. Delhi, n.d.
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Gaṇḍā Siṅgh