1 Is asked by the
2 emperor to show &
3 miracle.
4 Ingenfous device.
5 The Guru is slain,
6 1676.
7 . The Guru is called
8 ‘Sachdé Badshdh,” or
9 true hing,
10 SriSa
11 260 HISTORY OF THE PANJAB,
12 worthy son and successor, the necessity and the honour of avenging his death.
13 Having then embraced and kissed the youthful Govind, he left for Delhi.
14 The emperor had in those days thrown hundreds of Brahmans into
15 jail, in the hope that, if they first embraced the religion of the prophet, the
16 rest of the Hindus would readily follow their example. The emperor
17 had many religious disputations with Tegh Bahadur, and asked him to
18 show miracles, if he was a true Guru, or to embrace Islamism, The
19 Sikh, being unable to satisfy his majesty one way or the other, was,
20 by the king’s order, thrown into prison, and, on his persistently refusing
21 to become a convert, was subjected to bodily tortures. Tired of his life,
22 he expressed his readiness to show a miracle in proof of the alleged
23 divinity of his mission. He was arrayed before the emperor, all the Omerahs
24 of the State being present to witness the miracle he was about to perform.
25 The Guru said, before the assembly of the Omerahs, that the duty of man
26 was to pray to the Lord, but since he had been commanded by his majesty
27 to show a miracle, he had resolved upon complying with the king’s orders.
28 He wrote on a piece of paper, which he said was charmed, and then, having
29 tied it round his neck, declared that the sword would fall harmless on it by
30 the effect of the charm which was written upon it. The executioner was
31 now summoned to test the miraculous charm, The blow was yiven and the
32 head of the Guru rolled on the floor to the amazement of the court. The
33 paper was then read and contained these words: “Sir did, Sar na did ”~-
34 meaning, that he had given his head, but not his secret. His life was
35 extinct, but the memory of his priestly virtue remained in the world for
36 ever. When the courtiers, tinged with superstition, saw what had occurred,
37 they were struck with horror and surprise. The emperor himself was
38 disgusted and displeased, and ordered the crowd to be dispersed. Such
39 is the account given by a wonder-loving people, though it is more probable
40 that the Guru was executed as a rebel against Government. The catas-
41 trophe occurred in 1675, in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Alamgir.
42 Tegh Bahadur reigned as a Guru for13 years, 7 months and 21 days.
43 The stern Aurangzeb had the body publicly exposed in the streets of
44 Delhi, The head was burnt at Delhi by the Sikhs, who erected a tomb
45 over the place where the cremation was performed which was called:
46 Sir Gang (head stack). Through the aid of Makhan Shah, who had been
47 the first to hail the deceased as Guru, the body was brought to Anandapur
48 by some Mazhbi Sikhs, or sweepers, and, the funeral rites having been
49 performed over it by the youthful Govind, a great shrine was erected there
50 in memory of the martyred Guru.
51 The Sdékhis published by the Sikh authors represent Tegh Bahadur as
52 by no means a harmless spiritual instructor, He was a valorous Guru, and
53 although the Sikhs never attained under him any real degree of power as a
54 nation, yet the example set by him contributed,in no small degree, to make
55 his disciples a martial people. The sword of Har Govind was revered by all
56 true disciples, and his arrows were made objects of public worship by all good
57 believers. The Guru was at this time universally acknowledged among the’
58 Sikhs as “Saché Badshdh,’ or veritable king, who guided the soul to
59 salvation, while a temporal monarch guided merely man’s worldly actions
60 and controlled his finite faculties. Thus, the aspirations of the Sikh Guru
61 were high, and, though suppressed by the stern Aurangzeb, were fully ex-
62 hibited during the latter part of the Guru’s life, as manifesting kingly, rather
63 than priestly, aims, changing, eventually, inoffensive quietists into fanatical
64 warriors, _. $d Paar .
65 tguru Jagjit Singh Ji eLibrary . NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com
66 i