1 PREFACE. V
2 between the Hindoos and Mahommedans, on
3 the basis of the unity of the Godhead. In like
4 manner it would be superfluous to recapitulate
5 in a work like this, how the sect was continued,
6 and its tenets and creed embodied in sacred
7 volumes called Grunths, by a succession of ten
8 sainted Gooroos, ending with Gooroo Govind,
9 who lived in the time of Aurungzeeb, and who,
10 meeting persecution, converted his followers
11 from peaceable and industrious citizens, into
12 deadly enemies to the Moghul empire and
13 Mooslim faith. All this has been fully traced
14 and explained in various publications : so also
15 the vain attempts of Ban da, and other Martyrs
16 who followed Gooroo Govixd, against the too
17 great strength of the Dehlee sovereignty and its
18 officers, under the immediate successors of Au-
19 rungzeeb : but the rise of the sect, from the dust
20 into which it seemed to be beaten down by per-
21 secution, to its present splendour of exaltation,
22 has not hitherto been made the subject of any one's
23 investigation and research ; and the matter con-
24 sequently comprised in this volume is given
25 confidently as new, and as not to be found else-
26 where. It is our duty and our present object to
27 explain where and how it has been obtained.
28 The British Government has since 1808 been
29 the protector of the Sikh territorj^ ly^'^o between
30 a 2