1 CHAPTER II.
2 GURU GOVIND SINGH.
3 BIbI NInak died in the year 1539. Of the nine
4 gurus who came after him, the last, Guru Govind
5 Singh, is the most famous, and the only one to
6 whom it is necessary to refer at length. The lives
7 of the remaining eight were, with one exception,
8 comparatively uneventful, and demand only a
9 passing notice.1 During the period over which these
10 extend, the Sikhs developed from a mere religious
11 fraternity into a strong militant power. Nanak
12 preached a gospel of peace ; but there was no peace
13 for the Sikhs in the empire of the Moghuls. Just
14 as the Romans sought, by unremitting persecution,
15 to stamp out Christianity, so the Moghul emperors
16 sought to stamp out the Khalsa. Like the Romans,
17 .they succeeded only in strengthening that which it
18 was their purpose to destroy.
19 The three gurus who came next after Nanak —
20 Guru Angad, Guru Amar D&s, and Guru Ram Das —
21 held office during the beneficent reigns of Humayun
22 and Akbar, and were fortunate enough to enjoy the
23 good will of those magnanimous sovereigns. Guru
24 1 See Appendix A (1).