THE LIFE AND TIMES OF GURU HARGOBIND t A Thesis Submitted to THE PUNJABI UNIVERSITY, PATIALA for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in HISTORY (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) Supervised by : I Submitted by : • J ii* Dr. DALBIR SINGH LON BALJINDER SINGH CHEEMA DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY PUNJABI UNIVERSITY, PATIALA. "4.-* 4 + ll«»t -T v .? * • • >% 9 4 T - ■ \ > ••• : - i r * * h * 1 y . ‘ \ . 9 # • . * .• .• • i i * ;* * «*„ w *• > V -l4.' • • ^ * 4 «» • 0 . <i K % 4 « i • : * • *£ **i * * *« I i f # i , k i » V « 4 «» • f • • % t * ... 1 A ; ^ t • * + * • / • # . # ■F*' t • «. F • • • * # A ' • > . 1 ■,' - ‘ # * i’ '■V''; I ■\i X • » ‘V • • » 0 J V •« * > ^ . i - * • J / • ' . - * . N •- • ' ' L ' *# « * v a J * - t ■ * 1 V ' *8 ’•* V S • rt\'*' . ' . - « Vj t x 4 1 < . ( V ^ •H* • •• V * *« » : : . * .» ft ' • V •-. .*• ' % It * * * 9 9 * f K • -‘I , *y fr t ** ;y A F 4 % 4 I > - « i* 4 * *fc * l ^ » 4*fc .• * * «* I / V . »* * ’. 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' ^ < • *r* * « 4 • f • < i . -» 4 ■ r \ • ; * \ r i# » ’’ *4. .A 9 F F « I A 1 r « ; V r . v ^ v -1/ ' 4 S v 4 .. * • ' S' *. • Al •' ' . - s :v * - .• >>, y . t s , V # * ‘ A u r -i i\! fi* • it »‘ x * S'I Ok•4 * V ^ . ; / f * * \ t ' t r. % h *#• ' V # * I It I » \ \ * - * *1 « t I > \ t t f « » J I « 1 * 5 *S \ i ^ *9 » I I **s » t ’ # 4 V I t $ ft » • ft 0 THE LIFE AND TIMES OF GURU HARGOBIND A Thesis Submitted to THE PUNJABI UNIVERSITY, PATIALA for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in HISTORY (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences) Supei vised by : Submitted by : Dr. DALBIR SINGH DHILLON BALJINDER SINGH CHEEMA DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY PUNJABI UNIVERSITY, PATIALA. 1991 Dedicated to the loving memory of my father Late S. Dalip Singh Cheema CERTIF ICATE This .is to certify that Mr. Baljinder Singh Chcema has written his thesis entitied,"The Life and Times of Guru Hargobind", under my supervision and guidance. It is based largely on the primary and contemporary/near contemporary sources. It is his original work and fit for evaluation for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. (DAL3IR SINGH DHILLON) DATED; /ip//. C^j ffcfdU'H CONTE NTS CHAPTERS PAGES PREFACE 1-Vlll• • • • I. HISTORICAL MILIEU 1-42 II. BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE 43-74 III. TRANSFORMATION OF SIKHISM 75-110 IV. RELATION WITH JAHANGIR AND 111-157 OTHER ACTIVITIES V. RELATION WITH SHAH JAHAN AND OTHER ACTIVITIES 158-201 VI. THELAST DECADE-FEACE AND PREACHING 202-223 CONCLUSION AND FINDINGS 224-234 BIBLIOGRAPHY 235-254 0 * 0 PREFACE Guru Hargobind, the sixth in the line of ten spiritual preceptors of the Sikhs, assumed the pontifical office after the martyrdom of his father, Guru Arjun Dev, in the year 1606 A.D. He guided the Sikh community for over thirty-seven years through difficult times facing repeated challenges from the forces hostile to its grov/th. He is one of those prophets in the religious history of the world who not only preached the ethico-spiritual doctrine of his predecessors but also inducted the seed of militarism among the devotees to fight for the cause of righteousness and oppose the tyranny of the rulers. Though Guru Hargobind's period is highly important in the history of the Sikhs, yet ro serious and systematic research work has been done hitherto on this subject. European writers, were the first to record historical accounts of the Sikhs, but most of these accounts ignored the early history of the Sikh Gurus. Even their account of the life of Guru Hargobird was very sketchy. Moreover, their lack of understanding of Sikh ethos and the Sikh literature (i) and tradition resulted in some incorrect and biased interpretation of facts relating to the Guru's life. They failed to sift the mythical story from the historical fact, and thus their accounts failed to represent the personality and vision of the Guru in a truly historical perspective. Only Max Arthur Macauliffe, a European writer, wrote a comprehensive and sympathetic history of Guru Hargobind in his work, The Sikh Religion, published in six volumes in 1909. Macauliffe, of course, prepared his work in great reverence to the Sikh faith by relying heavily upon the information supplied to him by the Sikh scholars and exegetes. But he also failed to differentiate fiction and legends that had mixed up with the facts of the Sikh Guru. He seems to have accepted all the information, supplied to him by the Sikh devotees, without subjecting the same to scientific scrutiny and historical analysis, a few writers like G.C. Narang, I.B. Banerjee, give some account on the life of Guru Hargobind in their works, but they seem to differ from Macauliffe only in language and style, the historical material remains practically the same. Besides, Macauliffe, they also seem to have relied on the faulty works of Trumpp and Eng.trs. of Dabistan-i-Mazahib. (ii) Keeping in view the short-comings and inadequacies of earlier works, an attempt has been made, perhaps the first of its kind, in vhich almost every aspect of the Guru's life has been discussed and examined analytically. No credence has been given to the biased and exaggerated reports made about Guru Hargobind by certain writers one way or the other. Our endeavour throughout has been to discard mythical and miraculous legends connected with the life of the Guru and construct a purely historical biography. For this purpose we had to study the contemporary milieu as it came from contemporary^persian sources and later Sikh chronicles. This has helped us to place the historical persoriof the Guru in a proper perspective and comprehend his vision of an ideal social and religious order in a more objective and dispassionate manner. Attempt has also been made to remove errors, clear doubts and controversies in regard to the life and mission of the Guru. Though different methods are adopted by the scholars for scientific writing, an attempt has been made (iii) here to write a historical biography of the Guru on the rational basis with a scientific historical approach. The work is divided into six chapters. To begin with, political, social and religious conditions, together with the origin and development of Sikhism have been discussed to serve as a 'Historical Milieu'. The second chapter reconstructs the birth, early life and overall development of Guru Hargobind's personality frcm his birth onwards. Besides this, the situation which became more alarming with the accession of Jahangir and the response given to it by (Guru) Hargobind and his father Guru Arjun Dev have been discussed. The advice given by Guru Arjun Dev before his martyrdom to his son to wield the temporal along with the spiritual authority has also been discussed in this chapter. The third chapter is devoted to the Guru's 'new policy' or transformation of Sikhism by which he added militarism to the spiritual doctrine. This development was not a departure from the doctrine of his predecessors, in fact, it was a » step towards the fruition of the process that had been initiated by Guru Nanak and which reached its culmination at the hands of Guru Gobind Singh with the creation of Khalsa in 1699. (iv) It was also the just need of the contemporary situation. The fourth chapter analysis the relations of Guru Hargcbind with Emperor Jahangir and his other activities. The fifth chapter unfolds Guru Hargobind's relation with ShahJehm and his battles with the imperialists. His other dealings as a Guru and father are also discussed in this chapter. The sixth chapter deals with the Guru's preaching work and his relations with hill chiefs during the last decade of his life. The conclusion surr"^s up findings in retrospect. In writing this thesis use has been made of all the important contemporary and near contemporary sources, such as Gurbilas Pathshahi Chhevin, Tawarikh Guru Khalsa, 3ansavali Hama Dasan Patshahian Ka, Guru Kjan Sakhian, Guru Parnalian, Varan 3hai Gurdas, Sikhan Pi Bhagat Mala, Dabis tan-i-Mazahib, Tuzuk-i-Jahanoiri, Badshah Mama etc. Besides, the Sikh traditions gathered by visiting, various gurdwaras connected with the life of Guru Hargobind have also been incorporated on the basis of candid sifting, in this work. Many valuable works, both published and unpublished (v) preserved at Khalsa College, Amritsar, Funjab State Archives, Patiala, Central Public Library and in the Personal Collections of various individuals notably those of Dr Ganda Singh and 3hai Randhir Singh, have also been consulted. 0 A new source which has become very popular and useful for the history of the Sikh Gurus is the Bhat Vahi records and the information provided by them has been properly scrutinized before use. Their authenticity and validity is checked while comparing with other sources. The credit for initiating this plan goes to Dr. A.C. Arora, Professor of History, who goaded me to write on this topic.He helped me with many a valuable suggestion during the course of my study on this subject. Fellowship provided by the Indian Council of Historical Research came in handy to pursue it further, and I must render here by gratitute to the ICHR who without the help of which I might not have dared to venture out on this project.