A history of the Sikhs, from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej.

66

HISTORY OF THE SIKHS

CHAP. III

1675-1708. about this time the Sikh Gurus came to talk of themselves,
Th title and to be regarded by their followers as ' Sachcha Pad'True shahs', or as 'veritable kings ', meaning, perhaps, that they
kingt ap- governed by just influence and not by the force of arms, or
plied to the
Guris. that they guided men to salvation, while others controlled
their worldly actions. But the expression could be adapted
to any circumstances, and its mystic application seems to
have preyed upon and perplexed the minds of the Mughal
princes, while it illustrates the assertion of an intelligent
Muhammadan writer, that Tegh Bahadur, being at the head
of many thousand men, aspired to sovereign power.l
Gobind When Tegh Bahadur was put to death, his only son was
succeeds
to the in his fifteenth year. The violent end and the last injunction
apostle- of the martyr Gurfi made a deep impression on the mind
ship 1675. of Gobind, and in brooding over his own loss and the fallen
condition of his country, he became the irreconcilable foe
of the Muhammadan name, and conceived the noble idea
of moulding the vanquished Hindus into a new and aspiring
people. But Gobind was yet young, the government was
suspicious of his followers, and among the Sikhs themselves
there were parties inimical to the son of Tegh Bahadur.
His friends were therefore satisfied that the mutilated body
of the departed Guru was recovered by the zeal and dexterity of some humble disciples,2 and that the son himself
performed the funeral rites so essential to the welfare of the
living and the peace of the dead. Gobind was placed in
1 Saiyid Ghulam Husain, the author of the Siar ul Mutdkharin
(i. 112), is the writer referred to.
Browne, in his India Tracts (ii. 2, 3), and who uses a compilation,
attributes Aurangzeb's resolution to put Tegh Bahadur to death, to
his assumption of the character of a ' true king ',-and to his use of the
tifle of ' Bahdur ', expressive of valour, birth, and dignity., The
Guru, in the narrative referred to, disavows all claim to miraculous
powers. For some remarks on the term 'Sachcha Padshah', see
Appendix XIII.
Tegh Bahadur's objections to wear his father's sword, and his
injunction to reverence his arrows, that is, to heed what the bearer
of them should say, are given on native authority.
2 Certain men of the unclean and despised caste of Sweepers were
dispatched to Delhi to bring away the dispersed limbs of Tegh Bahadur, and it is said they partly owed their success to the exertions of
thatMakhan Shah, who had been the first to hail the deceased as Gurul.