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

80

HISTORY OF THE SIKHS

CHAP. III

1675-1708. ' Muktsar ', or the Pool of Salvation. He continued his
and rests flight to Dam-Dama, or the Breathing Place, half way
at Dam- between Hansi and Ferozepore; the imperial authorities
Dama, thought his strength sufficiently broken, and they did not
near
Bhatinda. follow him further into a parched and barren country.
Gobind At Dam-Dama Gobind remained for some time, and he
comthe hitoccupied himself in composing the supplemental Granth,
Nata —r — ' the Book of the Tenth King', to rouse the energies and
sustain the hopes of the faithful. This comprises the
Vichitr Natak, or 'Wondrous Tale', the only historical
portion of either Granth, and which he concludes by a hymn
in praise of God, who had ever assisted him. He would, he
says, make known in another book the things which he had
himself accomplished, the glories of the Lord which he had
witnessed, and his recollections or visions of his antecedent
existence. All he had done, he said, had been done with the
aid of the Almighty; and to ' Loh', or the mysterious
Summoned virtue of iron, he attributed his preservation. While thus
by Aurangzeb to his living in retirement, messengers arrived to summon him to
presence. the emperor's presence; but Gobind replied to Aurangzeb
in a series of parables admonitory of kings, partly in which,
and partly in a letter which accompanied-them, he remonstrates rather than humbles himself. He denounces the
wrath of God upon the monarch, rather than deprecates the
Replies to imperial anger against himself; he tells the emperor that
the emperorin a he puts no trust in him, and that the ' Khalsa ' will avenge
denuncia- him. He refers to Nanak's religious reform, and he briefly
tory strain. alludes to the death of Arjin and of Tegh Bahadur. He
describes his own wrongs and his childless condition. He
was, as one without earthly link, patiently awaiting death,
and fearing none but the sole Emperor, the King of Kings.
Nor, said he, are the prayers of the poor ineffectual; and
on the day of reckoning it would be seen how the emperor
would justify his manifold cruelties and oppressions. The
Guru was again desired to repair to Aurangzeb's presence,
and he really appears to have proceeded to the south some
time before the aged monarch was removed by death.l
1 In this narrative of Gobind's warlike actions, reference' has been
mainly had to the Vichitr Natak of the Guru, to the Guru Bilas of
Sukha Singh, and to the ordinary modern compilations in Persian and