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

CHAP. II SIKH GURUS; TEGH BAHADUR

63

When Har Kishan was about to expire, he is stated to 1664-75.
have signified that his successor would be found in the Tegh Bavillage of Bakala, near Goindwal, on the Beas river. In hadur
this village there were many of Har Gobind's relatives, and succeeds as
ninth Gurfi,
his son, Tegh Bahadur, after many wanderings and a long 1664.
sojourn at Patna, on the Ganges, had taken up his residence
at the same place. Ram Rai continued to assert his claims, Ram Rai
but he never formed a large party, and Tegh Bahadur was dispctes
generally acknowledged as the leader of the Sikhs. The
son of Har Gobind was rejoiced, but he said he was unworthy to wear his father's sword, and in a short time his
supremacy and his life were both endangered by the
machinations of Ram Rai, and perhaps by his own suspicious proceedings.1 He was summoned to Delhi as a pretender to power and as a disturber of the peace, but he
had found a listener in the chief of Jaipur; the Rajpfit
advocated his cause, saying such holy men rather went on
pilgrimages than aspired to sovereignty, and he would take
him with him on his approaching march to Bengal.2 Tegh
1 Cf., generally, Malcolm, Sketch, p. 38; Forster, Travels, i. 299;
and Browne's India Tract, ii. 3, 4. Tegh Bahadur's refusal to wear the
sword of his father is given, however, on the authority of manuscript
native accounts, whichlikewise furnish a story, showing the particular
act which led to his recognition as Guru. A follower of the sect, named
Makhan Sah (or Shah), who was passing through Bakala, wished to
make an offering to the Guru of his faith, but he was perplexed by the
number of claimants. His offering was to be 525 rupees in all, but the
amount was knoiwn to him alone, and he silently resolved to give a
rupee to each, and to hail him as Gurui who should (from intuition)
claim the remainder. Tegh Bahadur demanded the balance, and so on.
2 Forster and Malcolm, who follow native Indian accounts, both
give Jai Singh as the name of the prince who countenanced Tegh
Bahadur, and who went to Bengal on an expedition; but one manuscript account refers to Bir Singh as the friendly chief. Tod (Rdjasthdn, ii. 355) says Ram Singh, the son of the first Jai Singh, went to
Assam, but he is silent about his actions. It is not unusual in India
to talk of eminent men as living, although long since dead, as a Sikh
will now say he is Ranjit Singh's soldier; and it is probable that Ram
Singh was nominally forgotten, owing to the fame of his father, the
' Mirza Raja ', and even that the Sikh chroniclers of the early part of
the last century confounded the first with the second of the name,
their contemporary Sawai Jai Singh, the noted astronomer and patron
of the learned. Malcolm (Sketch, p: 39), who, perhaps, copies Forster
(Travels, i. 299, 300), says Tegh Bahadur was, at this time, imprisoned
for two years.