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

CHAP. III SIKHISM UNDER GOBIND

81

Aurangzeb died in the beginning of 1707, and his eldest 1675-1708.
son, Bahadur Shah, hastened from Kabul to secure the
succession. He vanquished and slew one brother near Agra, dies, and
and, marching to the south, he defeated a second, Kam- Bahadur
Shah sucbakhsh, who died of his wounds. While engaged in this ceeds, A.D.
last campaign, Bahadur Shah summoned Gobind to his 1707.
camp. The Guru went; he was treated with respect, and Gobind
proceeds to
he received a military command in the valley of the Goda- the south
vari. The emperor perhaps thought that the leader of Of India.
insurrectionary Jats might be usefully employed in opposing Enters the
imperial
rebellious Marathas, and Gobind perhaps saw in the imperial service.
service a ready way of disarming suspicion and of reorganizing his followers.' At Dam-Dama he had again
denounced evil upon all who should thenceforward desert
him; in the south he selected the daring Banda as an
instrument, and the Sikhs speedily reappeared in overwhelming force upon the banks of the Sutlej. But Gobind's
race was run, and he was not himself fated to achieve aught
more in person. He had engaged the services of an Afghan,
half-adventurer, half-merchant, and he had procured from
him a considerable number of horses.2 The merchant, or
servant, pleaded his own necessities, and urged the payment
Gurmukhi; transcripts, imperfect apparently, of some of which
latter have been put into English by Dr. Macgregor (History of the
Sikhs, pp. 79-99).
1 The Sikh writers seem unanimous in giving to their great teacher
a military command in the Deccan, while some recent Muhammadan
compilers assert that he died at Patna. But the liberal conduct of
Bahadur Shah is confirmed by the contemporary historian, Khafi
Khan, who states that he received rank in the Mughal army (see
Elphinstone, Hist. of India, ii. 566 note), and it is in a degree corroborated by the undoubted fact of the Guru's death on the banks of
the Godavari. The traditions preserved at Nad6r give Kartik, 1765
(Sambat), or towards the end of A. D. 1703, as the date of Gobind's
arrival at that place.
2 It would be curious to trace how far India was colonized in the
intervals of great invasions by petty Afghan and Turkoman leaders,
who defrayed their first or occasional expenses by the sale of horses.
Tradition represents that both the destroyer of Manikiala in the
Punjab, and the founder of Bhatnair in Hariaria, were emigrants so
circumstanced; and Amir Khan, the recent Indian adventurer, was
similarly reduced to sell his steeds for food. (Memoirs of Amir
Khan, p. 16.)
G