Guru Tegh Bahadur


Guru Tegh Bahadur was the ninth of ten Gurus of the Sikh religion. The Guru Granth Sahib contains 116 poetic hymns composed by him. The Guru resisted the forced conversions of the Hindu Kashmiri Pandits and non-Muslims to Islam, and was publicly killed in 1675 on the orders of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in Delhi for himself refusing Mughal rulers and defying them. Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib and Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib in Delhi mark the places of execution and cremation of the Guru's body. His martyrdom is remembered as the Shaheedi Divas of Guru Tegh Bahadur every year on 24 November, according to the Nanakshahi calendar released by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in 2003.

Biography

The Sixth guru, Guru Hargobind had one daughter Bibi Viro and five sons: Baba Gurditta, Suraj Mal, Ani Rai, Atal Rai and Tyaga Mal. Tyaga Mal was born in Amritsar in the early hours of 1 April 1621, who came to be known by the name Tegh Bahadur, given to him by Guru Hargobind after he had shown his valour in a battle against the Mughals.
Amritsar at that time was the centre of Sikh faith. As the seat of the Sikh Gurus, and with its connection to Sikhs in far-flung areas of the country through the chains of Masands or missionaries, it had developed the characteristics of a state capital. Guru Tegh Bahadur was brought up in Sikh culture and trained in archery and horsemanship. He was also taught the old classics such as the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Puranas. He preferred prolonged spells of seclusion and contemplation. Tegh Bahadur was married on 3 February 1633, to Mata Gujri.

Stay at Bakala

In the 1640s, nearing his death, Guru Hargobind and his wife Nanki moved to his ancestral village of Bakala in Amritsar district, together with Tegh Bahadur and Mata Gujri. Bakala, as described in Gurbilas Dasvin Patishahi, was then a prosperous town with many beautiful pools, wells and baolis. After Guru Hargobind's death, Tegh Bahadur continued to live in Bakala with his wife and mother

Guruship

In March 1664 Guru Har Krishan contracted smallpox. When asked by his followers who would lead them after him, he replied Baba Bakala, meaning his successor was to be found in Bakala. Taking advantage of the ambiguity in the words of the dying Guru, many installed themselves in Bakala, claiming themselves as the new Guru. Sikhs were puzzled to see so many claimants.
Sikh tradition has a myth concerning the manner in which Tegh Bahadur was selected as the ninth guru. A wealthy trader, Baba Makhan Shah Labana, had once prayed for his life and had promised to gift 500 gold coins to the Sikh Guru if he survived. He arrived in search of the ninth Guru. He went from one claimant to the next making his obeisance and offering two gold coins to each Guru, believing that the right guru would know that his silent promise was to gift 500 coins for his safety. Every "guru" he met accepted the 2 gold coins and bid him farewell. Then he discovered that Tegh Bahadur also lived at Bakala. Labana gifted Tegh Bahadur the usual offering of two gold coins. Tegh Bahadur gave him his blessings and remarked that his offering was considerably short of the promised five hundred. Makhan Shah Labana forthwith made good the difference and ran upstairs. He began shouting from the rooftop, "Guru ladho re, Guru ladho re" meaning "I have found the Guru, I have found the Guru".
In August 1664 a Sikh Sangat arrived in Bakala and anointed Tegh Bahadur as the ninth guru of Sikhs. The Sangat was led by Diwan Durga Mal, and a formal "Tikka ceremony" was performed by Bhai Gurditta on Tegh Bahadur conferring Guruship on him.
As had been the custom among Sikhs after the execution of Guru Arjan by Mughal Emperor Jahangir, Guru Tegh Bahadur was surrounded by armed bodyguards. He himself lived an austere life.

Works

Guru Tegh Bahadur contributed many hymns to Granth Sahib including the Saloks, or couplets near the end of the Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Tegh Bahadur toured various parts of Mughal Empire and was asked by Gobind Sahali to construct several Sikh temples in Mahali. His works include 116 shabads, 15 ragas, and his bhagats are credited with 782 compositions that are part of bani in Sikhism.
His works are included in the Guru Granth Sahib. They cover a wide range of topics, such as the nature of God, human attachments, body, mind, sorrow, dignity, service, death and deliverance. For example, in Sorath rag, Guru Tegh Bahadur describes what an ideal human being is like,

Journeys

Guru Tegh Bahadur travelled extensively in different parts of the country, including Dhaka and Assam, to preach the teachings of Nanak, the first Sikh guru. The places he visited and stayed in, became sites of Sikh temples.
During his travels, Guru Tegh Bahadur spread the Sikh ideas and message, as well as started community water wells and langars.
The Guru made three successive visits to Kiratpur. On 21 August 1664, Guru went there to console with Bibi Rup upon the death of her father, Guru Har Rai, the seventh Sikh guru, and of her brother, Guru Har Krishan. The second visit was on 15 October 1664, at the death on 29 September 1664, of Bassi, the mother of Guru Har Rai. A third visit concluded a fairly extensive journey through the northwest Indian subcontinent. His son Guru Gobind Singh, who would be the tenth Sikh guru, was born in Patna, while he was away in Dhubri, Assam in 1666, where stands the Gurdwara Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib. He there helped end the war between Raja Ram Singh of Bengal and Raja Chakardwaj of Ahom state. He visited the towns of Mathura, Agra, Allahabad and Varanasi.
After his visit to Assam, Bengal and Bihar, the Guru visited Rani Champa of Bilaspur who offered to give the Guru a piece of land in her state. The Guru bought the site for 500 rupees. There, Guru Tegh Bahadur founded the city of Anandpur Sahib in the foothills of Himalayas. In 1672, Tegh Bahadur traveled through Kashmir and the North-West Frontier, to meet the masses, as the persecution of non-Muslims reached new heights.

Execution by Aurangzeb

In 1675 Guru Tegh Bahadur was executed in Delhi on 24 November under the orders of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. According to J.S. Grewal, a scholar of Sikh history, Guru Tegh Bahadur decided to confront the religious persecution of Kashmiri Brahmins by the Mughal officials. He did so after appointing his son the successor-Guru, leaving his base of Makhowal and entering Ropar where he was promptly arrested. According to Purnima Dhavan – a scholar of South Asian history and Mughal Empire, the Mughal administration kept a close watch on his activities. Guru Tegh Bahadur was kept in jail for four months in Sarhind, then transferred to Delhi in November 1675. There he was asked to perform a miracle to prove his nearness to his God. The Guru questioned the idea that "occult powers were not a proof of one's nearness to God", states Grewal. After his refusal to perform a miracle, he was asked to convert to Islam. He refused. Three of his colleagues, who had been arrested with him, were then put to death in front of him. He continued his refusal to convert to Islam. Thereafter, states Grewal, he was publicly beheaded in Chandni Chowk, a market square close to the Red Fort.
According to the official account of the Mughal Empire, written 107 years later by Ghulam Husain of Lucknow in 1782,
Satish Chandra cautions that this was the "official justification", which historically can be expected to be full of evasion and distortion to justify official action. According to Surjit Gandhi, the account by Ghulam Husain suffers from serious inaccuracies and is historically wrong, as Hafiz Adam had left India and died at Medina in 1643.
Another Muslim scholar, Ghulam Muhiuddin Bute Shah, wrote his Tarikh-i-Punjab in 1842, over a century and half after the death of Guru Tegh Bahadur, saying that there was ongoing hostility from Ram Rai, the elder brother of Guru Har Kishan, against Tegh Bahadur. Ghulam Muhiuddin Bute Shah said that "Ram Rai represented to the Emperor that Guru Tegh Bahadur was very proud of his spiritual greatness and that he would not realise his fault unless he was punished. Ram Rai also suggested that Guru Tegh Bahadur is asked to appear before the Emperor to work a miracle; if he failed, he could be put to death." Satish Chandra and others say that this account is also doubtful as to the circumstances or cause of Guru Tegh Bahadur's execution.
Sikh historians record that Guru Tegh Bahadur had become a socio-political challenge to the Muslim rule and Aurangzeb. The Sikh movement was rapidly growing in the rural Malwa region of Punjab, and the Guru was openly encouraging Sikhs to, "be fearless in their pursuit of just society: he who holds none in fear, nor is afraid of anyone, is acknowledged as a man of true wisdom", a statement recorded in the Guru Granth Sahib p. 1427. While Guru Tegh Bahadur influence was rising, Aurangzeb had imposed Islamic laws, demolished Hindu schools and temples, and enforced new taxes on non-Muslims.
The main substantive record, however, comes from Guru Tegh Bahadur's son, Guru Gobind Singh, in his composition Bachittar Natak. This composition is recited in every Sikh place of worship on the occasion of the Guru's martyrdom. According to records written by his son Guru Gobind Singh, the Guru had resisted persecution, and had adopted and promised to protect Kashmiri Hindus. The Guru was summoned to Delhi by Aurangzeb on a pretext, but when he arrived, he was asked "to abandon his faith, and convert to Islam". Guru Tegh Bahadur refused, and he and his associates were arrested. He was executed on 24 November 1675 in public in Chandni Chowk, Delhi.
William Irvine states that Guru Tegh Bahadur was tortured for many weeks while being asked to abandon his faith and convert to Islam; he stood by his convictions and refused; he was then executed.
The associates of the Guru were also tortured for refusing to convert: Bhai Mati Das was sawn into pieces and Bhai Dayal Das was thrown into a cauldron of boiling water, and Bhai Sati Das was burned alive, while Guru Tegh Bahadur was held inside a cage to watch his colleagues suffer. The Guru himself was beheaded in public.

Impact of execution

Legacy and memorials

was Guru Tegh Bahadur's father. He was originally named Tyag Mal but was later renamed Tegh Bahadur after his gallantry and bravery in the wars against the Mughal forces. He built the city of Anandpur Sahib, and was responsible for saving the Kashmiri Pandits, who were being persecuted by the Mughals.
After the execution of Tegh Bahadar by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, a number of Sikh temples were built in his and his associates' memory. The Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib in Chandni Chowk, Delhi, was built over where he was beheaded. Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib, also in Delhi, is built on the site of the residence of a disciple of Teg Bahadur, who burned his house to cremate his master's body.
Gurdwara Sisganj Sahib in Punjab marks the site where in November 1675, the head of the martyred Guru Teg Bahadar which was brought by Bhai Jaita in defiance of the Mughal authority of Aurangzeb was cremated here. During his journey to Anandpur Sahib Bhai Jaita Singh reach a village near Delhi in Sonipat and the Mughal army also reach that village. Bhai Jaita demand for help to villagers so the villagers hideout Bhai Jaita with Guru' head. A villager named Kushal Singh Dahiya came ahead and offers his own head in the place of Guru's head to Mughal army. After beheading Kushal Singh Dahiya the villagers shuffle the heads and give the head of Kushal Singh Dahiya to Mughal army.
Tegh Bahadur has been remembered for giving up his life for freedom of religion, reminding Sikhs and non-Muslims in India to follow and practice their beliefs without fear of persecution and forced conversions by Muslims. Guru Tegh Bahadur was martyred, along with fellow devotees Bhai Mati Dass, Bhai Sati Das and Bhai Dayala. 24 November, the date of his martyrdom, is observed in certain parts of India as a public holiday.

Effect on Sikhs

The execution hardened the resolve of Sikhs against Muslim rule and the persecution. Pashaura Singh states that, "if the martyrdom of Guru Arjan had helped bring the Sikh Panth together, Guru Tegh Bahadur's martyrdom helped to make the protection of human rights central to its Sikh identity". Wilfred Smith stated "the attempt to forcibly convert the ninth Guru to an externalized, impersonal Islam clearly made an indelible impression on the martyr's nine-year-old son, Gobind, who reacted slowly but deliberately by eventually organizing the Sikh group into a distinct, formal, symbol-patterned community". It inaugurated the Khalsa identity.

Places named after Guru Teg Bahadur

A number of places are named after the ninth guru of the Sikhs, Guru Teg Bahadur.