The Khalsa

Guru Gobind Singh, revered by Sikhs as the greatest of Guru Nanak’s successors, effected a radical and lasting transformation of both the organisa­tion and the outlook of the Sikh community by his institution of the quasi­military order of the Khalsa (a technical term used to designate land under direct imperial control, also suggesting the sense of‘Company of the Pure’), which abolished the authority of intermediate spiritual representatives and invested the community itself with ultimate power and responsibility.

The symbolic foundation of the Khalsa took place when the Sikhs gathered before their Guru on the Baisakhi festival at Anand­pur in 1699. The Guru asked for five volunteers, from different castes, who were taken into a tent and apparently executed. But as they were led out, it was revealed that goats had been slain in their place, and that these heroic ‘five beloved ones’ (panj piare) were to form the nucleus of the new order of the Khalsa. Their initiation was symbolised by the administration of baptism, involving the drinking of sweetened water (amrit) sanctified by the utterance of prayers during its preparation and mixing with a dagger. The five disciples then in their turn administered baptism to the Guru, symbolising the transfer of authority to the community.

The code of conduct (rahit) expected of all initiates of the Khalsa, as laid down by Guru Gobind Singh and subsequently elaborated, emphasises both the equality of its members and the martial spirit expected of them by awarding the Rajput titles of Singh (‘lion’) to men and Kaur (‘princess’) to women, irrespective of caste origin. Also incumbent on all male members is the observance of the five outward tokens known from their Punjabi names as the ‘five Ks’ (panj kakke), including unshorn hair (kes), a comb (kangha) to hold it, a dagger (kirpan), a steel bangle (kara) and a pair of breeches (kachh).

The new militant spirit of the Khalsa was given verbal expression in the hymns composed by Guru Gobind Singh. Some of

these were added to those by the earlier Gurus prescribed for the three daily offices, thus a baptised Sikh is expected to add to Guru Nanak’s Japji in his morning prayers the recitation of Guru Gobind Singh’s Jap Sahib and ten short poems (das savate). Guru Gobind Singh’s compositions are collected in the Dasam Granth (‘Book of the Tenth Guru’). While of comparable size to the Adi Granth, it is much more heterogeneous in character, containing a great amount of material obviously not by the Guru himself, and has never enjoyed the same canonical status.

The status of the original scriptures was further heightened as a consequence of Guru Gobind Singh’s remodelling of the Sikh community. During a brief respite from the almost perpetual fighting against the Moguls and their local allies in which much of his life was spent, and during which all his four sons were killed, he re-edited the Adi Granth so as to include his father’s compositions, although not his own. In this final form, the scriptures received the authority of the Guru, and consequently received the honorific title of Guru Granth Sahib by which Sikhs usually refer to their holy book. With Guru Gobind Singh’s death in 1708, the line ofliving Gurus came to an end, and Sikhs have since revered the scripture which they composed as their spiritual guide. The Guru Granth Sahib occupies the central place in allgurdtvaras, and elaborate reverence is paid to it in the rituals of the larger temples.