The Seventeenth Century
The seventeenth century was a time of transition, during which the Sikh community, while continuing to grow in size and importance, was substantially altered in character by the influx of converts from the farming Jat caste with more warlike traditions than the Khattris who had formed the majority of the first disciples.
These changes had the dual consequence of making the Gurus more prominent politically and of increasing the suspicion with which they, as leaders of a growingly warlike sect in a region close to Delhi, came to be regarded by the Mogul emperors.Guru Arjan himself was the first to fall martyr to this inherent tension between the Sikhs and the Mogul authorities when, following his support for an unsuccessful claimant to the imperial throne, he was executed at Lahore in 1606. His son Guru Hargobind (1595-1604) was also imprisoned by the Moguls for a time, and is credited with being the first Guru to claim both spiritual and temporal authority (piri miri). As a symbol of the latter he constructed opposite his father’s Harmandir the Akai Takht (‘Throne of the Immortal Lord’), which has ever since remained the sy mbolic organisational centre of Sikhism. His successor Guru Har Rai (1630-61) was driven by imperial hostility to take refuge in the hills north of the Punjab, and his son, the child Guru Har Krishan (1656-64), died in custody in Delhi.
By the time of Guru Tegh Bahadur (1621-75), the organisation of the Sikh community was thus falling into increasing disarray, since the Gurus were increasingly constrained from exercising authority over their local representatives. Guru Tegh Bahadur’s own efforts at reform were ended by his execution in Delhi on the orders of the Emperor Aurangzeb. His son Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708) was brought up by his followers in the safety of his refuge in the hills at Anandpur, though even there he was brought into increasing conflict with the neighbouring chieftains.