Sikhi.ca

1504 – 1552
Guru Angad was an Indian religious leader and the second of the ten Sikh gurus. He was born in a Hindu family, with the birth name as Lehna, in the village of Harike (now Sarae Naga, near Muktsar) in northwest Indian subcontinent. Bhai Lehna grew up in a Khatri family (Kshatriya, traditionally warriors), his father was a small scale trader, he himself worked as a pujari (priest) and religious teacher centered around goddess Durga. He met Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, and became a Sikh. He served and worked with Guru Nanak for many years. Guru Nanak gave Lehna the name Angad (“my own limb”), and chose Angad as the second Sikh Guru.

After the death of Guru Nanak in 1539, Guru Angad led the Sikh tradition. He is remembered in Sikhism for adopting and formalizing the Gurmukhi alphabet based on the then prevalent local Devanagari script. He began the process of collecting the hymns of Guru Nanak, contributed 62 or 63 hymns of his own. Instead of his own son, he chose a Vaishnava Hindu Amar Das as his successor and the third Guru of Sikhism.

1479 – 1574
Guru Amar Das sometimes spelled as Guru Amardas, was the third of the Ten Gurus of Sikhism and became Sikh Guru on 5 April 1552 at age 73.

Before becoming a Sikh, Amar Das followed the Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism for much of his life. One day he heard his nephew’s wife, Bibi Amro, reciting a hymn by Guru Nanak, and was deeply moved by it.Bibi Amro was the daughter of Guru Angad, the second and then current Guru of the Sikhs. Amar Das persuaded Bibi Amro to introduce him to her father and in 1539, Amar Das, at the age of sixty, met Guru Angad and became a Sikh, devoting himself to the Guru.In 1552, before his death, Guru Angad appointed Amar Das as Guru Amar Das, the third Guru of Sikhism.

Guru Amar Das was an important innovator in Sikhism, who introduced a religious organization called the Manji system by appointing trained clergy, a system that expanded and survives into the contemporary era. He wrote and compiled hymns into a Pothi (book) that ultimately helped create the Adi Granth. Guru Amar Das helped establish the Sikh rituals relating to baby naming, wedding (Anand Karaj), and funeral,as well as the practice of congregation and celebrations of festivals such as Diwali, Maghi and Vaisakhi. He founded centres of Sikh pilgrimage, and picked the site for the Golden Temple.

1534 – 1581
Guru Ram Das was the fourth of the ten Gurus of Sikhism. He was born on 24 September 1534 in a family based in Lahore. His birth name was Jetha, and he was orphaned at age 7; he thereafter grew up with his maternal grandmother in a village.

At age 12, Bhai Jetha and his grandmother moved to Goindval, where they met Guru Amar Das. The boy thereafter accepted Guru Amar Das as his mentor and served him. The daughter of Guru Amar Das married Bhai Jetha, and he thus became part of Guru Amar Das’s family. As with the first two Gurus of Sikhism, Guru Amar Das instead of choosing his own sons, chose Bhai Jetha as his successor and renamed him as Ram Das or “servant or slave of god.”

Guru Ram Das became the Guru of Sikhism in 1574 and served as the Sikh leader until his death in 1581. He faced hostilities from the sons of Amar Das, shifted his official base to lands identified by Amar Das as Guru-ka-Chak. This newly founded town was eponymous Ramdaspur, later to evolve and get renamed as Amritsar – the holiest city of Sikhism.He is also remembered in the Sikh tradition for expanding the manji organization for clerical appointments and donation collections to theologically and economically support the Sikh movement.[3] He appointed his own son as his successor, and unlike the first four Gurus who were not related through descent, the fifth through tenth Sikh Gurus were the direct descendants of Ram Das.

1563 – 1606

Guru Arjan was the first of the two Gurus martyred in the Sikh faith and the fifth of the ten total Sikh Gurus. He compiled the first official edition of the Sikh scripture called the Adi Granth, which later expanded into the Guru Granth Sahib.

He was born in Goindval, in the Punjab, the youngest son of Bhai Jetha, who later became Guru Ram Das, and Mata Bhani, the daughter of Guru Amar Das. He was the first Guru in Sikhism to be born into a Sikh family. Guru Arjan led Sikhism for a quarter of a century. He completed the construction of Darbar Sahib at Amritsar, after the fourth Sikh Guru founded the town and built a pool. Guru Arjan compiled the hymns of previous Gurus and of other saints into Adi Granth, the first edition of the Sikh scripture, and installed it in the Harimandir Sahib.

Guru Arjan reorganized the Masands system initiated by Guru Ram Das, by suggesting that the Sikhs donate, if possible, one-tenth of their income, goods or service to the Sikh organization (dasvand). The Masand not only collected these funds but also taught tenets of Sikhism and settled civil disputes in their region

1595 – 1664
Guru Hargobind revered as the sixth Nanak, was the sixth of ten Gurus of the Sikh religion. He had become Guru at the young age of eleven, after the execution of his father, Guru Arjan, by the Mughal emperor Jahangir.

Guru Hargobind introduced the process of militarization to Sikhism, likely as a response to his father’s execution and to protect the Sikh community. He symbolized it by wearing two swords, representing the dual concept of miri and piri (temporal power and spiritual authority). In front of the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, Guru Hargobind constructed the Akal Takht (the throne of the timeless one). The Akal Takht represents the highest seat of earthly authority of the Khalsa (the collective body of the Sikhs) today.

Guru Har Rai is notable for maintaining the large army of Sikh soldiers that the sixth Sikh Guru had amassed, yet avoiding military conflict. He supported the moderate Sufi influenced Dara Shikoh instead of conservative Sunni influenced Aurangzeb as the two brothers entered into a war of succession to the Mughal Empire throne.

After Aurangzeb won the succession war in 1658, he summoned Guru Har Rai in 1660 to explain his support for the executed Dara Shikoh. Guru Har Rai sent his elder son Guru Ram Rai to represent him. Aurangzeb kept Ram Rai as hostage, questioned Ram Rai about a verse in the Adi Granth – the holy text of Sikhs at that time. Aurangzeb claimed that it disparaged the Muslims.

He is also known as Bal Guru (Child Guru), and sometimes spelled in Sikh literature as Hari Krishan Sahib. He is remembered in the Sikh tradition for saying “Baba Bakale” before he died, which Sikhs interpreted to identify his granduncle Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji as the next successor. Guru Har Krishan Sahib Ji had the shortest reign as Guru, lasting only 2 years, 5 months and 24 days.

1621 – 1675
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.

Among his notable contributions to Sikhism are founding the Sikh warrior community called Khalsa in 1699 and introducing the Five Ks, the five articles of faith that Khalsa Sikhs wear at all times. Guru Gobind Singh is credited with the Dasam Granth whose hymns are a sacred part of Sikh prayers and Khalsa rituals. He is also credited as the one who finalized and enshrined the Guru Granth Sahib as Sikhism’s primary scripture and eternal Guru.