Contents
- The Introduction: The Guru in Sikhism
- This is Page Two: India Before Nanak: The Peacock Throne
- Page Three: India After Nanak: Sikhism Today and the Nature of God
- Page Four: The Nature of the Self: The Path to Liberation: Gurbani: Sikh Rites and Practices
- Footnotes and References
How one views India depends on many things. Personally, I love India! It is a vastadmixture of contradiction, enlightenment, deception, promisedisappointment and fulfillment. The French world traveler MadeleineBiardeau has correctly pointed out that, "Westerners arrive on Indiansoil in their hundreds more or less persuaded that they will findEnlightenment round the corner. Whereas in fact what they encounter isIndia, with its dirt, poverty, discomfort, and they never cease recitingwhat makes this country one of the most backward places on earth." (I 5) note 9..
The first known Englishman to visit India (in 1579) was the Jesuit Father Thomas Stevens note 10..He wrote a poem in the Konkani dialect entitled The Christian Purana, in which he unsuccessfully sought to convert Indians to his religionby usurping their culture and terminologies (LoI 27). This is a common and offensive Christian missionary tactic. Because of Stevens and two merchants, named Fitch and Newbery,who visited India in 1583, the English developed "a keener desire fortrade and exploration in the East" (BI 23). In 1600 Queen Elizabethgranted charter to "certain adventurers for the trade of the EastIndies" (SIT XV). They hoped to capture the Indian market and 'makeproper Englishmen out of them.' This was the humble beginnings of'British India' which, with the fall of the Mughal Empire, "brought,province by province, State by State, [India] under the control or underthe indirect influence of the British Government" (LoI 394).
Most non-Indians had (and have) unrealisticexpectations of India and judge her from their own cultural biases. Theygenerally seek to exploit the country and her people, and hence they are usually disappointed. When one's vision is skewed by ethnocentrism, it is impossible to understand another culture, or for thatmatter, to rightly understand one's own (GSK 24,25). India must beaccepted on her own terms. One must allow India to be India, the mostunique, ambiguous and seductive land on earth.
According to the fascinating research currently being done byDavid Frawley, "There is much ground for believing that ancient Indiawas more central to the origins of civilizations than is presentlyconsidered, that it may be the source of civilization as we know it...Though most Western scholars and the current view of history still see an African origin for civilization, much new information is comingout that may challenge this view (GSK 15).
Even Indians view India differently depending upon their culturaland religious projections. It has been said that, from a Westernperspective, India should be viewed as the Europe of the East. It is avastly divergent land with separate cultures, religions and languages and yet is,for the most part, united (or at least related) by a common history ofproximity and philosophy.
The Jains and other Indian religions, along with the many Hindusub-religions, all had critiques to offer. Some viewed India asBharata Varsha note 11., their holy ancestral land, while others saw her as the ancient Aryan civilization fallen into degradation and religious harlotry.
For the Muslims, India was a land of polytheistic idol worshipand henotheistic confusion. They saw what they interpreted as anti-Qur'anic Baal worship and little else. The Muslims believed the subcontinent needed radical cultural andreligious purification. If India was to become 'civilized' it needed toconvert to Islam! Moreover, India was a land of vast riches and thesewere desirable to the largely nomadic Muslims. Harmonious with theteachings of Muhammad, Muslim invaders from Mahmood ofGazni note 12. in the eleventh century to the Moguls of the sixteenth believed thatIndian conversion (and exploitation) would best be achieved peacefully,but if the sword was more efficient, so be it (PWB 445).
In the Taj-ul-Ma'asir Hassn Nizam-i-Naishapuri relates that when Qutb-ul-Din Aibak (1194-1210) conquered Meerat, "he demolished all the Hindu temples of the city and erected mosques on their sites. In the city of Aligarh, he converted the Hindu inhabitants to Islam by the sword and beheaded all who continued to adhere to their own religion" (quoted in SR 11).
The Sikh Punjabis view India somewhat differently. They endured horrific assaults from both Muslims and Hindus. When the first Guru Nanak began teaching, the Punjabi people were filled with hope that perhaps, at long last, there existed in India a place for them. As Guru Nanak looked at the India of his time (1469-1539) his observations, in brief, were as follows:
- 1) Prior to his day, the atheistic philosophy of Buddhism had degenerated the country by destroying people's faith in God. In time, Buddhism itself waned and was re-Hinduized. Statues of the Buddha and popular bodhisattvas were installed as worshipable murtis (gods) note 13. in Buddhist temples. As the Hindu people saw the Buddhist murtis being installed they did likewise, again placing images of their own Gods and Goddesses into the mandirs (temples) for public and private worship note 14.. The Sikhs blame this return to what Nanak viewed as idolatry on the brahminical priesthood, who "had reduced the religion to a mockery, performing rites and rituals and superstitious ceremonies devoid of any sense and meaning" (SR 10).
- 2) The Buddhist teaching of ahimsa or non-violence were, from Nanak's perspective, making the Indian people weak and unwilling to defend themselves from their various aggressors, especially the Muslim Mughal invaders of his day.
- 3) The caste system (or Varnashrama-dharma) was another complaint of Guru Nanak. He saw Indian society as so fragmented by castes and sub-castes that "a touch or even a shadow of these untouchables seemed to pollute the higher castes" (SR 10). The racist and classist situation the Varnashrama-dharma had degenerated into was abhorrent to Nanak.
Religious scholar William Eerdmans says that despite this desire for universal brotherhood, in contemporary Punjabi Sikhism the caste system is still observed in many quarters (WR 199) despite the official Sikh rejection. Pramjit Singh, who I spoke with for this study, strongly disagrees with his assessment (P). He told me it is non-existent there. I have personally witnessed the system in operation in India, but I did visit the Punjab.
According to the Sikhs and most historians, Muslim rule of India was fierce and needlessly bloody. As stated above note 15., for the Muslims, peaceful conversion was supposedly preferable, but in India the sword proved more effective. The Muslims slaughtered innumerable men, women andchildren without mercy, plundering their homes and destroying their temples. According to G.T. Garratt, "The [Muslim] conquest introduced a period of ruthless oppression which went on unmitigated from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, until the ascendancy of the emperor Akbar" (LoI 371). It was during the reign of Akbar and his successorsthat Sikhism emerged. In order to understand the Sikh religion, a basic understanding of the Mughal period is essential as the drama of those days had tremendous influence on the Sikh Gurus, their teachings, as well as the Indian Bhakti cults.
THE PEACOCK THRONE At the height of their power (1500s to 1600s), the Moguls note 16. ruled about 150 million people. Their empire stretched across present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
The harshness of Mughal rule created an environment in which bhakti, religious devotion, flourished. According to G.T. Garratt, Mughal oppression encouraged the blossoming of all types of Bhakti. The Hindu religion Vaishnavism established a much deeper hold on Indian religious life. One of the greatest Vaishnava revivalists was in fact a contemporary of Guru Nanak, Sri Krishna-Caitanya (1486-1533). He inaugurated the tradition of the goswamis (EDY 71). His life and teachings are chronicled in the Sri Caitanya-caritamrita of Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami According to that Bengali text, Sri Caitanya was the fully independent, supreme Personality of Godhead (svatantra ishvara) Sri Krishna Himself (CC Antya-lila, 12:84). He is accepted by millions of Vaishnavas as the foremost exponent of bhakti-yoga, the Way of Devotion, for our age (CC Madhya-lila 9:41-46; EDY 71). Also in Bengal the ecstatic Baul sect was growing in numbers at about the same, singing their transcendental songs about the 'man in the heart' (EDY 46).
The great poet Kabir (1440-1518) was born a Muslim but converted to Vaisnava Hinduism through the wisdom of Srila Ramananda (1440-1470). His path was eclectic and included Sufism (Islamic devotional mysticism) and various Hindu sects, but he was clearly a Bhakti at heart (EDY 164). Some of Kabir's hymns are contained in the Guru Granth Sahib. Some have even suggested that Kabir may have been Guru Nanak's Guru. According to W. Owen Cole, that idea is not so far fetched (GiS 8). The Miharban Janam Sakhi records a conversation between the two masters which is interesting. From this conversation it may appear that while Kabir was greatly respected, he probably was not Guru Nanak's Guru. This may be too hasty however. Based on the following discourse, Kabir could still have been his Guru. Nanak may have simply A) used this wording to show respect and/or B) been distinguishing between the manand the 'True Guru' within him, remember that 'the Perfect Guru is illumined by God.' For our purposes here, I simply wish to demonstrate the connection between them not investigate the possibility:
Kabir: Good God, please be seated. I am not so great that a man of your eminence should stand up to receive me.In 1520 Guru Nanak founded Kartarpur, an ideal village established upon his teachings. He lived in Kartarpur until his death (GiS 23).
Nanak: When a god comes, how can one remain seated?
Kabir: No. No. You are a jagat Guru (world/universal Guru) and I am your slave.
Nanak: Blessed am I that I have met you.
Kabir: You have been sent to save the world, O Nanak.
Nanak: I am not worried about the world. All I wish is that I may not forget God.
Kabir: Yet the world will acknowledge you as a supreme prophet.
Nanak: O Kabir, you serve God. Your deeds are truthful. Your mind is one with Pure Being (niranjan).
Kabir: From whom did you receive the divine light [jot]? Who is your Guru?
Nanak: I met the Perfect Being, the Supreme Person, the Embodiment ofTruth, and have received enlightenment from him. It is only the PerfectGuru, illumined by God, who can save the world (GiS 9).The Vishnu avatar Rama was being glorified in the north, and Vishnu/Krishna/Jagannatha was adored in the south. Vaisnavism was becoming very popular among the common people in those days. The worship of Shiva in the Tamil country was also growing with its own bhakti paths, although with somewhat less zeal. Garrett says that it was at this same time that Daivism (worship of the Goddess) also adopted the Vaishnava doctrine of Bhakti note 17. and began to grow among many people. This transcendentalist rise in devotionalism among people of the Sanatana Dharma occurred throughout the Muslim Mughal empire and paved the way for Guru Nanak's unique form of Bhakti (LoI 370-372).
When Guru Nanak arrived on the scene the Punjabis were eager for his message. The same was true with Caitanya Mahaprabhu in his areas of influence. Thousands flocked to both teachers of Bhakti marga (the devotional path to God) sensing that the Orthodox Hindu system had become empty and devoid of meaning. The Indian people were craving the personal fulfillment that only divine communion through faith can provide, what we Jews refer to as emunah.
Babur (1483-1530) conquered Delhi in 1526. In 1530 he was succeeded by his son Humayun (1508-1556), and in 1556 Akbar the Great became emperor of the Mughal Empire. He is generally considered the greatest Mughal ruler.
Emperor Akbar (1542-1605) was enthroned in 1556. He was a free thinking Muslim who longed for religious as well as political unity. Mike Edwards, in an article entitled When the Moguls Ruled India, seeks to put a more human face on the Mughal rulers. Of Akbar he writes, If you invited him to a cocktail party "Akbar would question you about your religion and might incorporate its tenets into one he was fashioning. As he discoursed on diverse subjects, it would never occur to you that he could not read" (NG 468). His reign mitigated the atrocities of the previous Mughal rulers. For instance, Akbar rescinded the pilgrimage tax in 1563.
The previous Muslim rulers believed that the Hindu pilgrimages were based on a false religion, i.e. they were non-Muslim, and therefore should be heavily taxed. When Akbar found out about this tax, while hunting near Mathura (the traditional home of Sri Krishna), he demanded it be stopped immediately. According to W. Owen Cole, Guru AmarDas met with Akbar and persuaded him to abolish the tax (GiS 25). As a result of the good faith shown by Akbar, the Sikhs, from this time, "became increasingly linked with those of the Mughal Empire." At first relations between the Punjabi Sikhs and the empire were good. After reading (or hearing) the Guru Granth 'thoroughly' note 18., Akbar made large financial contributions to Guru Arjan to help the Sikh cause In an even bolder move, the next year he abolished the Indian jizya, a tax demanded by the Qur'an for all non-Muslim residents ('dhimmis') of Islamic countries (GM 82). By these actions Akbar announced that henceforth all citizens of the kingdom were to be viewed as equal under the law, at least in theory. This was revolutionary for an Islamic state. Admittedly his motives may have been political considering that the previous emperors had had constant problems with the Hindu majority; but when one considers the powerful role of Islam in his early government, such moves must be regarded with respect, regardless of what prompted them.
Akbar was certainly more than a shrewd politician however. His father was Sunni, while his mother was Shi'a note 19.. He was born in Hindustan, in the land of Sufism, in the home of a Hindu. One (at least) of his teachers, Mir Abdul Latif, was devoted to sulh-i-kull, religious toleration. Akbar also suffered personally from religious discrimination himself due his lack of Islamic orthodoxy. In Persia he was persecuted because he was a Sunni, while in India he was mistrusted for being Shi'a and pro-Sikh (GM 82). Throughout Akbar's life one finds examples of his religious questing and tolerance.
This does not mean, of course, that all was peaceful. Under Akbar the Moguls continued to consolidate their power throughout the subcontinent. Violent uprisings continued, although generally they were put down in less brutal ways. Under his reign the main trouble spots were Bihar and Bengal, and in the west, Afghanistan, especially around Kabul, and in the Punjab. In 1575 Bihar and Bengal were formally conquered and brought into the empire. Almost constant fighting was required to maintain imperial control of Bengal. Much of his opposition came from local Afghan's who resented Mughal rulership (they were previous ruled by the Afghan Sher Shah in Delhi). In the Afghan city of Kabul the climax came in 1580. The Punjab became the scene of violent fighting. At the end, Akbar controlled the entire Punjab and established the Peacock Throne in the city of Sikri (which he built). His government was there until Shah Jahan moved it back to Delhi in 1648.
Akbar's fascination with religion drove him to create the ibadat-khana or 'House of Worship' in 1575. His intention for this building was to promote religious discussion and unity. He was especially interested in the more mystical aspects of religion, such as Islamic Sufism, Hindu Bhakti (devotionalism) and the now emerging Sikhism. This building (which no longer exists) was built within the mosque at Fatehpur Sikri as an extension of an old hermit's cell. Akbar began his religious counsels with Muslims only. After Friday prayers, he would meet with Islamic scholars for these discussions. Things did not go well however. Akbar was constantly disappointed as the Muslim religious thinkers fought over sitting places and other incidentals. The discourses often turned into shouting matches with charges of "Fool!" and "Heretic!" The participants "became very Jews and Egyptians for their hatred of each other" (GM 110). This religious animosity made Akbar doubt that any truth existed within Islam at all -- a heretical notion for a Muslim to be sure! As a result, he reorganized the meetings and invited Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians, Jews, Jesuits and Sikhs. He was particularly fond of three Jesuits, whom he called the 'Nazarene sages.' It is said however that Akbar "laughingly preferred his three hundred wives to the Christian ideal of monogamy" (SIT 1).
In 1582 Akbar announced the formation of a new religion, which he hoped would unite all of India, He called it the Din-i-Ilahi or the 'Religion of God.' Needless to say, this new religion, "its main distinguishing feature being a vague nimbus of divinity around his own person," did not catch on (GM 115). His egotism was further expressed in a way which outraged the Muslim community. On the official coins he added the inscription: Allahu Akbar. Since the word akbar means 'great,' and since his name was Akbar, the inscription could either mean 'God is Great' or 'Akbar is God' (GM 117)! Akbar seemed to lean towards the later.
Abul Fazl's biography attributes several miracles to Akbar, including rain-making (GM 118). The greatness of Akbar is a matter or history, but his divinity existed only in his own mind.
From the Punjabi city of Lahore we get a sardonic account which reflects the religious tensions of the day. Akbar appointed Husain Khan, in whose service he had spent his early years, as governor of Lahore. One day a stranger approached his court and, assuming the man was Muslim, Khan gave the traditional Muslim greeting. Thereafter he discovered that the visitor was Hindu. He was so embarrassed by this incident that he ordered all Hindus to wear a patch on their sleeves identifying their religion (GM 116).
What Akbar personally believed is uncertain. Christians say he died a Muslim, Muslims say he died a Hindu. Perhaps this uncertainty is for the best, for it seems to reflect his own eclectic beliefs nicely. His impact on the Sanatana Dharma and beyond should not be under estimated.
Akbar died in 1605, a year before the end of Guru Arjan's life. He was succeeded by his son Jahangir (1569-1627). He too was interested in religion, but preferred the arts. He also enjoyed watching men being frayed alive! He further relished watching men fight animals, especially when the animals won. Nothing so invigorated Jahangir as watching a lion slowly devour someone. His violent streak knew no limits. As for Islam, he frequently ate pork in public and refused to fast during the month of Ramadan. As emperor he clearly considered himself equal to, if not greater than, Allah (PT 41).
After taking reign on October 24, 1605, his egocentric personality lead him to alcoholism and opium addiction. Unlike his father, Jahangir had no use for Sikhs. He had Guru Arjan arrested, accusing him of supporting Khusrau, the other claimant to the Mughal throne. Guru Arjan was drowned by his Muslim jailers while being transported to prison. The Mughal officials claimed his death was either an accident or suicide, but Sikhs reject this claim. They regard Guru Arjan as the first Sikh martyr (GiS 26). He would not be the last. Guru Arjan was succeeded by his son, Har Govind. He too was imprisoned by the Muslim Moguls, although he was released after two years. It is said that he obtained freedom for fifty-two Hindu rajas (GiS 26). Historians do not think well of Jahangir (GM 131; PT 39,40).
In 1627 Jahangir's famous son Shah Jahan (1592-1666) became emperor. It was said that "His pride is such as may teach Lucifer" (PT 52). On June 7, 1631 Shah Jahan's Queen, Arjumand Banu, better known as Mumtaz Mahal ('Chosen One of the Palace') passed away while giving birth to her fourteenth child. Moved by grief, Shah Jahan built the internationally acclaimed Taj Mahal note 20. as her mausoleum (PT 106). After building this amazing monument, the emperor had his hand in many other fine buildings and monuments throughout India.
In 1657 false rumors of Shah Jahan's death led to war between his sons. It was Shah Jahan's desire that his son Dara Shikoh succeed him. He however was not a military strategist nor even a good soldier. One thing he did have however, was an eclectic attitude which would not alienate the Hindu majority. He shared Akbar's sense of justice, respect, and fair play. Had he become emperor, the Indian rebellions which, in part, eventually destroyed the empire might never have occurred.
In May of 1658 two of Dara's brothers, Shuja and Murad, each proclaimed themselves successors to Shah Jahan. Another brother, Aurangzeb, who was a great but sinister strategist, waited ominously in the wings. Like a cobra, when the time was right he struck and after fierce fighting, Aurangzeb (1618-1707) usurped the throne on July 21, 1658. Thereupon, due to his father's opposition, he confined Shah Jahan to the palace. Of this emperor's reign it has been said that "No scheming Medici, no Spanish Inquisition, no Byzantine plot of poisoned Eucharist wafers to kill kneeling popes in church, no aspect of world history ever excelled the nastiness and cupidity of Mogul intrigue" (PT 281).
Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru, was martyred during Aurangzeb's reign. Sikhs say he died defending the rights of Hindus to practice their religion (GiS 27; P).
Aurangzeb moved his troops expertly, if harshly. The Punjab remained in the hands of Dara's supporters, and Aurangzeb wanted it. Rather than uniting with his brothers and the other enemies of Aurangzeb, Dara went it alone. Waldemar Hansen describes Dara's every move as 'curiously suicidal' (PT 281). Reading the accounts of the War of Succession it does appear that Dara missed many opportunities to defeat Aurangzeb and regain the empire. Being forced from his stronghold at Samugarh, Dara headed south to Delhi and arrived June 5, 1658. Once in the city, Aurangzeb boxed them in. Shah Jahan sent word that his loyalists must move on Delhi to aid Dara. He even opened the treasury and sanctioned that all available war materiels be sent to Delhi. Despite Shah Jahan's attempts however, in desperation Dara and his forces, now grown to about ten thousand men, retreated north into the Punjab pursued by enemy forces. This refuge was short lived and Dara subsequently again fled (PT 297). The war was lost.
Aurangzeb was, considering his unorthodox family, an unusually devout Muslim (PT 95). His orthodoxy was used to justify the genocide which he wrought on his brothers and their supporters, especially his brother Dara, who was said to be "all too reminiscent of Akbar" in his tolerance and free-thinking (GM 227). Throughout his reign Islamic religious bigotry ruled supreme throughout the subcontinent as beyond. In 1679 he reimposed the jizya note 21.. Although he claimed to oppose it, racial and religious discrimination was the rule of the day. His lack of tolerance anddiplomacy created a litany of problems for the empire. His son Ajmer even rebelled against him and sought his death. Through a long chain of intriguing events, Aurangzeb was finally forced southward, away from the Punjab, and "the empire's center of gravity was altered, with disastrous results. The emperor himself was forced to revert from the sumptuous stability of court life at Delhi or Agra to an unproductive nomadic existence of permanent campaign like one of his Mongol ancestors" (GM 229). With this, "the eighteenth century, India's period of 'The Great Anarchy' had begun."
Of the eight Mughal emperors who succeeded Aurangzeb (their combined reign lasted only 52 years), four were murdered, one deposed, and only three died peacefully on the throne.
On December 27, 1738 the Persian Muslim ruler Nadir Shah invaded India and on March 20, 1739, he sat on the throne at Delhi. His looting of Delhi was so extreme that he remitted taxes in Persia for the next three years. Then, later that same fateful year, Persian invaders carried off the Great Peacock Throne, the symbol of Mughal authority (PT 103). Due to minor opposition from the natives of the city, Nadir Shah massacred everyone, men, women and children. In one day over thirty thousand people were killed by the Muslim partisans Delhi and the Mughal empire lay in ruins.Throughout the empire provinces seceded and declared their independence. Among these were the Sikhs and Rajputs. Some offered lip service to the emperor, but most did not even bother to do this. Mughal India was no more (PT 488,489).
There seems to be little doubt that the Sikh community, like Islam, considered religion and politics to be non-different. What impact this belief had on the development of Sikhism, in relation to the Moghul Empire, is uncertain, but it seems obvious that it did exist (GiS 27).
Calcutta was founded by an agent of the English East India Company in 1616. In 1757 England gained control of Bengal and by the late eighteenth century the Company was well on its way to ruling the subcontinent. By 1818 all effective Indian resistance to the English occupiers had been stopped (SIT XV). The Company then turned its attention to its only serious competition, the French East India Company.
In 1858 the Company was replaced by the British Crown which was, thanks to the efforts of people like Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Hindu) and Jawaharlal Neru (Muslim), replaced by the present government and self rule in 1947.
In 1834 an American Presbyterian missionary arrived in the Punjab and developed the Ludhiana Mission. Soon the Punjab was annexed by Britain and Christian religious influences began to predominate. In 1853 Maharaja Dalip Singh became a Christian; a Christian school was established in Amritsar, and missionaries were everywhere "competing with one another for converts." Sikh leaders grew increasingly concerned. Many Sikhs were converting to Christianity while others, through intermarriage with Hindus, were reverting to Hinduism. Only a sixth of the Punjab remained Sikh by this time. Assimilation was destroying the Sant Mat and its future looked bleak.
In 1877 Swami Dayananda Saraswati and his Hindu reform movement, the Arya Samaj (founded 1875 in Bombay) came to the Punjab, with its charismatic message of a united Hindu Bharata Varsha (India). Under these charismatic influences, and in opposition to the increasing Christian onslaughts, ever more Sikhs left the Khalsa (the Sikh community) believing the famed Swami to be a messianic great unifier of the people and their defender against Christian and Muslims foreign religion. Swami Dayananda Saraswati correctly warned that these two foreign religions were threatening to destroy Indian culture and tradition for ever.
Swami Dayananda Saraswati later wrote that Guru Nanak was a dambhi or hypocrite. He rejected the Guru Granth Sahib and called on all members of the Sanatana Dharma to reject all foreign religions and unite as one Hindu people. As a result of the attacks from the Arya Samaj, the Sikh leaders were forced to temporarily unite with Christians and Muslims to counter Swami Dayananda Saraswati's persistent attacks on their three religions. For a time the Arya Samaj was a formidable enemy of the Sikh Kalsa but it persevered.
Once the Hindu Arya Samaj, the Christian, and the Muslim threats subsided, a revival of Sikh fundamentalism occurred. The Sikhs strengthened their Khalsas which had all but disintegrated. Now the Sikh leaders began to purge Sikhism of all vestiges of Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. If the Sant Mat was to survive, they reasoned, it would have to cut off all ties with the Sanatana Dharma and establish itself as an independent world religion. It was not until 1925 that Sikhism gained full government recognition in India as an independent religion (GiS 83).
This then was the India in which Sikhism was born and developed. Guru Nanak was fifty-seven years old when Babur conquered Delhi and established the Mughal government. Guru Gobind Singh, the final Sikh Guru, died one year after Aurangzeb's death.
Continue to Page Three
Notes on Page Two
- Note 9: India is about 3,287,590 squarekilometers. There are over 746 million people with an annual growthrate of 1.9-2.1%. About 80% are Hindu, 11% Muslim, 2.6% Christian and 2%are Sikh. There are also smaller numbers of Jains, Buddhists, Parsis(Zoroastrians) etc. The average life-span is 50-54 years. The literacyrate is 25-36% (ICS xx,xxi).Return
- Note 10 There is also Sighelmus who, during the reign of Alfred, went on apilgrimage to the Shrine of St. Thomas at Mailapur but this is notverifiable (PS 414; LoI 27). Return
- Note 11: Bharata-Varsha (India) wasnamed after the Pandava Princes of Mahabharata fame. They weredescendents of King Bharata. It was divided into nine khandas or parts:Indra-dweepa, Kaserumat, Tamra-varna, Gabhastimat, Naga-dweepa, Saumya,Gandharva and Varuna (HM 47). See footnote # 9. Return
- Note 12: At the beginning of the eighthcentury the Arabians conquered the Sind. Two hundred and fifty yearslater Muhammadan Turks gathered around the north-west mountains ofAfghanistan. Ghazni was occupied in 862 and Mahmud, the Sultan of GazniAfghanistan, made fifteen raids on India, especially Lahore, from997-1026 (HBI 10). Return
- Note 13: Murtis are visiblemanifestations of divine beings which are worshipped or meditated upon.They 'channel the divine presence. Return
- Note 14: It appears that the conjectureis that murtis had never existed in India prior to the birth ofBuddhism. This seems untenable. As Danielou explains: However far wereach into the history of Hindu thought we find a coherent use of imagesto represent abstractions" (GoI 363). It is more likely that the murtishad been removed during Buddhist control of the country and were nowbeing re-installed. Return
- Note 15: See above. Return
- Note 16: The Mughals were the descendents of the Mongol Genghis Khan. Mughal is the Indian form of Mongol. Return
- Note 17: It is worth noting thatalthough bhakti was originally a Vaishnava doctrine, in its technicalsense the word bhakti is first found in the Shvetashvatara-Upanishad, aprimarily Saivite Scripture of the fourth century B.C.E. (ToE 51,52). Return
- Note 18: According to tradition, Akbar was illiterate. It may be that Bhai Gur Das and Bhai Buddha read it to him (GiS 26). Return
- Note 19: Shortly after Muhammad's deathAli ibn abi Talib was elected khalif or successor. He was assassinatedin 661. His Syrian killer, Muawiya became khalif. Ali's supporters areknown as the Shi'a, Muawiya's followers are the Sunni. 90% of allMuslims today are Sunni (WR 331). Return
- Note 20: The Taj was completed in 1653. Return
- Note 21: The jizya was the Qur'anic tax imposed on non-Muslims. See above. Return
* Sat Kewal Singh (John of AllFaith) © 1987 (last updated: September 015, 2017)
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