Guru Arjun Dev Ji
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.[4] He was the first Guru in Sikhism to be born into a Sikh family.[5]
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. The dasvand financed the building of gurdwaras and
langars (shared communal kitchens).
Biography
Guru Arjan was born in Goindval to Bibi Bhani and Jetha
Sodhi. Bibi Bhani was the daughter of Guru Amar Das, and her husband Jetha
Sodhi later came to be known as Guru Ram Das. Guru Arjan's birthplace site is
now memorialized as the Gurdwara Chaubara Sahib. He had two brothers: Prithi Chand and Mahadev.
Various Sikh chroniclers give his birth year as 1553 or 1563, the latter is
accepted by scholarly consensus as the actual year of birth with 15 April as
the accepted birth date. Guru Arjan spent the first 11 years of his life in
Goindwal and the next seven years with his father in Ramdaspur. Per Sikh tradition, he had stayed for two
years in Lahore during his youth after being sent by his father to attend the
wedding of his first cousin Sahari Mal's son as well as to establish a Sikh
congregation. He was appointed as the
Sikh Guru in 1581 after the death of his father. Guru Ram Das was a Khatri of
the Sodhi sub-caste. With Guru Arjan's succession, the Guruship remained in the
Sodhi family of Guru Ram Das.
Succession
Guru Arjan had two elder brothers, Prithi Chand and Mahadev.
Guru Ram Das chose Arjan, the youngest, to succeed him as the fifth Sikh Guru.
Mahadev, the middle brother chose the life of an ascetic. His choice of Arjan
as successor, as throughout most of the history of Sikh Guru successions, led
to disputes and internal divisions among the Sikhs.
The stories in the Sikh tradition about the succession
dispute around Guru Arjan are inconsistent. In one version, Prithi Chand is remembered in
the orthodox Sikh tradition as vehemently opposing Guru Arjan, creating a
factional sect of the Sikh community. The Sikhs following Guru Arjan called the
Prithi Chand faction as Minas (literally, "scoundrels"), who are
alleged to have attempted to assassinate young Hargobind, and befriended Mughal agents. However, the second version, found in
alternate competing texts written by the Prithi Chand led Sikh faction
contradict this version (their non-derogatory name is Miharvan Sikhs). They
offer a different explanation for the attempt on Hargobind's life, and present
him as devoted to his younger brother Guru Arjan. The eldest son of Prithi
Chand, Manohar Das who is also known as Miharvan, is mentioned in both
traditions as growing under the loving care of Prithi Chand and Guru Arjan.
The competing texts acknowledge the disagreements. They
state Prithi Chand left Amritsar, became the Sahib Guru after the martyrdom of
Guru Arjan and one who disputed the succession of Guru Hargobind as the next
Guru. The followers of Prithi Chand
called themselves as true followers of Guru Nanak, or Nanakpanthis as they
challenged Guru Arjan and his descendants authority. In addition to Prithi
Chand, a son of Guru Amar Das named Baba Mohan had also challenged the authority
of Guru Arjan. These challenging claims
were asserted by the early Sikh sects in part by the manuscripts of Sikh hymns
they possessed. Baba Mohan possessed the Goindval pothi containing the hymns of
Nanak and other early Gurus, while Prithi Chand possessed the Guru Harsahai
pothi then believed to have been the oldest scripture from the time of Guru
Nanak. This, state scholars, may have
triggered Guru Arjan to create a much enlarged, official version of the Adi
Granth.
The mainstream Sikh tradition recognised Guru Arjan as the
fifth Guru, and Hargobind as the sixth Guru. Arjan, at age 18, became the fifth
Guru in 1581 inheriting the title from his father. After his execution by the
Muslim officials of the Mughal Empire, his son Hargobind became the sixth Guru
in 1606 CE.
Martyrdom
The Gurdwara Dera Sahib in Lahore, Pakistan, commemorates
the spot where Guru Arjan Dev is traditionally believed to have died.
Guru Arjan's martyrdom in Mughal custody has been one of the
defining though controversial issues in Sikh history.
Most Mughal historians considered Guru Arjan's execution as
a political event, stating that the Sikhs had become formidable as a social
group, and Sikh Gurus became actively involved in the Punjabi political
conflicts. A similar theory floated in early 20th-century, asserts that this
was just a politically-motivated single execution. According to this theory,
there was an ongoing Mughal dynasty dispute between Jahangir and his son
Khusrau suspected of rebellion by Jahangir, wherein Guru Arjan blessed Khusrau
and thus the losing side. Jahangir was jealous and outraged, and therefore he
ordered the Guru's execution. But according to Jahangir's own autobiography,
most probably he didn't understand the importance of Sikh gurus. He referred to
Guru Arjan as a Hindu, who had "captured many of the simple-hearted of the
Hindus and even of the ignorant and foolish followers of Islam, by his ways and
manners...for he three or four generations(of spiritual successors) they had
kept this shop warm." The execution of Guru Arjan Dev marks a sharp
contrast to Jahangir's tolerant attitude towards other religions such as Hinduism
and Christianity.
The Sikh tradition has a competing view. It states that the
Guru's execution was a part of the ongoing persecution of the Sikhs by Islamic
authorities in the Mughal Empire, and
that the Mughal rulers of Punjab were alarmed at the growth of the Panth. According
to Jahangir's autobiography Tuzk-e-Jahangiri (Jahangirnama) which discussed
Guru Arjan's support for his rebellious son Khusrau Mirza, too many people were
becoming persuaded by Guru Arjan's teachings and if Guru Arjan did not become a
Muslim, the Sikh Panth had to be extinguished.
In 1606 CE, the Guru was imprisoned in Lahore Fort, where by
some accounts he was tortured and executed, and by other accounts the method of his death
remains unresolved. The traditional Sikh
account states that the Mughal emperor Jahangir demanded a fine of 200,000
rupees and demanded that Guru Arjan erase some of the hymns in the text that he
found offensive. The Guru refused to remove the lines and pay the fine, which
state the Sikh accounts, led to his execution. Some Muslim traditional accounts such as of
Latif in 19th-century states that Guru Arjan was dictatorial, someone who lived
in splendour with "costly attire", who had left aside the rosary and
the clothes of a saint (fakir). Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi cheered the punishment
and execution of Guru Arjun, calling the Sikh Guru an infidel. In contrast, Mian Mir – the Sufi friend of
Guru Arjan, lobbied when Jehangir ordered the execution and the confiscation of
Guru Arjan's property, then got the confiscation order deferred, according to
Rishi Singh.
Some scholars state that the evidence is unclear whether his
death was due to execution, torture or forced drowning in the Ravi river. J.S. Grewal notes that Sikh sources from the
seventeenth and eighteenth century contain contradictory reports of Guru
Arjan's death. J. F. Richard states that
Jahangir was persistently hostile to popularly venerated non-Islamic religious
figures, not just Sikhism. Bhai Gurdas
was a contemporary of Guru Arjan and is a noted 17th-century Sikh chronicler. His eyewitness account recorded Guru Arjan's
life, and the order by Emperor Jahangir to torture the Guru to death.
A contemporary Jesuit account, written by Spanish Jesuit
missionary Jerome Xavier (1549–1617), who was in Lahore at the time, records
that the Sikhs tried to get Jahangir to substitute the torture and death
sentence to a heavy fine, but this attempt failed. Dabistan-i Mazahib Mobad states Jahangir
tortured Guru Arjan in the hopes of extracting the money and public repudiation
of his spiritual convictions, but the Guru refused and was executed .Jerome
Xavier, in appreciation of the courage of Guru Arjun, wrote back to Lisbon,
that Guru Arjan suffered and was tormented.
According to the Sikh tradition, before his execution, Guru Arjan instructed his son and successor Hargobind to take up arms, and resist tyranny. His execution led the Sikh Panth to become armed and pursue resistance to persecution under the Islamic rule. Michael Barnes states that the resolve and death of Guru Arjun strengthened the conviction among Sikhs that, "personal piety must have a core of moral strength. A virtuous soul must be a courageous soul. Willingness to suffer trial for one's convictions was a religious imperative".
Historical
revisionism, reconstruction and disputes
There are several stories and versions about how, where and why
Guru Arjan died. Recent scholarship has
questioned many of these, calling them as fictional interpretation, reflecting
an agenda, or "exaggerating fragmentary traces of documentary evidence in
historical analysis". The alternate versions include stories about the
role of Guru Arjan in a conflict between the Mughal Emperor Jahangir and his
son who Jahangir suspected of trying to organize a patricidal coup. An
alternate version highlights the role of a Hindu minister of Jahangir named
Chandu Shah. He, in one version, takes revenge on Guru Arjan for not marrying
his son Hargobind to Chandu Shah's daughter. In another Lahore version, Chandu
Shah actually prevents Guru Arjan from suffering torture and death by Muslims
by paying 200,000 rupees (100,000 crusados) to Jahangir, but then keeps him and
emotionally torments him to death in his house. All these versions and
meta-narratives became popular in 19th century British colonial literature,
such as those of Max Arthur Macauliffe. Several alternative versions of the
story try to absolve Jahangir and the Mughal empire of any responsibility, but have no trace or support in the
documentary evidence from early 17th century, such as the records of Jesuit
priest Jerome Xavier and the memoirs of Jahangir.
Influence
Guru Arjan being pronounced as fifth Guru.
Guru Arjan's father Guru Ram Das founded the town named
after him "Ramdaspur", around a large man-made water pool called
"Ramdas Sarovar". Guru Arjan continued the infrastructure building
effort of his father. The town expanded during the time of Guru Arjan, financed
by donations and constructed by voluntary work. The pool area grew into a
temple complex with the gurdwara Harmandir Sahib near the pool. Guru Arjan
installed the scripture of Sikhism inside the new temple in 1604. The city that
emerged is now known as Amritsar, and is the holiest pilgrimage site in
Sikhism.
Continuing the efforts of Guru Ram Das, Guru Arjan
established Amritsar as a primary Sikh pilgrimage destination. He wrote a
voluminous amount of Sikh scripture including the popular Sukhmani Sahib. Guru
Arjan is credited with completing many other infrastructure projects, such as
water reservoirs called Santokhsar (lake of peace) and Gongsar (lake of
Gongaga), founding the towns of Tarn Taran, Kartarpur and Hargobindpur.
Adi Granth
One of the Sikh community disputes following Guru Ram Das was the emergence of new hymns claiming to have been composed by Nanak. According to faction led by Guru Arjan, these hymns were distorted and fake, with some blaming Prithi Chand and his Sikh faction for having composed and circulated them. The concern and the possibility of wrong propaganda, immoral teachings and inauthentic Gurbani led Guru Arjan to initiate a major effort to collect, study, approve and compile a written official scripture, and this he called Adi Granth, the first edition of the Sikh scripture by 1604.
The composition of both Prithi Chand and his followers have
been preserved in the Mina texts of Sikhism, while the mainstream and larger
Sikh tradition adopted the Guru Granth Sahib scripture that ultimately emerged
from the initiative of Guru Arjan.
According to the Sikh tradition, Guru Arjan compiled the Adi
Granth by collecting hymns of past Gurus from many places, then rejecting those
that he considered as fakes or to be diverging from the teachings of the Gurus.
His approved collection included hymns
from the first four Gurus of Sikhism, those he composed, as well as 17 Hindu
bards and 2 Muslim bards. The
compilation was completed on August 30, 1604, according to the Sikh tradition
and installed in the Harmandir Sahib temple on September 1, 1604.
Guru Arjan was a prolific poet and composed 2,218 hymns.
More than half of the volume of Guru Granth Sahib and the largest collection of
hymns has been composed by Guru Arjan. According to Christopher Shackle and
Arvind-Pal Singh Mandair, Guru Arjan's compositions combined spiritual message
in an "encyclopedic linguistic sophistication" with "Braj Bhasha
forms and learned Sanskrit vocabulary".
After Guru Arjan completed and installed the Adi Granth in
the Harimandir Sahib, Emperor Akbar was informed of the development with the
allegation that it contained teachings hostile to Islam. He ordered a copy be
brought to him. Guru Arjan sent him a copy on a thali (plate), with the
following message that was later added to the expanded text:
In this thali (dish) you will find three things – truth,
peace and contemplation:
in this too the nectar Name which is the support of all
humanity.
The Akbarnama by Abu'l-Fazl Allami mentions that Guru Arjan
met the Mughal emperor Akbar and his cortege in 1598. According to Louis
Fenech, this meeting likely influenced the development of Sikh manuscriptology
and the later martial tradition.
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