Harking back: The two great Sikh gurus of Chuna Mandi

Of the ten Sikh gurus two belonged to Lahore, more specifically to Chuna Mandi. Their contribution to their religion is formative, if outstanding is not a better word. In belief systems every saint is important.

In Sikhism no guru is better than the others, but the roles they play in its final formation matter. In this piece we will be focusing on Guru Ram Das and his son Guru Arjan. On Nanak’s death we see the reclusive Udasi sect raise its head, so in order to remain ‘practical’, Nanak appointed Angad as his successor. Guru Angad faced opposition from the Udasi heretic sect, and it was only the third guru Amar Das who expelled the Udasis from Sikhism that settled matters.

Guru Angad and Amar Das both worked on collecting Nanak’s sayings and worked towards finalising the Gurmukhi script. So the split from the Persian and Gurmukhi scripts of the Punjabi language was put in place. Angad forbade the Muslim veil as well as the Hindu ‘sati’, giving women far greater rights than before. Guru Amar Das set in motion the building of temples, and on singing hymns composed by him.

But the real difference to Sikhism was made by the fourth and fifth gurus, the two gurus from Lahore, namely Guru Ram Das, who was born in Chuna Mandi, and his great son Guru Arjan Dev, who was imprisoned at Lal Khoo inside Mochi Gate and after being tortured in the Lahore Fort, on the pleading of Hazrat Mian Mir allowed to bathe in the River Ravi which flowed outside the fort. He dived in and never returned. That place is the ‘Arjan da Khoo’ inside Gurdwara Dera Sahib in the walled city of Lahore, near the Samadhi of Ranjit Singh.

By the time Guru Ram Das was spreading the message of peace and communal meals for every class, Emperor Akbar met him, and was impressed by his message of peace. He granted him a large piece of land that was to become the village of Amritsar. Here he built a very large water tank for baptising Sikhs, with land in the middle for a large temple. Thus the name Amritsar, or the ‘Holy Pool of Water of Life’ arose. On the land portion in the middle the Golden Temple arose much later.

Guru Ram Das was born in September 1534 and named Jetha Mal Sodhi, and was orphaned at the age of seven. At the age of 12 he and his grandmother moved to Goindval where he was to serve Guru Amar Das. Because of his exceptional behaviour the guru married him to his daughter Bibi Bhani and renamed him Ram Das, meaning the ‘servant of god’.

The gurdwara ‘Janam Asthan Guru Ram Das’ is located at his birthplace in Chuna Mandi and is along the ‘Shahi Guzargar’ of the WCLA route. This was built by Maharajah Ranjit Singh on the birth of his son Kharak Singh in 1801. These days it is managed by the Evacuee Trust and daily readings of the Guru Granth Sahib take place.

As the children of Amar Das opposed his marriage, he moved to a small village, which is where Amritsar is today. In being appointed the fourth Guru in 1574, he made sure that the off-springs of every guru was aptly trained. So it was that he appointed his son Arjan as his successor - the fifth guru - and hence forth till the tenth were all direct descendants of Guru Ram Das of Chuna Mandi.

In a way the stamp of scholarship, toleration as well as practical peaceful solutions to worldly problems became the way of life of the Sikhs. But once the Mughals wanted to crush the growing influence of the Sikhs, they formed ‘misls’ and gained more and more influence. On the way the Sikhs faced huge massacres for defying Mughal rule, but never did they waver. The first Sikh rulers of Lahore took over in 1767 in the form of the Sikh Triumvirate.

Guru Ram Das of Chuna Mandi died in September 1581 and was succeeded by his son Guru Arjan, who was born in April 1563. For two years of his life on being sent to attend the wedding of a relative, he lived in Chuna Mandi, enjoying life in Lahore. Along the way he picked up its scholarship and toleration.

Here again we see that his brothers challenged his ‘guruship’ and allegedly even tried to kill his son Hargobind. The role of conspiracy against the appointment of ‘gurus’ remained a feature of Sikh leadership, that is till the tenth guru, Guru Gobind Singh in 1708 declared that the last and final guru was the ‘Guru Granth Sahib’, which is treated as the ‘living guru’. With a holy book in hand, conspiracy within the Sikh faith, to a great extent, ended.

Written in Gurmukhi, it contains 5,867 hymns (shabads). Guru Arjan completed the Adi Granth, and also completed the structure started by his father at the Amritsar’s Golden Temple site. The gold plating was undertaken by Maharajah Ranjit Singh. He ordered that the temple have four doors to welcome people of every faith.

But in terms of organising the Sikh faith he undertook to get the temple inaugurated by Hazrat Mian Mir, the Lahore Muslim seer. He also made a visit to the temple as part of their faith as a common rallying point, plus a ten per cent contribution on earnings to organise the faith.

Mind you the Sodhi ‘khatri’ clan of Lahore are great traders, and he advised that they trade and move to every corner of the world. One saying in this direction makes great sense: “Spread out in the world in every direction to work and trade, and serve the Gurus there, and do it fearlessly”. But then trade and politics never do mix, for his friendship with Prince Khusru, who was rebelling against his father Mughal Emperor Jahangir, got suspicions raised high.

A Hindu adviser to the emperor who wished to marry his daughter to Guru Arjan’s son, faced refusal after Hazrat Mian Mir after an ‘istikhara’ refused to allow the marriage, plotted against the guru. Guru Arjan was locked in a room in Lal Khoo inside Mochi Gate, which was bricked up. But Hazrat Mian Mir came every day to pray, and threw in ‘bers’ and ‘barfi’ from a shop (probably the ancestors of Rafiq) and after three months a healthy Arjan emerged.

He was put in chains and taken to the fort, where he was tortured on heated iron plates. Hazrat Mian Mir pleaded to allow him to bathe, and on reaching the river outside Arjan dived in never to return. One sect believes he will emerge on the Day of Judgment.

But that dive in the River Ravi was the end of the two gurus of the Sikh faith from Chuna Mandi of Lahore. He was the first Sikh martyr and Guru Tej Bahadar the second. The first brought the Sikh faith together with institutions, and the second martyr helped create the ‘Khalsa’ institution and the military arm known as ‘Misls’. This led to the Sikh Triumvirate of Lehna Singh, Suba Singh and Gujjar Singh, the very first Sikh rulers of Lahore.