Guru Arjan was born to (Mata) Bhani and Guru Ram Das at Goindwal on the 15th of April 15631. He was the youngest of the three sons of Guru Ram Das.
(Guru) Arjan spent his childhood at Goindwal in the company of his maternal grandfather Guru Amar Das; this became the basis of nurturing in him the qualities of sewa, organisational skill and high ethical qualities. He was so intelligent that during his boy-hood he had read all the books available at that time; he had also read and remembered by heart all the hymns that Guru Sahibs had composed as well as Bhagat Baani also; so, by the time he was eleven years old, he was the most learned boy of the land; his wisdom, understanding of hymns and memory impressed every one.
Guru Amar Das died in 1574 and Guru Ram Das took the command of the Panth; soon, he moved to Guru-Da-Chakk (now Amritsar); there, young Arjan worked hard in the establishment of the town. Guru Ram Das assigned him various duties and he performed them intelligently; this active participation made him a responsible organiser as well as a popular public man.
While very young, (Guru) Arjan was betrothed to Ram Deyi (daughter of Kishan Chand Suri of village Mau, near Phillaur) and the ceremony of engagement was performed by Guru Amar Das himself; but, the marriage ceremony took place later on, on the 20th of June 1579. Soon after her marriage Ram Devi fell sick and remained bed-ridden for about ten years; having realized that her end was near, she requested the Guru to marry another lady; when Guru Arjan did not agree, Ram Deyi asked Baba Buddha to persuade him to marry again;2 when the Guru finally agreed (Mata) Ram Deyi was very much pleased. Guru Arjan married (Mata) Ganga (daughter of Sangat Rao of Lahore) on 19th June 15893; exactly after one year, a son (Hargobind) was born to Guru Arjan and Mata Ganga on the 19th of June 1590 (another date, of 1595, has also been mentioned by some writers but they don’t quote any source, whereas the year 1590 is confirmed by Bhatt Vahis). From Baba Buddha’s act of persuading Guru Sahib for second marriage, some writer concocted the gossip that (Guru) Hargobind’s birth was a result of blessing by Baba Buddha. Blessing and curse both are against the Sikh fundamentals.
Guru Arjan succeeded his father as the Fifth Guru in 1581, at the age of just 18 years. Soon, he had to face opposition and conspiracies of his elder brother Pirthi Chand; as being eldest in the family, he had made friendly and close relations not only with the Sikhs of different areas but also with the state officials.
For some time, it went smooth but when most of the prominent Sikhs left Guru-Da-Chakk, Pirthi Chand appeared in his true colours; and began embezzling the offerings; he would collect money, cloth, ghee, lentils, wheat-floor and vegetables from the visitor’s right at the entrance of the city and take these articles to his own house; this meant major loss to the funds of the Guru darbar as well as the langar. Soon the langar stores were exhausted and, on many occasions, the visitors would remain hungry. After some time Bhai Gurdas returned from his missionary journey; when he learnt the reality, he called a meeting of prominent Sikhs. Baba Buddha, Bhai Sahlo, Bhai Paira, Bhai Jetha and others and discussed the affairs; they summoned Pirthi Chand but he refused to bother. Having assessed the
1 Some sources mention that Guru Arjan was born in 1553 (Visakh 18, sammat 1610 Bikrami): Ram Sukh Rao, Jassa Singh Binod (p. 25), the same date has been given by Giani Randhir Singh in Gur Pranaalian. According to Ram Sukh Rao, Pirthi Chand was born in 1548 (1 Assu 1605 Bk), Mahadev was born in 1551 (4 Haar 1608 Bk) and Guru Arjan in 1553 (10 Visakh 1610 Bk).
2 Kesar Singh Chhiber, Bansawalinama Dasan Patsahian Da.
3 Ram Sukh Rao, in Jassa Singh Binod (p. 25) and Sri Fateh Pratap Parbhakar (p. 24) too has given the same dates.
situation, they planned to inform the Sikh sangat about the designs of Pirthi Chand; they divided duties among themselves; some of them went around the villages and others took charge of different entry points to the town where they would inform the sangat. Soon, the state of affairs eased and everything was in order.
With this, Pirthi Chand was exposed and he became very much frustrated; now, he adopted another tactics: he approached the Mughal officials and provoked them against Guru Arjan by concocting stories and spreading rumours; he even bribed some officials so that Guru Arjan may be put into trouble. A Mughal general Sulhi Khan collaborated with Pirthi Chand and agreed to attack Guru-Da-Chakk; but, when he was on his way for attacking the Sikh city, his horse went amuck; Sulhi Khan lost the control of the horse and the latter fell into an active kiln, which burnt him as well his horse (for a Muslim, the highest punishment to him is to burn his body; and burning alive is still rigorous punishment). Even this horrible end of Sulhi Khan did not stop Pirthi Chand from his nefarious activities; he, now, engaged Sulbhi Khan, a nephew of Sulhi Khan; but, before Sulbhi Khan could attack Guru-Da-Chakk, he was killed by one of his soldiers over a petty dispute. Though it brought a temporary stop to Pirthi Chand’s actions but he did not stop thinking of conspiracies.
In 1585, Pirthi Chand contacted Mahesh Chand Bhatt (known more as Birbal), a Brahmin official of Akbar. He complained to him that Guru Arjan was conspiring against Hinduism; Birbal became an easy prey to this propaganda. Per chance, almost during the same period, the Afghans in the north western frontier province rebelled against the Mughal regim; and, Akbar sent Birbal to quell their rebellion. Before leaving Delhi, Birbal got signed a royal order that all the Khatris (Hindus) should pay a particular amount as war tax. When Birbal crossed river Beas at Goindwal, he sent a messenger to Guru-Da-Chakk to ask Guru Arjan to pay this tax. Guru Arjan told Birbal’s messenger that ‘the Sikhs do not believe in caste system and moreover, the Sikhs are not Hindus; hence not liable to any such tax’. When Birbal received this reply he had already reached Sarai Amanat Khan; he asked the messenger to go back and ask Guru Arjan to pay tax or be prepared for confiscation of property. When the messenger reached Guru-Da-Chakk, he got the same reply again. When Pirthi Chand came to know of the whole situation, he was pleased that now Birbal will surely attack Guru-Da-Chakk and arrest or kill Guru Arjan. But, this time too, he was frustrated because Birbal was killed in his battle against the Afghans in February 1586; and Guru-Da-Chakk remained undisturbed.
Guru Arjan as an architect: founder of new villages and towns
1586 onwards, was a bit peaceful period for Guru Arjan, so he could pay his attention to new projects. In 1587, he bricked the Amritsar tank (the city owes its name to Amritsar sarovar/tank). Within two years, the Santokhsar tank was also bricked and renovated.
On the 3rd of January 1588, Guru Arjan laid the foundation of Darbar Sahib (a congregation hall) almost in the middle of the Amritsar tank.
(Later, a Muslim writer Bute Shah concocted a story that the foundation of Darbar Sahib was laid by Mian Mir, a Muslim preacher; and some simple Sikhs blindly accepted this propaganda and distortion of Sikh history).
In 1590, Guru Arjan began excavation of another tank which, now, is known as Tarn Taran. First, this was necessitated by the growing number of visitors to Guru-Da-Chakk; hence he needed a tank for their need of bathing at the proposed stop-over, near the then G.T. Road, for the visitor from Sind, Bathinda and Multan side; secondly, this area was predominantly worshipper of Sakhi Sarvar (a Muslim holyman) and Guru Arjan wanted to establish a new centre to preach Sikh faith in that zone too. In 1592, he arranged installation of six-wheeled water pully at Guru Di Wadali (now known as Chheharta); in 1593, he laid the foundation of a new town in Jalandhar Doab area and named it Kartarpur; in 1597, he
founded another village Gobindpur (now Hargobindpur) on the ruins of Ruhila village; and, in 1599, he built a Baoli at the site of the birthplace of Guru Ram Das at Lahore so that the residents of that area may get drinking water.
By 1600, the number of the Sikhs visting Guru-Da-Chakk had swelled like anything; to cope with this, Guru Arjan excavated another tank (now known as Ramsar) for the bathing of the visitors. Almost during the same period, he set up an orchard at village Ghukkewali (now known as Guru Da Bagh; it became known to the whole of the world, in August 1922, when the British police mercilessly beat the Sikhs struggling for worship at this Gurdwara).
Thus, for 15 years continuously, Guru Arjan went on establishing new towns, excavating tanks, baolis and wells and accomplishing several other projects of public welfare; he set up a sanatorium for the lepers at Tarn Taran; in 1595, he held disaster camps and provided food and other necessities to the famine hit people of the Nakka zone (land between Raavi and Jhanan/Chenab rivers); he spent about eight months in this area and provided help to all the people.
Guru Arjan used to have a tour of different areas with a view to know about the problems of common man and suggest and arrange possible solutions; in 1598, when Akbar had a tour of Peshawar and Lahore, he specially stopped at Goindwal to thank the Guru for all this. During this visit of the 24th of November 1598, Guru Arjan persuaded Akbar to exempt the farmers from paying revenue as they had lost their crops due to draught; Akbar immediately issued orders to his minister Abu Fazal.4 Another remarkable incident is associated with Akbar’s visit that he, obeying the protocol of the Sikh langar, dined as an ordinary member of the Sikh congregation; he refused to walk on carpets especially spread by his men and declared that he would visit the Guru’s court like a common man. Before leaving, Akbar offered some land to the Guru as gift for langar but the Guru politely refused and said that langar was a community kitchen and it was run by people themselves, out of their voluntary contributions.
Guru Arjan’s projects of public welfare, and that even without discriminating people for their faith, added several Muslims and Hindus (at that time, several Hindus too had faith in Sakhi Sarvar, Gugga Pir, Sufi faqirs and the other Muslim missionaries; hence they were considered as half-Muslims too) to the Sikh fold. Now, the idol-worshippers and those who would pay obeisance to graves and mausoleums began embracing Sikhism; the land between Beas and Jhanan/ Chenab, now, came to be known as Guru’s country. It was during this period that several Muslims preachers belonging to the Sufi sect, including Mian Mir, came into contact with Guru Arjan and became his admirers; during Guru’s sojourn at Lahore, Mian Mir made frequent visits to Guru (and the Guru also went to see him) and both had discourse on various spiritual and social questions. Later, Mian Mir had good relations with Guru Hargobind too; when Guru Hargobind was imprisoned in Gwalior Fort, he (Mian Mir) too used his influence on Jahangir to release the Guru.
Compilation of Granth Sahib
Guru Arjan had spent his early childhood in the company of his maternal grandfather Guru Amar Das and had learnt all the Guru-baani and Bhagat-Baani. He himself composed 2312 verses; these hymns include six vaars (ballads) [viz. Gauri, Gujri, Jaitsari, Basant, Maru, and Ramkali] and a long hymn Sukhmani also. All these verses had been preserved by him but they were not in one volume. Moreover, during that time, Meharban, the son of Pirthi Chand (elder brother of Guru Arjan) too had composed several poems; he used to present his poems as Gurbaani; this led to confusion as his (Meharbaan’s) poems were not in consonance with Gurbaani. Meharban’s activities came to the knowledge of the Guru too; Guru realised
4 Abu Fazal, Akbar Namah, Ain-i-Akbari, all mention it.
that such a literature would create problems in future. Bt this time, he had already planned to compile all the hymns in one volume but, now, due to Meharban’s designs he advanced the compilation of the Granth.
In 1601, Guru Arjan built a small hut near Ramsar tank and assigned Bhai Gurdas the duty of a scribe. The Guru arranged all hymns in order of raagas (tune metres) and asked Bhai Gurdas to copy them into one volume; the mangalacharan (invocation) first page was written by Guru Arjan himself, then Japuji was added (in the hand of Guru Ram Das), and, then the rest was scribed by Bhai Gurdas. The Granth was fully ready by the 31st of July 1604 and its first parkash (opening and reading) was begun on the 16th of August 1604 at Darbar Sahib; the first hymn was recited by Baba Buddha.5
The first volume of Guru Granth Sahib consisted of verses by 34 authors including five Gurus (Guru Nanak, Guru Angad, Guru Amar Das, Guru Ram Das, Guru Arjan), 12 Bhagats (Ravidas, Kabir, Namdev, Trilochan, Dhanna, Beni, Jaidev, Surdas, Sain, Pipa, Ramanand, Parmanand), 3 Muslim poets (Farid, Sadna and Bhikhan) and 11 Bhats (Bhikha, Kalh, Jaalap, Kirat, Mathra, Salh, Bhalh, Balh, Haribans, Nalh, Gayand), 2 bards Satta and Balwand as well as one hymn by Bhai Sunder (grandson of Guru Amar Das). Guru Arjan Sahib did not accept all the verses by Bhagats or the other poets but selected only those hymns which were in agreement with the Sikh philosophy. However, he had to compose some verses in order to avoid possible confusion in some verses of the non-Guru poets. In the compilation of Guru Granth Sahib the first 13 pages are the hymns of the Nitnaym; it is followed by 30 raagas; and those salokas (stanzas) which still remained out of this pattern, had been compiled under the heading ‘salok vaaran ton vadheek’ (literally: the stanzas which were not included in the vaars). Later, in 1678, Guru Gobind Singh added the hymns by Guru Tegh Bahadur (and with this the number of raagas became 31). Guru Granth Sahib ends with Mudaavani (meaning: seal) of Guru Arjan; later, someone added Raagmala, a list of the raagas from Kam Kandala book by the poet Aalam poet; but it has not so far been deleted from the printed volumes.
Martyrdom of Guru Arjan
Guru Arjan had taken command of the Sikh Panth in 1581. During the 25 years of his Guru-ship, he founded four towns, built several baolis and wells, and undertook several other projects of social welfare; he preached Sikhism, compiled the Sikh Granth and asked the people to follow only the Word; his spiritual and social mission attracted a very large number of Hindus and Muslims to the Sikh fold. This made the Brahmins and the Muslim priests and other fanatic people jealous of the Guru; they tried to poison the ears of Akbar but as he had known the reality, he did not bother. When Akbar died and Jahangir became the emperor on the 24th of October 1605, he was won over by fanatic Muslim clergy and preachers. Sheikh Ahmad Sarhandi was the most influential among these people; he (Sheikh Ahmed), in a letter to Amir Lalla Begh (one of the courtiers of Jahangir) said, ‘The Muslims should become dominant in the beginning of the reign of the emperor and should achieve the lost glory and if there are difficulties in this process then the Muslims should adopt blood and iron policy.’6
Similarly, some Hindu fanatics like Chandu (of Kalanaur), who was an official of the Lahore Darbar, too, had been provoking the state officials against the Guru. Guru’s elder brother Pirthi Chand was already busy in creating one or another trouble for the Guru. Jahangir began his fanatic actions with the demolition of some Hindu temples and re-imposition of jezia (a tax to be paid by the non-Mulsims); besides, with the exception of his
5 This volume remained at Bakala and Kartarpur till it got burnt in 1757 when Taimur, the son of Ahmed Shah Durrani, attacked Kartarpur and set fire to the building where it had been preserved. But, by that time several copies of the Granth had already been made. The volume which was granted Guru-ship in 1708 had been prepared in 1678 at Damdama Sahib, Anandpur Sahib.5 Later, more copies were made from this volume at Damdama Sahib, Talwandi Sabo.
6 Maktoobat-i-Rabbani, p.81
maternal Hindu relatives (he was born of a Hindu mother), he began discriminating even the Hindu officials.
Jahangir had not yet settled in his throne that his son Khusrau rebelled against him; Khusrau had been assured assistance by various military sources but when time really came, he could not get help; as a result he lost a major battle and fled towards Punjab. While proceeding to Lahore, he made a stop-over at Goindwal; here, he went to Guru Arjan and sought his blessings; the Guru treated him like all other visitors and blessed him. From here, he went to Lahore but here too he could not get help nor could he occupy the fort of Lahore; then he decided to flee towards Iran. But, before he could escape to a safer zone he was arrested (on the 1st of May 1606).
By this time Jahangir too had reached the Punjab. At Lahore, Khusrau was presented before him; Jahangir despatched him to prison. Then, he began summoning all those who had helped or even sympathised Khusrau; in this atmosphere of conspiracies, several innocent people too were punished as personal enmities led to false complaints. This situation was exploited by anti-Sikh forces too; they conveyed to Jahangir that Guru Arjan too had blessed Khusrau; so, having received complaints about the Guru’s blessings to Khusrau, Jahangir sent summons to Guru Arjan asking him to appear in his court at Lahore.7
Though this was the immediate cause but, in fact, Jahangir had already been planning to take action against the Guru as he had already received information about the missionary achievement of Guru Arjan.8
On the 23rd of May 1606, he issued summons to the Guru to appear in his court at Lahore; the Guru received summons on 25th May. He knew that fanatic Muslims and Hindus had poisoned Jahangir so much that he might be executed; so, he immediately installed (Guru) Hargobind as Sixth Guru and left for Lahore.
How was Guru executed?
When Guru Arjan appeared in the court of Jahangir, the latter himself issued orders for the execution of the Guru; the task of execution was assigned to Chandu (a courtier of Lahore Darbar). Guru was tied with a rope and taken to the burning sand pits (known as tatti tawi) on the bank of Raavi River and also poured red hot sand on his body. Chandu monitored torturing of the Guru for three days and on the 30th of May, when Guru’s body was badly burnt; it was thrown into the river.9 But Santokh Singh presented the end of the Guru as a sort of suicide; according to him: on the fifth day of torture, his body was all burnt due to hot sand that was poured on his body; then, the the authorities told him that soon his body will be sewed in cow’s skin; at this the Guru sought permission to have a bath in Raavi river; when given permission he jumped into the river and did not come back.10
According to Kesar Singh Chhiber, some fanatic Muslim attacked the Guru with a rock with which profuse bleeding began and it took the life of the Guru.11
According to Santokh Singh, as well as Iqtidar Karamat Cheema, the Guru was put into a big copper vessel (degh, i.e. cauldron) filled with water and fire was set under it to heat the
7 He has recorded his order in his memoirs: ‘I ordered that he should be brought into my presence. I ordered that he should be put to death with tortures and his houses, mansions should be confiscated and his children be handed over to Murtaza Khan.’ (Tuzk-i-Jahangiri, p. 35).
8 To quote his own wording: ‘In Goindwal, which is on the river Biyah (Beas), there is a Hindu named Arjun, in the guise of sainthood and sanctity, so much so that he had captured many of the simple-minded of the Hindus, and even the ignorant and foolish followers of Islam, by his ways and manners, and they had loudly sounded the drum of his holiness. They called him Guru and from all sides stupid people crowded to worship and manifest complete faith in him. For three or four generations they had kept his shop warm (progressing). Many times it occurred to me to put a stop to this vain affair or to bring him into the assembly of the people of Islam’. (Tuzk-i-Jahangiri, p. 35).
9 Kesar Singh Chhiber, Bansavalinama Dasan Patsahian Da; Zulfiqar Ardastani, Dabistan-i-Mazahib.
10 Santokh Singh, Gur Partap Suraj Granth, Raas 4, Ansu 37.
11 Kesar Singh Chhiber, Bansavalinama Dasan Patsahian Da; Zulfiqar Ardastani, Dabistan-i-Mazahib.
vessel; soon water began to boil, transcending bodily pain and suffering; further, hot sand was poured on his head; soon, Guru became almost lifeless; this continued for three days and on the third day, the body was thrown into Raavi River.12
Story of Chandu’s daughter
Another story is popular among some Sikh circles that Guru Arjan had refused to marry his son to the daughter of Chandu and the latter poisoned the emperor with false complaints against the Guru. This story seems to have been concocted by some Muslim writers who wanted to exonerate Jahangir or wanted to create another person as responsible for the Guru’s martyrdom; whereas the reality is that Jahangir has admitted in his autobiography in clear words that he killed the Guru for his religion. However, it does not mean that Chandu had played no role; Chandu was one of those who had poisoned the emperor’s ears and secondly it was Chandu who undertook the execution of sentence. The role of Chandu is confirmed from evidence that, in 1620, when Jahangir extended hand of friendship towards Guru Hargobind, he handed over Chandu to the Sikhs, who paraded him in the streets of Lahore. (Chandu was killed by Gurditta, the furnace-man, whom Chandu had assigned the job of pouring red hot sand on the body of Guru Arjan).
Guru’s execution was reported to the western world by a Christian missionary, Father Xerome Zavier. Zavier, in one of his a letters, written on the 25th of September 1606, had quoted the scene of Guru’s martyrdom.
Guru Arjan was a great social worker, humanist, architect, poet, philosopher, organizer and above all a martyr. He lived his whole life for the Panth. He was the first martyr of South Asia who was executed for his religious missionary activities.
The story of Satta and Balwand
Like other Gurus, some stories have been concocted about Guru Arjan’s life also. One of these is the story of Satta and Balwand, the two bards of the court of the Guru. According to this story: Satta and Balwand used to sing ballads everyday in the court of the Guru. Once, Satta, whose daughter was going to be married soon, sought financial help from the Guru; Satta demanded that one full day’s offerings in the Guru’s court should be made over to him to cover the expenses of his daughter’s marriage; the Guru agreed. But, on the fixed day not much money was received as offerings; this made Satta depressed; he asked the Guru to pay him more money, but the latter refused saying that he (the Guru) had kept his word.
Infuriated Satta and Balwand went home and stopped visiting the Guru’s court; the Guru sent a messenger to bring them back but they refused. When Guru himself went to invite them, they still did not bother and rather said: ‘You should know that it is due to our singing that the people visit your darbar’; they went to this extent that they further said: ‘even Guru Nanak had been established by us, the musicians; had Mardana not been there, no one would have known even Guru Nanak.’ This was too much; at this, Guru Sahib asked Bhai Hari Ram, Bhai Gursharan and Bhai Sahib Ram to begin performing keertan; thus, Guru’s court was again resonating with keertan but on the other hand Satta and Balwand lost all their income; soon, they reached starvation point; they approached Bhai Ladha and apologised; the Guru and the sangat (congregation) accepted their apology and they restarted performing keertan.
This story is not only a concoction but also it is against the Sikh ideology. The Guru was always helpful to common people; how could he refuse helping Satta? Even Guru Nanak bore all the expenses of the marriage of the daughter of Bhai Mardana; how could Guru Arjan
12 Iqtidar Karamat Cheema, Study of Guru Arjun’s martyrdom with historical objectivity, a paper presented at seminar on the occassion of quad-centenary of Guru Arjan’s martyrdom, held at Lahore, in June 2006.
confine it to just one day’s offerings? The Guru was not having it as a business deal hence, this story is not true.
Story of role of Chandu’s daughter or Mian Mir
Similarly, the story of the visit of Chandu’s daughter/ daughter-in-law in the Lahore prison or during Guru’s torture on the bank of river Raavi or Sain Mian Mir’s seeking permission of the Guru to topple the Delhi throne are not true. Such stories had been created by some vested interests and, later, exaggerated by the poets and the bards; such like stories had been created by such section about other Guru’s too; these are the fantasies of the writers and no truth.
–Dr. Harjinder Singh Dilgeer