Annals of the rise of the Khalsa
An excerpt from the Annals of the rise of the Khalsa, a prose narration of S. Rattan Singh Bhangu’s Sri Gur Panth Parkash.
Introduction
On the auspicious day of Vaisakhi, it is my fortune to present an except from a project which I have devoted many hours to - a prose narrative from the Sri Gur Panth Parkash of Sardar Rattan Singh Bhangu. Most readers of the Khalsa Chronicle will be familiar with the text and its importance for Sikh history. In this brief introductory essay, I will discuss - in summary - some contextual ideas from my notes on the work in progress, particularly on various approaches through which one could study this magnificent epic.
What Sardar Rattan Singh Bhangu has provided us in the Sri Gur Panth Parkash, anyone who is familiar with the text would know, is nothing less than a monument whose importance will only grow through the ages. I have been working on this version, to retell the text to myself, as an internal katha, to imbibe it into my thinking, for it forms, in my view, a foundational bedrock for anyone who attempts to understand and write Sikh history. All Sikh histories which have not engaged with this text, are, if I may say so, incomplete and, thus, flawed.
Allow me to briefly say a few words on contexts through which the text, can be approached.
Foremost, and most significant, alongside the historical value of the text is, is in my view, its historiographic one. The project of Sikh historiography, for Sikhs to tell our history in our own words, begins in a sense with the development of the Gurmukhi script, but if there was to be a single defining framework for what this great task entails, it comes from the pen of Guru Gobind Singh, in his words, as he begins the Baccittar Natak with the invocation - now I shall tell my tale.
If we were to look at this statement from multiple perspectives, there is much to be unravelled - for instance, stressing different words in this statement gives us different connotations : stress first the now, and then the my.
There is immense power in this injunction, with layers of meaning. Stress on the now signifies a significant break in time, tying a knot on the strands of the past, so to say, while stress on the my suggests the beginning thenceforth of a new era, in which the drama connoted by this history will (now) unfold, in a new age. One may say, in the age that follows, lions are become historians, the writers of history both on the stage of the world and in the tales that are told of this age.
The Sri Gur Panth Parkash is the bravest demonstration of this approach of writing Sikh history and not just a history of the Sikhs. As the excerpt below will demonstrate, the context in which the narrator decided to begin writing this epic speaks exactly to the injunction of Guru Gobind Singh (I will not dwell on this for too long so as to allow the presented text to speak for itself).
Secondly, once one begins to familiarise with the Sri Gur Panth Parkash, one notes how the text (or telling/katha of it, which would be a better way to receive it), operates on multiple literary, theological and philosophical levels, to which the historic narrative is in a way, a supplement, though equally important in its own right. Sardar Rattan Singh Bhangu’s epic is Sikh history while also being an exegesis on the Sikh philosophy of history.
There are many themes one can discuss with this regard, but for the purpose of this short introduction, let us discuss one - the rise and fall of dynasties, or the making and unmaking of empires.
Sardar Rattan Singh Bhangu, in numerous passages, discusses the fundamental question of the legitimacy of kings, which is a deep theological idea in both Sikh philosophy and the Sikh philosophy of history, dealing the dialectic of the Saccha Pad(i)shah (the True Lord of and beyond Time and Space) and the Temporal Badshah, or the emperor of men on earth.
Through exposition on the Sikh belief that ‘emperorship of India’ was granted to the House of Babur by Guru Nanak - with the injunction that as emperor, his dynasty must do no evil, the learned author demonstrates the interaction between the suprapolitical notion of Dharam and the geopolitical notion of Raj. So, in the course of history, when the dynasty begins to violate this injunction to follow Dharam in its rule, through successive acts of evil, the epitome of which was in the martyrdoms of Guru Teg Bahadur and the Sahibzaadey, a critical threshold of Adharmikta is crossed, and the corrupted house or dynasty had written (in history, by its own acts, or hand) its own doom. [In this too is demonstrated the idea of writing one’s own history by one's acts.]
This is a fundamental theme throughout the text, in the preface as the overarching framework, then in interludes on the life of Guru Nanak, and towards the closing, in the Sermon of Bhai Taru on the eve of his martyrdom. The teleological end of this dialectic of history, of the replacement of one dynasty by another, is read in the heroic description of the young Nihang warrior Gurbaksh Singh, who is to be blessed with temporal rule via birth in the house of a noble king, in a new life, in a dynasty which has gained the Mandate of Dharma, so to say, the lineage of Charat Singh. (I will explore this extensively in various essays over the course of serialising my prose narration of the entire text of Sri Gur Panth Parkash over the coming months.)
Finally, there is the literary and even anthropological value of the text. The text is written in beautiful Punjabi Braj, in a sense the mother of the Puadhi dialect, which is still both highly enjoyable and tremendously enjoyable to read. Regarding the anthropological value, there is perhaps no equivalent source of historical value for any ‘people of the countryside’, in this case, Jats, in possibly any precolonial culture, for this era. Most history, at most times, is written by the dwellers of cities, with those outside the walls disparaged as barbarians. In this case, we have a learned author not only demonstrating his own high art, but also valiantly gathering the oral testimonies of his fathers and grandfathers, as he says, thus giving us a glimpse of lived history, across a hundred years back into time from his own, till the threshold of the last days of Guru Gobind Singh in this mortal realm.
This alone would have made it a treasure worth cherishing in all ages. And now the narrative is presented below.
ANNALS OF THE RISE OF THE KHALSA
a prose narration of S. Rattan Singh Bhangu’s Sri Gur Panth Parkash
Presented by GS Sial Mirza Goraya.
CHAPTER 1
Some years before the time of the rise of British power in north India, there was a French soldier of fortune by the name of Benoit De Boigne. The Frenchman had been made commander of a brigade in the Army of the Marathas, and served them for many years. Then, as age began to catch up with him, he decided to hand over command of his brigade to his nephew, Pietre Peron.
General Peron was a man of great ambition, and soon be expanded his power, increasing his army to four brigades, with which he soon became master of all the country between Agra and Delhi, making the Marathas suspicious of his intentions. They sent forth an order for him to relinquish his command. But Peron was a wily man, and he in turn approached the English with an offer to sell them his territorial gains. And thus in the years 1803-04 AD, the English gained control of these strategic lands, in the midst of which was the imperial capital of the moth eaten Mughal Empire, Delhi.
Sir David Ochterlony entered Delhi in this year. But only to find that within days a new menace had risen in the north, as the armies of the Khalsa fell upon the great city’s walls. Outnumbered, the English army was left cowering in fear. Sir Ochterlony then flew into a rage and rushed to the Emperor’s Durbar, to inquire who the assailants were, whenceforth had they come, and by what authority on earth or in heaven did they command such vast forces, which so brashly broke upon emperor’s imperial seat.
The Mughal Emperor replied, that the Sikhs were no sovereign power, and had risen like a storm merely in the wake of the turmoil caused by the invasions of Nader Shah and Ahmad Shah Abdali. This sufficed as explanation - for some days.
Then, barely had these storm clouds passed, that the armies of the Maharaja of Lahore Ranjit Singh ventured across the River Sutlej, to annex the Phulkian Sikh states south of the river into his realm - this would have brought the borders of the northern empire to the threshold of Delhi itself.
By then the English had learned, the Sikhs were a threat who could not be ignored, so a young captain by the name of Murray was charged to acquire information on the nature and power of the Sikhs of the Punjab. This was to be gathered into reports to be despatched to London forthwith.
General Ochterlony had also further learned that some historic enmity had existed between the Mughals and the Sikhs, so he asked that a balanced account be written drawing on the testaments of both sides - facts were to be sifted and carefully separated from fiction - so only the most accurate account was prepared for the eyes of London.
Captain Murray began his task forthwith, seeking out the learned Maulvi Bootey Shah to aid him with his researches. Indeed, this Bootey Shah began to put together a book of his own, of which the author of these annals Rattan Singh gained knowledge, and on seeking out the manuscript he found that it was filled with distortions, half-truths and lies.
So Rattan Singh informed the Captain, who received this news with interest, as he too was keen that only the fairest account, drawing on the narrative of each side, should be written in his histories of the Sikhs. For such was the manner of the English nation, that when they ventured forth into a new land they carefully and meticulously inquired and recorded all there was to know, and filed this knowledge in the grand libraries of London.
The Captain inquired of Rattan Singh, the author of these annals, to narrate to him the histories of his people, of the coming of Nanak upon the earth, the blessed First Mahal, in 1526 AD. So the author of these annals did inform of the descending of the great Guru, his birth in Talwandi a hamlet betwixt Lahore and Kasur, of the clan of the Khatri Bedis into which he was born, of their ancient noble lineage and their piousness in all ages of man.
(Editor’s Note : Rattan Singh Bhangu proceeds to narrate sections from the Janamsakhis of Guru Nanak, which have been omitted from this present narrative. The reader should refer to the notes for reference to manuscripts wherein the entire text of these records can be found.)
And so Nanak passed from this mortal realm, his divine light finding a new mortal frame in the Second Mahal, Guru Angad. So followed the lineage of this divine line, to the Third Mahal Guru Amar Das, whose devotees were spread far and wide across the twenty two provinces of Hind. Following in his noble wake, the Fourth Mahal was Guru Ramdas, thenceforth, the divine and temporal power remained in the noble Sodhi clan, as following him came Guru Arjan, the noble, and Guru Hargobind, king in both the realms, who took up the sword to slay the evil Pande Khan, who drove away the many armies of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, and vanquished also his minions, Lalla Beg and Kambar Beg.
Guru Harrai, the valiant, and Guru Harkishen, the kind, were next in the line of the great Nanakian House, as devotees of the Great Guru’s word and deed spread further away into distant lands, and many came, kings and commoners both, to their noble presence to pay their own respects.
Following then, was the Mahal of Guru Teg Bahadur, whose name still resounds in all quarters of the world, as the one who gave his head in the great exchange, to protect the faith of the Hindus, and so brought light through a parting of the dark clouds of ages, to shine momentarily forth onto this oppress’d land, shrouded so thickly in dark Kaliyuga’s reign.
And then came Guru Gobind Singh, the true lord of all the realms, both prophet and pat(i)shah, to send forth into the world the cleansing sword of the fire born Khalsa Panth.
So this was told to Captain Murray that he may know, of the ten mortal frames, all like the flame passes from one lamp to the other, sharing the One Divine Light of the Great Akal. It was the author of the annals Rattan Singh Bhangu who told him so, that this may be written into the pages compiled by the learned Bootey Shah.
At another time, the young and inquisitive Captain Murray beseeched the author of these annals with a question that had been resounding in the vibrant chambers of his mind for many a day - How was it, he asked, had this Great War between the nation of Sikhs and the House of Mughal begun?
That is a tale, the author of these annals Rattan Singh Bhangu replied, of the lion and the fox. But to cut to the chase, as urgency of answer demanded, he was told by the author of these annals, that the fire had risen to its greatest blaze in the reign of the evil Aurangzeb, who had vowed on his ascending the throne to make Muslim all the Hindus in his bloodsoaked realm
The great hunt of the innocent was so begun, and scared witless with none to save them, many Hindus pleaded succour from the great guru’s Durbar, and sought the divine aid of Guru Teg Bahadur, and thus in his presence arrived the Brahmins (of Kashmir). They had worshipped to their goddesses and gods, but when the Mughals learned of their auguries and rites, they slandered their faith, accusing them of casting spells of black magic.
When this was reported to Aurangzeb, he had vowed to destroy all the Brahmins of Kashmir. And so were sent forth inquisitors and armed horsebound warriors to lay waste to the Hindus of Kashmir. Many were forcible held, their faiths despoiled, and few could hide or escape. And with this plea in their hour of impending destruction, the Brahmins came to Guru Teg Bahadur.
It had been said by the Hindus of this land, who were ten times more in number than Muslims in the Mughal realm, that one day the Guru whose name was rightly ordained Teg Bahadur, would raise his sword against the false Badshah of Delhi, in righteous war and all the Hindus would rise up with him as one, and the House of Babur would be reduced to dust as dry as the sands of Khurasan, from whenceforth Zahiruddin Babur has descended into the land of Hind, leading his caravan of destruction and death. Guru Nanak had accosted him then, and informed him of the divine command that though the wheel of time had willed him to rule on Delhi’s throne, if his House became cruel like the conquerors of before, this will would by greater law be forthwith removed and his House would fall.
That turning of the wheel had come.
So, the noble Guru Teg Bahadur had submitted himself to the tortures of the Mughal Badshah, who mocked him to give a demonstration of his divine powers and display a miracle, and the great Guru mocked his earthly power in return and said, demonstrate what powers you hold, if you can through your earthly power make a Muslim of me, all the world will submit to you. As for miracles, that he would not display, for it violated the laws of this nature’s realm as they had been ordained by the hukam of the Great Akal.
Then, after much time had passed in showing the Mughal the futility of his earthy power, after enduring the worst of tortures that only man’s deepest evils could conjure, the Guru decided it was the moment for him to shed his mortal frame, which was proclaimed with the divine utterance, ‘And so Nanak says, only change is natural, and in this world of change, nothing is permanent, all is flux.’
But at this moment of passing, one divine act did occur, it is said. When the great Guru, after ablution and prayer, took his divine seat on the executioner’s slab, the executioner’s sword failed in making a single cut on his divine frame, till the Guru, smiling, willed it so. And thus, the author of these annals records, while on earth there was misery and wailing, all the heavens resounded with joyous victory, for what the Great Guru had truly willed was done - a corrupting rot had taken birth in the Mughal Badshah’s heart, that would soon send him on his journey to hell, and when he was buried in his grave in the soil of Hind it would spread to all lands, breaking forth in an avenging fire that would burn the House of Babur to the ground.
Thus the true miracle, Rattan Singh the author of these annals told Captain Murray so, had been revealed.
And so it came to pass that suffering as he was from the corrupting rot fear filled the Badshah’s soul. In his final days, he halted the persecution of the natives, and was not long for the world. In these days many a Muslim Pir and holy man had seen the dark sign in heaven - something holy had been rent, and something dark was then to come, a gathering storm of the darkest blue lingering on the horizon, as turned the wheel of time, away from the House of Islam.
The true Pat(i)shahi of the House of Nanak thus descended on Guru Gobind Singh, the reckoning that was to come. And so the prophets and scholars of Islamic lore began to debate with others who told them that the age for which the Prophet Mohammad had granted them sovereignty over Hind was drawing to a close - as much as they denied it, it was written in the stars.
When the defenders of Islam continued to deny this, Guru Gobind Singh then founded the Khalsa, with its sword to bring a close to all debate. And the Guru did know that even by the House of Nanak a great cost was to be paid, he lost four sons in this righteous war. This was a cost, the Guru informed his devotees, that he had willed to pay, for even the sages of old had known what supreme sacrifices must be made in ages such as these.
But who was to blame for the real sin on earth for the murder of the noble Sahibzaadas? The Mughal - for whose destruction the Khalsa Panth was forged.
Then he had informed his beloved Khalsa, that like the lords of older ages, Lord Rama and Lord Krishna, he would bestow his power upon his devotees.
This the author of these annals, Rattan Singh, passed on to Captain Murray. The Captain had listened but he yearned to know in greater detail how the Khalsa Panth was formed, what grand strategy did it follow to so subdue the power of an Empire which commanded so much of the earth, its realm stretching over twenty provinces, even across the islands of the oceans and beyond the great hills. Against such a foe, how had the Sikhs gained victories and power. Had not their been diplomacy and negotiation between the House of Nanak and the Mughal Badshah, or was it only a tale of war. Had not the Mughals seen this great threat looming on the horizon and growing in their midst before it became powerful enough to overthrow them.
To answer these questions and more, for this Rattan Singh Bhangu had written these Annals of the Rise of the Khalsa, and so the presenter of this prose narrative, a katha in writing, based on the Sri Gur Panth Parkash, records in writing here as this section is brought to a close.
Sri Akal Sahai.
ਸਤਿਸ਼੍ਰੀਅਕਾਲ