Sangat (term) - Sikh Community

Sikh Community

These sangats played an important role in the evolution of the Sikh community. The social implications of the institutions were far-reaching. It united the Sikhs in a particular locality or region into a brotherhood or fraternity. A member of the sangat, i.e. every Sikh was known as bhai, lit. brother, signifying one of holy living. The sangat brought together men not only in spiritual pursuit but also in worldly affairs, forging community of purpose as well as of action based on mutual equality and brotherhood. Though sangats were spread over widely separated localities, they formed a single entity owning loyalty to the word of Guru Nanak. Sangats were thus the Sikh community in formation.

In these sangats the disciples mixed together without considerations of birth, profession or worldly position. Bhai Gurdas, his Var XI, mentions the names of the leading Sikhs of the time of Guru Nanak and his five spiritual successors. In the first 12 stanzas are described the characteristics of a gursikh, or follower of the Guru. In the succeeding stanzas occur the names of some of the prominent Sikhs, in many cases with caste, class or profession of the individual. In some instances, even places they came from are mentioned. In these stanzas, Bhai Gurdas thus provides interesting clues to the composition, socially, of early Sikhism and its spread, geographically. Out of the 19 disciples of Guru Nanak mentioned by Bhai Gurdas, two were Muslims—Mardana, a mirasi, or bard, from his own village, and Daulat Khan Lodi, an Afghan noble. Bura, celebrated as Bhai Buddha, who was contemporary with the first six Gurus, was a Jatt of Randhava subcaste. So was Ajitta, of Pakkhoke Randhava, in present-day Gurdaspur district. Phirna was a Khaihra Jatt; Malo and Manga were musicians; and Bhagirath, formerly a worshipper of the goddess Kali, was the chaudhari, i.e. revenue official of Malsihan, in Lahore district Of the several Khatri disciples, Mula was of Kir subcaste, Pritha and Kheda were Soinis, Prithi Mall was a Sahigal, Bhagta was Ohri, Japu a Vansi, and Sihan and Gajjan cousins were Uppals. The Sikh sangat was thus the melting-pot for the high and the low, the twice-born and the outcaste. It was a new fraternity emerging as the participants’ response of discipleship to the Guru.

Sangats were knit into an organized system by Guru Amar Das who established manjis or preaching districts, each comprising a number of sangats. Guru Arjan appointed masands, community leaders, to look after sangats in different regions. Sangat was the precursor to the Khalsa manifested by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699. That was the highest point in the evolution of the casteless Sikh commonwealth originating in the institution of sangat.