Guru Arjan Dev - Martyrdom

Martyrdom

Jahangir’s memoirs state that Arjan was handed over to Murtaza Khan in Lahore, so that the official could execute him. Jahangir did so because of Arjan’s support for Khusrau, and does not describe ordering any torture of the Guru. This suggests none was ordered, since Jahangir earlier describes the torture and execution of two other rebels in detail. Nor does it fit with Jahangir’s general policy of religious tolerance, with one contemporary English observer remarking that “here every man has liberty to profess his own religion freely”, and which saw state funding of other religions and numerous non-Muslims favoured by Jahangir.

Set against this was Jahangir’s stated desire to convert Arjan to Islam, though given that he later warned other Muslims about trying to force Islam on people, probably thought in terms of the Guru converting voluntarily. Jahangir was angered by the number of Muslims who converted to Sikhism. Professor J. F. Richard’s view that Jahangir was “persistently hostile to popularly venerated religious figures” is instructive, though it appears that Jahangir only took action against religious figures he saw as threats to the state. This included the Naqshbandi Muslim Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi, who Jahangir viewed as an extremist (and who was a noted enemy of Guru Arjan), and so had him imprisoned in Gwalior fort. Nor was Jahangir likely to be personally familiar with the Adi Granth, since he labelled the Guru as a Hindu. First Turning Point in Sikh History

If Jahangir’s memoir was the only contemporary source, the picture would still be relatively clear. We would know why Guru Arjan died and who ordered his death, if not the exact manner of it. However, other contemporary and near-contemporary sources, especially the Sikh accounts, do not support Jahangir’s version of events. Professor J.S. Grewal notes that Sikh sources from the seventeenth and eighteenth century contain contradictory reports of Guru Arjan’s death. Guru Gobind Singh’s memoir, the Bichitra Natak, mentions Guru Arjan only once, to record that “when Arjan departed this life for the divine abode, assumed the form of Hargobind.”

In contrast he and other Sikh sources extensively discussed Guru Tegh Bahadur's martyrdom. Bhai Gurdas, a contemporary of Arjan and noted Sikh chronicler, recorded his death, but whether or not his account shows the Guru was tortured rests on the translation of ‘bhir’ (and whether it is translated as ‘distress/hardship’ or ‘torture’). In the 1740s, Chaupa Singh, who was close to Guru Gobind Singh, placed the blame on Chandu Shah, a Hindu official in Lahore, who Chaupa Singh accused of having the Guru arrested and executed after he turned down Chandu Shah’s offer of marriage between Chandu’s daughter and Hargobind.

A contemporary Jesuit account, written in 1606 by Father Jerome Xavier, who was in Lahore at the time, adds weight to aspects to all these accounts. Xavier records that the Sikhs managed to get Jahangir to commute the death sentence to a heavy fine, for which a rich individual, possibly a Sikh, stood as guarantor. The Guru however refused to let a fine be paid for him and even refused when a long time friend of his Sai Mian Mir tried interceding on his behalf, Jahangir tortured Arjan in the hopes of extracting the money, but the Guru refused to give in and so died. The other near-contemporary non-Sikh source, a 1640s chronicle probably written by a Parsi, supports this view.

First Turning Point in Sikh History

Noted Sikh historian Dr. Harjinder Singh Majhail (2010: pp. 144–146) writes, "The martyrdom of the fifth Guru is a first turning point in Sikh history. It created circumstances, which gave a militant colour to a spiritually coloured, otherworldly people". "The Sikhs for whom their Satguru i.e. True Master was dearer than anything else in the world, were never ready to accept their True master's martyrdom. What pained them more was that their Master was mercilessly tortured to death. The fifth Guru was made to sit on big hot ferrous bread-baking plates and the burning sands from a parcher's furnace were poured on his bare body. After such inhuman tortures, the Guru was taken to the river 'Ravi' for a bath where he was said to have mysteriously disappeared into the 'Ravi'.

All this was too much for the Sikhs. The blood-curdling tortures meted out on their beloved Guru made their blood boil. They sat brooding waiting for vengeance".

Consequential Climacteric

"The arrival of Guru Hargobind Sahib, the Sixth Guru of the Sikhs, on the religio-socio-political scene of India was a consequential climacteric which for the first time transformed the Sikh character and the Sikh ethos from purely spiritual to the martial. It was for the first time that the Sikhs took to sword - not just one sword but the two: 'miri' symbolizing temporal power and 'piri' symbolizing spiritual power. By doing so, the Guru mingled martial arts with religiosity, temporal with the spiritual, and 'bhakti' (devotion) with 'shakti' (martial power)". The martyrdom of the fifth Guru turned the spiritual Sikhs into a community of warriors which was to lay the foundation of Khalsa rule in Punjab in the times to come.