Mughals as well as against Afghans and Mara ̄tha ̄s, who coveted the fertile
area of the five rivers. Controlling the Panja ̄b became a major concern of
the Sikhs; hence, Hargobind spoke of two swords – one political and one
religious. The increased number of ja ̄tsin the community and these political-
geographical issues moved Sikhism increasingly into a defensive force.
The tenth and last guru ̄wasGobind Singh. He was ten years old when he
assumed his responsibilities in 1666. His predecessor had been executed,
this time by Aurangzeb. After Gobind Singh, the tradition of living guru ̄swas
replaced by the scripture, the written legacy of the guru ̄s. The scripture (the
Guru ̄ Granth Sa ̄hib) serves as the center of worship and of the community
to the present. In fact, the Sikh place of worship even today is known as the
gurdwa ̄ra ̄ (the doorway to the guru ̄as represented in the book). According
to the tradition, Guru ̄ Gobind Singh was responsible for making the move-
ment even more militantly oriented and giving it a more visible identity:
from now on, males were to take five vows, by which they would take the
name of Singh (lion) as a surname. The five vows were: the wearing of under
drawers (kach), indicating a readiness to move quickly; an iron ring on the
right arm or bangle (kara ̄), an insignia of strength; a small dagger (kirpa ̄n),
a symbol of one’s readiness to defend oneself; long hair (kes ́), representative
of saintliness as well as strength; and a comb (kangha ̄) which holds in the
hair and represents cleanliness and neatness (all men were to wear turbans
to cover the hair). This new “brotherhood,” known as the kha ̄lsa ̄, is said to
have been inaugurated in 1699, though some aspects of it may have been
added later as the influence of the ja ̄tcommunity increased.^47
After Gobind Singh, the Sikhs were rather loosely organized into misls
(circles) while fighting for rights to the Panja ̄b continued. Afghans,
Mara ̄tha ̄s, and, eventually, the British sought hegemony over the “five waters.”
A low point in the life of the community was the infamous gallu ̄gha ̄ra ̄
(devastation) of 1762. Afghans entered the Panja ̄b and slaughtered many
Sikhs. The tragedy galvanized the community, which longed for greater
centralization:Ranjit Singhmanaged to bring together the various mislsand
restored the Sikhs to a point where they were able to retain hegemony in
the area until the British took over in 1849. Subsequently, it has been difficult
to distinguish political concerns from religious ones.
In a number of ways the experience of the Sikhs in the twentieth century
mirrored the experience of India at large. Sikhs were among the first
Indians to migrate to North America, for example, first settling as farmers
in Northwestern Canada then working their way down into the US. The
Sikhs experienced considerable discrimination in British Columbia and
Washington State in the first decade of the twentieth century.^48 But by the
1920s Sikhs were settling in California, marrying Mexican women and con-
structing the first Indo-American religious edifice, a gurdwa ̄ra ̄, in Stockton,
Developments in the Late Medieval Period 157