Sikhism introduction | World History | Khan Academy

Sikhism comes into being in Northern India in a time when the Moguls are coming to power. What we see in this blue area is what the first Mogul Emperor Babur is able to put under his control, which includes the region of Punjab, which is where Sikhism begins and thrives to this day. We see later Emperors like Akbar continuing to expand the domain of the Mogul Empire, with Aurangzeb, the least tolerant of the Moguls, expanding well into South India.

It all starts in the 15th century with the birth of who will eventually be known as Guru Nanak. He's born into a merchant class Hindu family and he's known to be precocious from a very young age, especially when it comes to matters of spirituality. He's constantly questioning and he goes and learns about various religions. Remember, North India is under the control of the Muslims, but it's a Hindu majority population, and you also have populations of Christians and Jains.

This is also a time, as we've studied in other videos, where the Bhakti movement is on the rise, this notion of devotional love to God within Hinduism. It's in this context that Guru Nanak becomes a significant, some would say, Bhakti Guru. To get a sense of some of his teachings: there is but one God; his name is Truth. He is without hate; he is beyond the cycle of births and deaths; he is self-illuminated.

So just in this excerpt of some of his sayings, you see elements of the core of Hinduism and elements of Islam. There is but one God, a central tenet of Islam, but then these ideas that really come from a Vedantic tradition: God is beyond the cycle of births and deaths (samsara). He is self-illuminated. There is a lot of mention of your inner self; your true self is one with this God. Even kings and emperors with heaps of wealth and vast dominion cannot compare with an ant filled with the love of God.

Here you see this Bhakti influence, and you can see why he is considered a major Bhakti Guru or Bhakti Saint. He's emphasizing this devotional love of God: "The world is a drama staged in a dream." So here you have the Hindu, the Vedantic notions of Maya: the world is an illusion. His followers will eventually be known as Sikhs, and the word "Sikh" comes from the Sanskrit word for "to learn" or "learning" and it's related to the word for "student."

Even in modern Sanskrit-derived languages like Hindi, you have words like "sna" which means "to learn." Guru Nanak dies in the early 16th century, and you can see by this point the Moguls have taken control of Northern India. Before his death, he names Guru Angad, who is not his son, as his successor. After Guru Angad, you have Guru Amardas, and then you have Guru Ramdas, who establishes the city now sacred to Sikhs, known as Ramdaspur.

Guru Ramdas is succeeded on his death by Guru Arjun, and Guru Arjun is significant for many reasons. He creates the compilation known as the Adi Granth, which are the sayings and the hymns of the previous Gurus, including his own. The Adi Granth, as we will see, will eventually evolve into the Guru Granth Sahib, which is considered not only the Sikh holy book but also the last and final of the Gurus.

In Ramdaspur, later to be known as Amritsar, Guru Arjun builds the Harimandir Sahib, which is intended to be a place of worship for people of all religions. They have a tradition of langar, where they feed anyone who comes from any faith. Today, the Harimandir Sahib would later be known as the Golden Temple, where later Raja would plate it with gold. It is the largest free kitchen in the world.

Guru Arjun is also known as the first martyr in the Sikh faith. As we've talked about, the early Moguls were relatively tolerant; Akbar in particular was extremely tolerant. But upon his death, his son Jahangir takes power. Early in Jahangir's reign, he is insecure about his hold on power and remember the Moguls are ruling from the same region where the Sikhs are having an increasingly growing following—not just from Hindus but also from Muslims.

Threatened by this growing following, Jahangir imprisons Guru Arjun and tortures Guru Arjun trying to get him to renounce the faith and to convert to Islam. Guru Arjun refuses, despite many days of excruciating torture, being boiled alive. Eventually, he dies, and there are slightly varying accounts of how it happens. After his death, his son, who will be known as Guru Hargobind, comes to power.

Guru Hargobind, as legend has it, on direction from his father before he would die, tells him that the Sikhs need to protect themselves. They need to adopt a military tradition to protect themselves from the oppression, especially the oppression from the Moguls. Guru Hargobind is famous for establishing the military tradition of Sikhism. He is the first Guru to be what you could call a Warrior Saint.

He is famous for wearing two swords, one to represent his authority in the spiritual realm and another to represent his authority in the temporal realm. He also has the longest tenure as Guru. At Guru Hargobind's death, his grandson Guru Har Rai becomes Guru. At his death, his very young son, Guru Har Krishan, becomes Guru but dies of smallpox, after which Guru Hargobind's youngest son becomes Guru.

He is named eventually Guru Tegh Bahadur, which means "brave sword" or "brave wielder of the sword." Because, as his father Guru Hargobind fought the Moguls, he was known as being unusually brave and an unusually competent warrior. He continued this tradition of being a Warrior Saint, especially under the rule of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb as the Moguls became more and more intolerant and started forced conversions.

He viewed himself as a protector of the oppressed, not just of the Sikhs but the oppressed of any faith, including Hindus who were being forced to convert by Aurangzeb. Eventually, Aurangzeb tortures and kills him for refusing to convert to Islam, and he is considered the second Guru who was martyred. At his death, we have the 10th and last human Guru of the Sikh tradition, Guru Gobind Singh, who continues again this tradition of a Warrior Saint and actually formalizes it in this notion of Khalsa.

There's a famous story of him gathering the Sikh community and asking for volunteers. The first volunteer he takes into a tent, and then he emerges from that tent without the volunteer, with a bloody sword, giving people the impression that he might have killed that individual. Then he asks for more volunteers, and more people come, and every time he comes out of the tent without the volunteers but with a bloody sword.

After five volunteers have come, they all emerge from the tent. He makes it clear that this was an exercise as a test of faith to see who was willing to risk their life to follow the cause. He says these are the Khalsa, these are the pure. Together we are going to be a group to fight oppression wherever it might be.

He formalizes what it means to be one of these Warrior Saints, famously with the five K's of Khalsa: that anyone who goes into the Khalsa indoctrination, who becomes a Khalsa Sikh, they should not cut their hair—this is known as Kesh—they should wear a metal bracelet known as Kara, they should have a wooden comb known as Kanga, and they should carry a short dagger or sword known as Kirpan, and there's Kachera, which is often an undergarment worn, it has symbolic meaning.

A man who goes through the Khalsa ceremony, the Khalsa baptism, adopts the title of Singh, which means lion, and a woman who does adopts the title of Kaur or princess. Essentially, they are promising to fight oppression wherever it might be. Guru Gobind Singh is also famous for the final compilation of what would be known as the Guru Granth Sahib, taking the Adi Granth, which was compiled by Guru Arjun, and adding the 115 hymns of Guru Tegh Bahadur, who was martyred, and making this collection of hymns not just from the Gurus but from saints and Gurus in the Hindu and Muslim traditions as well.

He declares that this is the 11th and final Guru, and Sikhs today view the Guru Granth Sahib as their Guru. If you were to visit a Gurdwara, which is their Temple, it means "door to the Guru"—the same root in Sanskrit as "door"—you will see it houses a Guru Granth Sahib, which the Sikhs will venerate and view as their Guru.