Founding of the Khalsa (1699): Guru Gobind Singh and the Sikhs

The founding of the Khalsa in 1699 was the moment when Guru Gobind Singh, tenth Guru of the Sikhs, created an order of initiated men and women bound by a common discipline and outward identity. It took place at the Vaisakhi harvest festival at Anandpur, in the Shivalik foothills of the Punjab. The Khalsa reshaped Sikhism into a community ready to defend itself against hostile powers, and it remains at the centre of Sikh life today.

Background

Sikhism began with Guru Nanak (1469–1539) and was led by a succession of ten human Gurus. By the late 17th century the community had grown large and was organised through masands, regional agents who collected offerings and represented the Guru. Some masands had become corrupt or independent, and the Gurus’ authority over distant congregations was weakening.

Relations with the Mughal state had also worsened. Guru Arjan died in Mughal custody at Lahore in 1606, and in 1675 Guru Tegh Bahadur was executed in Delhi under the emperor Aurangzeb. His nine-year-old son, Gobind Das (often called Gobind Rai), succeeded him as Guru. Growing up at Anandpur, the young Guru built up an armed following, fought local hill rajas such as the ruler of Bilaspur (Kahlur), and composed poetry in Braj, Punjabi and Persian.

What happened at Vaisakhi 1699

Large numbers of Sikhs were summoned to Anandpur for Vaisakhi in 1699. Sikh tradition, recorded in accounts written decades later, describes a dramatic scene. The Guru appeared before the assembly with a drawn sword and asked for a Sikh willing to give his head. One man stepped forward and was led into a tent; the Guru returned with a bloodied sword and repeated the call until five volunteers had come forward.

The five then reappeared alive, dressed like the Guru. Whether the story of the tent is literal or symbolic has been debated, but the core of the tradition is the same in every version: the Guru tested the devotion of his followers and found five who were willing to die for the faith.

The volunteers became known as the Panj Pyare, the Five Beloved Ones. Tradition remembers them as Daya Ram, a Khatri from Lahore; Dharam Das, a Jat from near Delhi; Himmat Rai, a water-carrier from Jagannath Puri; Mohkam Chand, a washerman from Dwarka; and Sahib Chand, a barber from Bidar. Their mixed castes and origins were taken as a sign that the new order rejected caste hierarchy.

The initiation rite

The Guru initiated the five through khande di pahul, a rite of initiation with water stirred in an iron bowl with a double-edged sword (khanda) while sacred hymns were recited. Sweets were added to the water, a detail that tradition attributes to the Guru’s wife. The initiates drank the water, which was also sprinkled on their eyes and hair.

The Guru then asked the five to initiate him in turn, a gesture that placed the Guru and the community on the same footing. From this point he was known as Gobind Singh. Male initiates took the name Singh (“lion”), and over time women took the name Kaur.

Initiated Sikhs were expected to keep their hair uncut, carry arms, and avoid tobacco and certain other practices. They were to reject the authority of the masands, whose role was now abolished. The well-known list of the Five Ks, the articles of faith beginning with the letter K, is linked by tradition to 1699, though historians such as W. H. McLeod point out that it appears in this exact form only in later codes of conduct (rahit-namas).

Key people

• Guru Gobind Singh (1666–1708): tenth Guru, poet and military leader, who founded the Khalsa and later declared the scripture to be the Guru.
• The Panj Pyare: the five first initiates, later called Daya Singh, Dharam Singh, Himmat Singh, Mohkam Singh and Sahib Singh.
• Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707): the Mughal emperor whose officials fought the Guru in the 1700s.
• Wazir Khan: the Mughal governor (faujdar) of Sirhind, who led the campaign against Anandpur and ordered the execution of the Guru’s two youngest sons.

Conflict with the hill rajas and the Mughals

An armed and disciplined Sikh community at Anandpur alarmed the neighbouring hill chiefs, who appealed to Mughal authorities for help. After several clashes, a combined force of hill rajas and Mughal troops from Sirhind and Lahore besieged Anandpur. The siege is usually dated to 1704, and the Guru left the town in late 1704 or 1705 on a promise of safe passage that was broken soon afterwards.

The following weeks were the most tragic in Sikh memory. The Guru’s two elder sons, Ajit Singh and Jujhar Singh, died fighting at Chamkaur. The two youngest, Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh, were captured and executed at Sirhind on Wazir Khan’s orders; Sikh tradition holds that they were bricked up alive. The Guru’s mother, Mata Gujri, died in captivity at the same time.

The Guru regrouped in the Malwa region and fought at Khidrana (later Muktsar) in 1705. He wrote a Persian letter in verse to Aurangzeb, the Zafarnama (“Epistle of Victory”), reproaching the emperor for the broken oaths. After Aurangzeb’s death in 1707 he met the new emperor, Bahadur Shah I, and travelled with him to the Deccan.

Consequences

Guru Gobind Singh was stabbed at Nanded in the Deccan and died there in October 1708. Before his death he declared that there would be no further human Gurus: authority would rest in the scripture, the Adi Granth, now venerated as the Guru Granth Sahib, and in the collective Khalsa community (the Guru Panth).

The Khalsa immediately became a fighting force. Banda Singh Bahadur, sent to the Punjab by the Guru, raised a revolt and captured Sirhind in 1710, killing Wazir Khan. Banda was captured and executed in Delhi in 1716, and decades of Mughal and later Afghan repression followed. Through this period the Khalsa organised itself into bands called misls, which by the late 18th century controlled much of the Punjab.

Legacy

Out of the misls Ranjit Singh built the Sikh Empire, which he ruled from Lahore from 1801 until his death in 1839. It was conquered by the British East India Company after the Anglo-Sikh Wars of 1845–1849.

The Khalsa ideal shaped how Sikhs have been seen ever since: turbaned, bearded and carrying the kirpan. Khalsa identity was central to Sikh reform movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and to the codified Sikh Rahit Maryada (code of conduct) issued in the 20th century. Vaisakhi, marked in mid-April, is celebrated worldwide as the birthday of the Khalsa, and Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib at Anandpur is one of the five seats of temporal authority in Sikhism.

Myths and facts

• Myth: All Sikhs are members of the Khalsa. Fact: Only initiated Sikhs (amritdhari) belong to the Khalsa; many Sikhs, including some who keep uncut hair, have not taken initiation.
• Myth: Every detail of later Sikh practice was fixed in 1699. Fact: The essentials go back to the Guru, but many rules, including the formal list of the Five Ks, were written down in rahit-namas over the following two centuries.
• Myth: The surname Singh always means a Sikh. Fact: Singh was already used by Rajputs and others before 1699 and is still common among many non-Sikh communities in India.

Timeline

• 1675, November: Guru Tegh Bahadur is executed in Delhi; his son Gobind becomes the tenth Guru.
• 1699, Vaisakhi: The Khalsa is founded at Anandpur and the Panj Pyare are initiated.
• 1704: Hill rajas and Mughal forces besiege Anandpur.
• 1704 or 1705, December: Battle of Chamkaur and execution of the Guru’s younger sons at Sirhind.
• 1707, March: Aurangzeb dies; Guru Gobind Singh later meets Bahadur Shah I.
• 1708, October: Guru Gobind Singh dies at Nanded, naming the scripture as the eternal Guru.
• 1710: Banda Singh Bahadur captures Sirhind.
• 1716: Banda Singh Bahadur is executed in Delhi.

Why it matters

The founding of the Khalsa turned the Sikhs from a devotional movement led by living Gurus into a self-governing community with a shared discipline and visible identity. That identity sustained Sikhs through persecution in the 18th century, underpinned the Sikh Empire, and still defines Sikh religious life around the world.