Sikh gurus

The Sikh gurus (Punjabi: ਸਿੱਖ ਗੁਰੂ; Hindi: सिख गुरु) are the spiritual masters of Sikhism, who established the religion over the course of about two and a half centuries, beginning in 1469.^[2] The year 1469 marks the birth of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. Nine other human gurus succeeded him until, in 1708, the Guruship was finally passed on by the tenth guru to the holy Sikh scripture, Guru Granth Sahib, which is now considered the living Guru by the followers of the Sikh faith.^[3] The guruship was also passed onto the Guru Panth, consisting of the Khalsa; however, this form of guruship went into decline following to rise of Ranjit Singh.^[4][5]

A miniature painting, dated 1890, depicting an "imaginary portrait" of the ten gurus and others.^[1]

Gurus of the Sikhs. Fresco from Dera Nirmala, Tanda-Hoshiarpur.

Etymology and definition

Main article: Guru

Guru (/ˈɡuruː/, UK also /ˈɡʊruː, ˈɡʊər-/; Sanskrit: गुरु, Punjabi: ਗੁਰੂ, IAST: guru) is a Sanskrit term for a "teacher, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field.^[6] Bhai Vir Singh, in his dictionary of Guru Granth Sahib describes the term Guru as a combination of two separate units: "Gu;(ਗੁ)" meaning darkness and "Rū;(ਰੂ)" which means light.^[7] Hence, Guru is who brings light into darkness or in other words, the one who enlightens. Bhai Vir Singh's definition provides further insight about Sikhi itself and explains why Guru Granth Sahib is considered the living Guru. The word Sikh is derived from the Sanskrit term shishya^[8] (Punjabi: ਸਿੱਖ) which means a disciple or a student. Thus, Sikhs have a student–teacher relationship with their Gurus since their teachings, written in Guru Granth Sahib, serve as a guide for the Sikhs.

According to Sikh beliefs, all the Gurus contained the same light or soul and their physical body was a vessel for containing the same essence. When one Guru passed, the successor inherited this light and that is why the Gurus are also referred to as mahalla (house).^[9]

The gurus

No.	Name	Portrait	Birth date	Guruship	Birthplace	Clan	Father	Mother	Date of death	Reason	Place of death
1	Guru Nanak		14 April 1469 [note 1]	Since birth	Nankana Sahib, Punjab, Delhi Sultanate	Bedi Khatri	Kalyan Das Bedi	Mata Tripta	22 September 1539(1539-09-22) (aged 70)	Natural causes	Kartarpur, Punjab, Mughal Empire
2	Guru Angad		31 March 1504	7 September 1539	Muktsar, Punjab, Mughal Empire	Trehan Khatri	Baba Pheru Mal	Mata Ramo	29 March 1552(1552-03-29) (aged 47)	Natural causes	Khadur Sahib, Punjab, Mughal Empire
3	Guru Amar Das		5 May 1479	26 April 1552	Amritsar, Punjab, Mughal Empire	Bhalla Khatri	Tej Bhan Bhalla	Mata Lachmi	1 September 1574(1574-09-01) (aged 95)	Natural causes	Goindval, Lahore Subah, Mughal Empire
4	Guru Ram Das		24 September 1534	1 September 1574	Lahore, Punjab, Mughal Empire	Sodhi Khatri	Baba Har Das	Mata Daya	1 September 1581(1581-09-01) (aged 46)	Natural causes	Goindval, Lahore Subah, Mughal Empire
5	Guru Arjan		15 April 1563	1 September 1581	Goindval, Punjab, Mughal Empire	Sodhi Khatri	Guru Ram Das	Mata Bhani	30 May 1606(1606-05-30) (aged 43)	Execution by Mughal Emperor Jahangir	Lahore, Lahore Subah, Mughal Empire
6	Guru Hargobind		19 June 1595	25 May 1606	Amritsar, Lahore Subah, Mughal Empire	Sodhi Khatri	Guru Arjan	Mata Ganga	28 February 1644(1644-02-28) (aged 48)	Natural causes	Kiratpur Sahib, Lahore Subah, Mughal Empire
7	Guru Har Rai		16 January 1630	3 March 1644	Kiratpur Sahib, Lahore Subah, Mughal Empire	Sodhi Khatri	Baba Gurditta	Mata Nihal Kaur	6 October 1661(1661-10-06) (aged 31)	Natural causes	Delhi, Delhi Subah, Mughal Empire
8	Guru Har Krishan		7 July 1656	7 October 1661	Kiratpur Sahib, Lahore Subah, Mughal Empire	Sodhi Khatri	Guru Har Rai	Mata Krishan Kaur	30 March 1664(1664-03-30) (aged 7)	Smallpox	Delhi, Delhi Subah, Mughal Empire
9	Guru Tegh Bahadur		1 April 1621	20 March 1664	Amritsar, Lahore Subah, Mughal Empire	Sodhi Khatri	Guru Hargobind	Mata Nanaki	11 November 1675(1675-11-11) (aged 54)	Execution by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb	Delhi, Delhi Subah, Mughal Empire
10	Guru Gobind Singh		14 February 1666	11 November 1675	Patna Sahib, Bihar Subah, Mughal Empire	Sodhi Khatri	Guru Tegh Bahadur	Mata Gujri	7 October 1708(1708-10-07) (aged 41)	Assassinated by Jamshed Khan and Wasil Beg on order of Wazir Khan	Hazur Sahib, Bidar Subah, Mughal Empire
11	Guru Panth[4][10][11][5]		Vaisakhi, April 1699[12]		Kesgarh Qila, Anandpur Sahib, Punjab[13]	Casteless[14][15]	Guru Gobind Singh (spirtually)[4]	Mata Sahib Devan (spiritually)[16]	Whilst prevalent in the 18th century, this manner of guruship went into decline following the rise of Ranjit Singh and is seldom evoked today, being overshadowed by the Guru Granth.[4]
12	Guru Granth Sahib		29 August 1604 (date of completion of compilation of the first draft [Adi Granth])	20 October 1708	Amritsar, Lahore Subah, Mughal Empire (place of compilation)	The central holy scripture of Sikhism, regarded as the final, sovereign and eternal Guru.

Timeline

Pedigrees

Imaginary Meeting of Guru Nanak and the rest of the Sikh Gurus, Bhai Mardana, and others. 1780 painting

^{[note 2]}

See also

• Sikhism portal
• India portal
• Biography portal
• Punjab portal

• History of Sikhism
• Khalsa
• Gurgadi
• Gurpurab
• Joti Jot

Notes

1. Officially observed on Katak Puranmashi (October–November)
2. Listed names and relations might vary from source to source since different aspects of Sikh history have been written by many different individuals over the course of past six centuries