Har Govind, son of Arjun, the sixth guru of the Sikhs, was the first of them who became a military leader, as well as spiritual teacher. This impulse effectually removed the Sikhs from the possibility of becoming ascetic monks or mendi cants. He became a follower of the emperor Jahangir. After a tumultuous life, during which he was often engaged in repulsing attacks, made upon him, be died at Keritpur on the Sutlej in A.D. 1645.
The ninth guru, Tegh Bahadur, was beheaded at Dehli in 1675.
Govind, son of Tegh Bahadur, was the tenth guru of the Sikhs. He introduced the Khalsa. He was born A.D. 1662, and was killed in his 48th year by two Pathans, in 1708, at Nander, on the left bank of the Godavery. A Sikh college is still kept up there. He remodelled the Sikh government. He composed the Grant'h in the Gurmukhi dialect, instituted the Singh initiations, and took service with the imperialists.
Banda, a Byragi ascetic, succeeded Govind as the guru of the Sikhs ; lie was a gloomy man, and in 1715 was tortured to death at Dehli, in the reign of Ferokhsir, son of Bahadur Shah. After which the direction of the Sikhs passed to the Akali and the confederate Jat sirdars. In 1764, they occupied Lahore, and from 1797 to 1839 were ruled by Ranjit Singh. Between 1708 and 1774, the country became in fegted by predatoiy bands, when Nan Singh extended his rule, and died in 1792. The most famed of the Sikhs, however, was Ranjit Singh, born 1780, who in 1805 established the Lahore independency ; but the Sikh government, after his death, became torn by internal convulsions, was checked by Lord Hardinge, and finally closed in the time of Lord Dalhousie.
Of the Sikh religionists, the highest class are the Bedi. Like the Syud race, who claim a priority over all Muhammadans as being lineal descendants of Mahomed, a section of the Bedi rank first among the Sikh as being descended from Nanak, the founder of their sect. They are to be found in all parts of the Panjab : in the districts lying at the base of the Kangra Hills, at Gujran walla in the middle of the Recline Doab, at Gogaira on the Ravi, and at Shahpur on the Jhelum, and a few at Rawal Pindi. They are also occasionally to be' met with to the south of the Sutlej. But their home and stronghold is at a town named after their founder, Derah Balem Nanak, on the Ravi, near Buttalla.
But there are Bedi still of that original tribe who are not descendants of the Guru, nor, indeed, Sikhs at all. The crime of infanticide among the descendants of Nanak has been so notorious, that a Bedi was generally known by the opprobrious title of Kori Mar, or daughter-slayer. With these men, pride, and pride alone, prompted to the crime. The fear of poverty arising from marriage expenditure would have little weight with them, as, unlike the impoverished Raj puts, they were generally men of wealth and affluence. They
held fertile jaghirs, and their priestly coffers were well filled with the offerings and dues of their race. But in defence of the unnatural custom, which they did not attempt to deny, they, like the Rajput races, were ready with a-traditionary obligation laid upon them by an-indignant ances tor. The story given by Major Herbert Edwardes is that when a bridegroom and his party were departing, the two sons of Dharm Chand accom panied them to give them rooksat. The weather was hot, the party out of temper, and they took a malicious pleasure in taking the young Bedi farther than etiquette required. When the lads returned home footsore, Dharm Chand asked if the Khutra had not bid them to turn back sooner. The boys said 'No ; ' and it was then that the old man, indignant at all the insults which the bridal of his daughter had brought down upon him from an inferior class, laid the inhuman injunction on his descendants that in future ' no Bedi should let a daughter live.' The boys were horror-stricken at so unnatural a law, and with clasped hands repre sented to their father that to take the life of a child was one of the greatest sins in the Shastras. But Dharm Chand replied, 'that if the Bedi remained true to their faith, and abstained from lies and strong drink, Providence would reward them with none but male children, but at any rate let the burden of the crime be upon his neck, and no one else's.' And from that time forth Dharm Chand's head fell forward upon his chest, and he evermore walked as one who bore an awful weight upon his shoulders. With con sciences thus relieved, the race of Bedi continued for 300 years to murder their infant daughters ; and if any Bedi, out of natural feeling, preserved a girl, he was excommunicated by the rest, and treated as a common sweeper.
In 1794, a religious war was proclaimed against the Muliammadans of Maler Kotla by the Bedi Sahib Singh, the lineal descendant of Nanak. This man, who was half-fanatic and half-impostor, inflamed the Sikhs against the cow-killers of Maler Kotla, and a great many Sikh sirdars joined him. The uawab and his troops were defeated in a pitched battle, and compelled to flee to the capital, where they were closely besieged by the fanatical Bedi. His ally of Patiala sent troops to help him, and the Bedi was induced to withdraw across the Sutlej by the offer of a sum of money by the Patiala raja.—MacGregor's Sikhs, i. p. 44 ; Major II. Edwardes' Jalandhar Report ; Browne's Indian Infanticide, p. 115 ; list. of the Panjab, i. p. 79.