ring; he
substituted zeal in the cause for saintliness of life as the price
of salvation; and he developed the organised discipline which Arjun
had initiated. He was, however, a military adventurer rather than an
enthusiastic zealot, and fought either for or against the Muhammadan
empire as the hope of immediate gain dictated. His policy was followed
by his two successors; and under Teg Bahadur the Sikhs degenerated
into little better than a band of plundering marauders, whose internal
factions aided to make them disturbers of the public peace. Moreover,
Teg Bahadur was a bigot, while the fanatical Aurangzeb had mounted
the throne of Delhi. Him therefore Aurangzeb captured and executed
as an infidel, a robber and a rebel, while he cruelly persecuted his
followers in common with all who did not accept Islam.

3. Guru Govind Singh.

"Teg Bahadur was succeeded by the last and greatest _guru_, his son
Govind Singh; and it was under him that what had sprung into existence
as a quietist sect of a purely religious nature, and had become a
military society of by no means high character, developed into the
political organisation which was to rule the whole of north-western
India, and to furnish the British arms their stoutest and most worthy
opponents. For some years after his father's execution Govind Singh
lived in retirement, and brooded over his personal wrongs and over
the persecutions of the Musalman fanatic which bathed the country in
blood. His soul was filled with the longing for revenge; but he felt
the necessity for a larger following and a stronger organisation, and,
following the example of his Muhammadan enemies, he used his religion
as the basis of political power. Emerging from his retirement he
preached the Khalsa, the pure, the elect, the liberated. He openly
attacked all distinctions of caste, and taught the equality of all
men who would join him; and instituting a ceremony of initiation,
he proclaimed it as the _pahul_ or 'gate' by which all might enter
the society, while he gave to its members the _prasad_ or communion
as a sacrament of union in which the four castes should eat of one
dish. The higher castes murmured and many of them left him, for he
taught that the Brahman's thread must be broken; but the lower orders
rejoiced and flocked in numbers to his standard. These he inspired
with military ardour, with the hope of social freedom and of national
independence, and with abhorrence of the hated