Person · ninth Sikh Guru
Guru Tegh Bahadur
Also known as Tegh Bahadur, Guru Teg Bahadur, Hind di Chadar
Ninth Guru, who founded Anandpur and was executed at Delhi in 1675 by Aurangzeb's order after interceding for Kashmiri Pandits facing forced conversion — killed, that is, for the religious freedom of people who were not Sikhs. Sikh tradition calls him Hind dī Chādar, the shield of India.
- Date
- 1621 – 1675
- Function
- Religious institution & practice
- Tradition
- Guru Granth Sahib; Sikh tradition
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Worth knowing
Fifty-nine of his hymns are in the Guru Granth Sāhib, added by his son. Two Delhi gurdwaras mark the aftermath: Sīsganj where he was beheaded, and Rakāb Ganj where a disciple burned his own house down to cremate the body without being caught.
Connections (3)
- Monastic foundationAnandpur Sāhib
Tegh Bahadur founded Anandpur in 1665 on land bought from the raja of Bilaspur, in the Shivalik foothills beyond easy Mughal reach. Thirty-four years later it was where the Khalsa was made, and for a decade after that it was besieged by the hill rajas and the empire together. Anandpur was abandoned under siege in December 1704, the family scattered at the Sarsa river crossing, and his two youngest grandsons were bricked up alive at Sirhind days later.
- CampaignSisganj Sahib, Old Delhi
Tegh Bahadur was executed at Chandni Chowk in 1675 after interceding for Kashmiri Pandits facing forced conversion — killed for the religious freedom of people who were not Sikhs, which is why the tradition calls him Hind dī Chādar. Sīsganj Sāhib stands on the spot. A disciple burned his own house down to cremate the body without being caught, which is what Rakāb Ganj Sāhib a few kilometres away now marks.
- Power passed toGuru Har Rai
Har Rai disinherited his elder son Rām Rai for altering a line of scripture to please Aurangzeb, and named his five-year-old younger son Har Krishan instead; Har Krishan died of smallpox at eight, and the succession passed to Tegh Bahādur, Hargobind’s youngest son, at Bakala. Aurangzeb had Tegh Bahādur executed at Delhi in 1675, so the accommodation Har Rai kept lasted one generation past him.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Guru Tegh Bahadur”. The subject’s own writings where they survive, and the standard biographical literature.
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