Guru Hargobind Ji

Two swords at the succession

Eleven years old at his father’s death under torture, Hargobind came to the Guruship in 1606 wearing two swords — miri for temporal authority, piri for spiritual: the doctrine of miri-piri that reset the community’s course. He kept an armed retinue, hunted, and raised the Akal Takht facing the Harmandir Sahib — sanctity and sovereignty in one compound.^1,2

Prison and the fifty-two kings

The new posture brought imperial suspicion, and the Guru spent a period imprisoned in Gwalior Fort under Jahangir. The tradition of his release — refusing freedom unless fifty-two imprisoned rajas walked out holding the tassels of his cloak — is kept each year at Bandi Chhor Divas, the Sikh Diwali, when the Golden Temple is lit in remembrance of the liberator of captives.^1,2

First battles, and a move to the hills

Under Shah Jahan, friction became fighting: Mughal detachments engaged the Guru’s men near Amritsar in 1634 and at Kartarpur in 1635, and the Sikhs — for the first time under arms — held their own. The Guru withdrew to Kiratpur in the Shivalik foothills, where he died in 1644, having chosen his young grandson Har Rai to succeed him. The martial tradition he founded never again left the faith.^1,2