Lehal Library

98 The Agrarian Uprising quiver and gave him his own standard and battle drum. He also issued orders (hwcamnamas) to the Sikhs, urging them to volunteer for service. Banda left the Deccan with a small band and came northwards. In the vicinity of Delhi he learned that the Emperor, Bahadur Shah, was still involved fighting his own brother in the Deccan and that the Rajputs were in open revolt. Banda also received information of the murderous assault on Gobind Singh. Before the assassin's dagger could achieve its fatal consummation, he planted the Guru's standard in a village thiny-five miles from the capital and forwarded the Guru's letters ordering the Sikhs to join him.z many years in Hindu mo_n asteries in central India. He had set up an eslablishment of his own at Nanded, where he had lived for fifteen years before he met Gum Gobind. Guru Gobind's choice of Banda in preference to many of his own companions has never been adequately explained. From the chronology of che Guru's cravels, it appears that he did not live for more than one month in Nanded. It is hardly likely that he would have chosen a complete st.ranger to lead the Sikhs wlless he had either known of the man earliei- or Banda had already earned the reputation of a leader. Some writers have naively accepted a dramatized and obviously imaginary meeting between the Guru and Banda given by Ahmed Shah of Batala in his Zikr-i-Guruii11 vii Tblidai-Singhan va Ma7.luJb-i-Eshii11- Ahmed Shah does not claim to have heard the story from any one who was present. The Siyiir-ul-Mutiikheri.n, which is not otherwise very reliable, is much closer to reality in stating that Banda was a Sikh by persuasion, that is, 'one of those attached to the tenets of Guru Gobind and who from their binh or from the momem of their admission, never cut or shave either their beard or whiskers, or any hair whatever of their body.' (Briggs translation, pp. 72-3.) At that time the distinction between a formally baptized 'Singh' and a Hindu who, while retaining his Hindu name and practices, was in close sympathy with the Khalsa, was not very great. lt is possible tb.at Banda was only one of a number of Sikhs sent by the Guru to foment rebellion in the Punjab but, being the most successful, was able to gain preponderance over all the others and became the leader of the entire community. For a discussion of whether or not Banda was baptized as a Khalsa, see Sikh Review, April 1961. 2 Bahadll!" Shah did not learn of the activities of Banda nor ofBanda's