Lehal Library

Building of the Sikh Church 51 Amar Das introduced many innovations which tended to break the close affiliations of the Sikhs with the Hindus. He sanctified a well alongside the temple at Goindwal and fixed the first of the Hindu month ofBaisakh, which fell late in spring, as the day for the annual gathering of Sikhs. He also introduced new forms of ceremonial for births and deaths, in which the recitation of hymns of the gurus replaced the chanting of Sanskrit slokas. He tried to do away with the practice of purdah (seclusion of women), advocated monogamy, encouraged intercaste alliances and remarriage of widows. He strictly forbade the practice of sati, '' the burning of widows on the funeral pyres of their husbands. These measures aroused the hostility of the Brahmins, who saw the size of their flock and their incomes diminishing. They began to persecute the Sikhs and, when their own resources failed, reported against Amar Das to the Emperor. When Akbar refused to take action against the Guru, they bribed local officials to harass the Sikhs. This was the beginning of the oppression of the Sikhs, which subsequently compelled them to take up arms, and the first break with Hindu social polity. Amar Das's twenty-two years ofministry were a definite phase in the building of the Sikh church. He was a popular teacher because his sermons were simple and direct. 'Do good to others by giving good advice, by setting a good example, and by always having the welfare of man kind in your heart,' he said. Amar Das's work is applauded in the Adi Granth in the following words: He made dhine knowledge his steed and chastily his saddle. On the bar of trnth he s1.rnng the arrow of God's praise. In 1.he age of u1.ter darkness, he rose like Lhe Sun. He sowed the seed of tntth and reaped its fruiL 1~ up Sanskrit, which was the language of the gods, and 1aken to writing in a mstic tongue like Punjabi. He replied, 'It rains on the earth even though the eanh has water in the well.' cherebr meaning that Sanskrit was like wa1.e1 in a well which bad LO be drawn out and could benefit only a tew peopk, whereas Punjabi was like rain which fell over all the Janel. 13 Macauliffe, Thr Sikh RPligzon, 11, 61-2. 14 Vier. Sa/lt, and &lwrznd.