Lehal Library

62 The Punjab and the Bfrtb of Sikhism chat: 'The Guru had eight hundred horses in his stables, three hundred troopers on horseback, and sixty men with firearms were always in his service. '7 In the fifteen odd years between his release from Gwalior and Jehangir's death in AD 1627, Hargobind consolidated his spiritual and temporal hold on the community. He travelled through the Punjab into Uuar Pradesh as far as Pilibhit. He then went northwards into Kashmir. Al.J along the route of his travels he had temples built and appointed missionaries who could initiate the convens into the pacifist faith of Nanak and the martial mission of Hargobiud. On his way back to Amritsar, he accepted from the Raja of Bilaspur a gift of a plot of land lying between the foothills of the Himalayas and the river Sutlej. Here he built himself a retreat which he named Kiratpur (the abode of praise). With the death ofJehangir and the accession of Shah Jahan in AD 1627, the Guru's real troubles began. In 1628 when Shah Jahan happened to be hunting in the neighbourhood of Amritsar, his men clashed with the retainers of the Guru. A bailiff and a posse of constabulary were sent to arrest Hargobind. They found the Guru's household busy preparing for the nuptials of his daughter. They could not find Hargobind, bttt they plundered his property; all the confectionery prepared for the wedding was eaten by the constables.8 Hargobiud's guards fell on the surfeited Mughals before they had gone very far. Among those killed was the Chief Constable, Mukhlis Khan. Hargobind leftAmristar immediatelr and had his daughter's wedding pedonned in a nearby village. From the village he went on to Kartarpur in the Jullundur Doab and then to Sri Hargobindpur, the town built by his father. Here too he had to subdue the zamindars (landowners) before he was allowed to live in peace. Two years later he had a second clash with the imperial troops near Lahira. The Mugbals were badly mauled by the Sikhs. The that 'Hargobind was always attached to the stirrup of the victorious Jehangir ... and after Jehangir's death Hargobind entered the servtce of His Majesty Shah Jahan' (Dabi.stan, 11. 273-4). 7 DalJistiin, n, 277. 8 Dahislan, n, 275.