Lehal Library

68 The Punjab and the Binh of Sikhism their succession.211 The chief contenders were Dhirmal and Ram Rai. Tegh Bahadur was a man of retiring habits who did not wish to fight for his rights. But his very reluctance to press for recognition turned the Sikh masses in his favour. This soured Dhirmal and Ram Rai all the more. Dhirmal tried to have him murdered; fo1tunately the assassin he had hired failed to exeo1te his mission. Tegh Bahadur left Bakala for Amritsar; there the doors of the Harimandir were slammed in hls face by the ma.sands. From Amritsar he went to Kiratpur, the town built by his father. The place was full of envious cousins and nephews who gave him no respite. Tegh Bahadur was compelled to retire into the wilderness. He bought a hillock near the village of Makhowal, five miles north of Kiratpur, and built himself a village where he could be away from his contentious relations. Here he expected to find peace and solitude, and hopefully named it iinandpur (the haven of bliss). Bur even in Anandpur his kinsmen did not leave him alone, and he decided to leave the Puryab until the atmosphere became more congenial. Tegh Bahadur left Anandpur with his wife and mother and travelled eastward towards Uttar Pradesh. Wherever he went, the Sikhs acclaimed him as their guru. When he arrived in the vicinity of Delhi, Ram Rai, who was still in attendance at the Mughal Court, had him arrested as an impostor and a disturber of the peace. After investigation the charge was dropped and the Guru allowed to proceed on his way. 21 He travelled through Agra, Allahabad, Benares, Gaya, and arrived at Patna. His wife, being in an advanced stage of pregnancy, could not go any further. The Gum made arrangements for her confinement and left her and his mother in Patna.22 20 Until receo1 years sevt-ral members of the Sodhi caste claiming descent from the Sodhi Gum were in the habit of styling themselves as gums and accepting worship and offerings from credulous peasants. 21 Forster (Tratiels, ,, 260) states that Tegh Bahadur was put under restraint and then released at tile intervention of the Raja of Jaipur. 22 There were Sikh communities in severnl towns of Bengal and the Guru might haYe considered it more important to visit them than be with