Lehal Library

78 The Pwtjab and the Buth of Sikhism of the compositions. Every evening the Sikhs heard ballads extolling the deeds of warriors who had defied tyranny by the force of arms. A martial atmosphere came to pervade the Sikh court at Anandpur. In Anandpur the Guru wrote and reared his family. Four sons, Ajit Singh. Jujhar Singh, Zorawar Singh, and Fateh Singh, were born to his two wives, Sundari and Jito. He spent much time pondering over the disunity and decadence that had come into the movement launched by Nanak. He was able to put his finger on the two causes which had contributed to this state of affairs: the wranglings over the succession to the guruship and the masailds. Belief in the spiritual tutelage of the guru was an integral pan of Nanak's teachings. But Gobind felt that a living mentor could now be dispensed with, provided he could be replaced by some institution which discharged the same functions. The examples of Prithi Chand, Dhirmal, Mehrban, and Ram Rai, each of whom had disputed the succession in their time and set up as rival gums, were no doubt the deciding factor in Gobind's mind. Although he had four sons of his own, he felt that it would be better to end the line of personal gurus and invest the gumship in something permanent and inviolable. There was the Granth Sahib, by then well established as the book par excellence for people seeking spiritual guidance. On mauers other than spirirual, there was the institution of the paticayat, \\ith which all Punjabis were familiar. All that was needed was to adapt the pancayat to the need of the time. Between the two, i.e., the Granth and the elected representatives of the community (pail.th) , both the spiritual and secular functions of the Gum could be taken care of: the Granth could become the spiritual Guru, the pailth itself tne secular Guru, and the combination of the two, the mystic entity, the guru grail.th pan.th. (c ) Bhai Mani Singh was an eminent theologian entrusted with the care of the temple at Amritsar after lhe Guru's death. At the instance of the Guru he prepared the final rcscension of the Adi Granth. His main work is the Bhagat Rmniivafi. He was executed at Lahore in AO 1738.