Guru Arjan (Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰੂ ਅਰਜਨ, pronunciation: ; 15 April 1563 – 30 May 1606) was the fifth of the ten Sikh Gurus. He compiled the first official edition of the Sikh scripture called the Adi Granth, which later expanded into the Guru Granth Sahib. He is regarded as the first of the two Gurus martyred in the Sikh faith. He is credited for founding the settlements of Kartarpur (Jalandhar district), Hargobindpur, and Tarn Taran.
Guru Arjan was born in Goindval, in the Punjab, the youngest son of Bhai Jetha, who later became Guru Ram Das, and Mata Bhani, the daughter of Guru Amar Das. He completed the construction of the Darbar Sahib at Amritsar, after the fourth Sikh Guru, his father, had founded the town and built a sarovar. Arjan compiled the hymns of previous Gurus and of other saints into the Adi Granth, the first edition of the Sikh scripture, and installed it in the Harimandir Sahib.
Guru Arjan reorganized the Masand system initiated by Guru Ram Das by suggesting that Sikhs donate, if possible, one-tenth of their income, goods or service to the Sikh organization (a practice known as dasvandh). The Masand was an individual who not only collected these funds but also taught tenets of Sikhism and settled civil disputes in their region, similar to a vicar or parish priest in Christianity. The dasvandh financed the building of gurdwaras and langars (shared communal kitchens).DS Dhillon (1988), Sikhism Origin and Development Atlantic Publishers, pp. 213-215, 204-207
Guru Arjan was arrested under the orders of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir, who accused him of supporting a rebellion under Khusrau Mirza. After refusing to convert to Islam, Arjan was tortured and executed in 1606. Historical records and the Sikh tradition are unclear as to whether Arjan was executed by drowning or died during torture. The Sikh tradition states the Guru's execution was a part of the ongoing persecution of the Sikhs under the Mughal Empire.Louis E. Fenech, Martyrdom in the Sikh Tradition, Oxford University Press, pp. 118-121 His martyrdom is considered a watershed event in the history of Sikhism. It is remembered as Shaheedi Divas of Guru Arjan in May or June according to the Nanakshahi calendar released by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in 2003.
Biography
Early life Guru Arjan was born in Goindval to Bibi Bhani and Jetha Sodhi. Bibi Bhani was the daughter of Guru Amar Das, and her husband Jetha Sodhi later came to be known as Guru Ram Das. Arjan's birthplace site is now memorialized as the Gurdwara Chaubara Sahib.Guru Arjan Birthplace He had two brothers: Prithi Chand and Mahadev. Various Sikh chroniclers give his birth year as 1553 or 1563, the latter is accepted by scholarly consensus as the actual year of birth with 15 April as the accepted birth date.
Guru Arjan spent the first 11 years of his life in Goindwal and the next seven years with his father in Ramdaspur. Per Sikh tradition, he had stayed for two years in Lahore during his youth after being sent by his father to attend the wedding of his first cousin Sahari Mal's son as well as to establish a Sikh congregation. He was appointed as the Sikh Guru in 1581 after the death of his father. Guru Ram Das was a Khatri of the Sodhi sub-caste. With Arjan's succession, the Guruship remained in the Sodhi family of Guru Ram Das.
Marriages According to historians, Guru Arjan wedded twice. His first wife was Mata Ram Dei, whom he married on 20 June 1579. His second wife was Mata Ganga, their wedding taking place on 19 May 1589. Popular Sikh tradition omits his first wife and claims he was only married to Ganga. According to Mohinder Kaur Gill, Sikh tradition states that Mata Ram Dei could not produce a child for Guru Arjan, thus she persuaded him to marry another woman. Another version claims Mata Ram Dei died so the guru married again.
Succession and time as Guru
Guru Ram Das chose Arjan, the youngest, to succeed him as the fifth Sikh Guru. Mahadev, the middle brother chose the life of an ascetic. His choice of Guru Arjan as successor, as throughout most of the history of Sikh Guru successions, led to disputes and internal divisions among the Sikhs.
The succession dispute regarding Guru Arjan created a schism that yielded different narratives for the two factions. In the orthodox Sikh tradition, Prithi Chand is remembered as vehemently opposing Guru Arjan, creating a factional sect of the Sikh community. The Sikhs following Arjan referred to the breakaway faction as Minas (literally, "scoundrels"). Prithi Chand and his followers attempted to assassinate the young Hargobind thrice. Prithi Chand also befriended Mughal agents. Subsequent written competing texts written by the Minas, on the other hand, offered a different explanation for the attempt on Hargobind's life, and present him as devoted to his younger brother Arjan. The eldest son of Prithi Chand, Miharvan, is mentioned in both traditions as having received tutelage from both Prithi Chand and Arjan as a child.
The competing texts acknowledge the disagreements. They state Prithi Chand left Amritsar, became the Sahib Guru after the martyrdom of Guru Arjan and one who disputed the succession of Hargobind as the next Guru. The followers of Prithi Chand considered themselves the true followers of Guru Nanak as they rejected the increasing emphasis on militarization of the panth under Hargobind to resist Mughal persecution in the wake of Arjan's martyrdom, in favor of non-violent interiorization. In addition to Prithi Chand, a son of Guru Amar Das named Baba Mohan had also challenged the authority of Arjan. These challenging claims were asserted by the early Sikh sects in part by their manuscripts of Sikh hymns. Baba Mohan possessed the Goindval pothi containing the hymns of Nanak and other early Gurus, while Prithi Chand possessed the Guru Harsahai pothi then believed to have been the oldest scripture from the time of Nanak. This, state scholars, may have triggered Guru Arjan to create a much enlarged, official version of the Adi Granth.
Upon the first parkash of the Adi Granth according to Gurbilas, Guru Arjan said, "Listen you all to my directive. And believe it as ever true. Accept the Granth as equal with the Guru. And think no distinctions between the two."
The mainstream Sikh tradition recognised Guru Arjan as the fifth Guru, and Hargobind as the sixth Guru.DS Dhillon (1988), Sikhism Origin and Development Atlantic Publishers, pp. 99-110 Arjan, at age 18, became the fifth Guru in 1581 inheriting the title from his father. After his execution by the Muslim officials of the Mughal Empire, his son Hargobind became the sixth Guru in 1606 CE.
Execution
Guru Arjan died in Mughal custody; this has been one of the defining, though controversial, issues in Sikh history.Pashaura Singh (2005), Understanding the Martyrdom of Guru Arjan , Journal of Philosophical Society, 12(1), page 29, Quote: "The most controversial issue in Sikh history is related to Guru Arjan's execution in Mughal custody. A number of interpretations of this event have emerged in scholarly and quasi-scholarly writings."
Most Mughal historians considered Guru Arjan's execution as a political event, stating that the Sikhs had become formidable as a social group, and Sikh Gurus became actively involved in the Punjabi political conflicts.Pashaura Singh (2005), Understanding the Martyrdom of Guru Arjan , Journal of Philosophical Society, 12(1), pages 29-62 A similar theory floated in the early 20th-century, asserts that this was just a politically-motivated single execution.Pashaura Singh (2005), Understanding the Martyrdom of Guru Arjan , Journal of Philosophical Society, 12(1), page 29, Quote: Similarly, in the early decades of twentieth-century Beni Prasad treated this whole affair as "a single execution due primarily to political reasons." According to this theory, there was an ongoing Mughal dynasty dispute between Jahangir and his son Khusrau suspected of rebellion by Jahangir, wherein Arjan blessed Khusrau and thus the losing side. Jahangir was jealous and outraged, and therefore he ordered the Guru's execution.Pashaura Singh (2005), Understanding the Martyrdom of Guru Arjan , Journal of Philosophical Society, 12(1), pages 32-33 But according to Jahangir's own autobiography, most probably he didn't understand the importance of Sikh gurus. He referred to Arjan as a Hindu, who had "captured many of the simple-hearted of the Hindus and even of the ignorant and foolish followers of Islam, by his ways and manners...for the three or four generations (of spiritual successors) they had kept this shop warm." The execution of Arjan marks a sharp contrast to Jahangir's tolerant attitude towards other religions such as Hinduism and Christianity.
But even earlier, there has been dispute between emperor Akbar and Guru Arjan and his peasant base regarding the new land revenue system of Mughal empire. Akbar had visited the guru at Goindwal and land revenue of Bari doab was subsequently exempted.
The Sikh tradition has a competing view. It states that the Guru's execution was a part of the ongoing persecution of the Sikhs by Islamic authorities in the Mughal Empire,Pashaura Singh (2005), Understanding the Martyrdom of Guru Arjan , Journal of Philosophical Society, 12(1), page 29, Quote: "In contrast to this viewpoint, however, most of the Sikh scholars have vehemently presented this event as the first of the long series of religious persecutions that Sikhs suffered at the hands of Mughal authorities." and that the Mughal rulers of Punjab were alarmed at the growth of the Panth. According to Jahangir's autobiography Tuzk-e-Jahangiri (Jahangirnama) which discussed Arjan's support for his rebellious son Khusrau, too many people were becoming persuaded by Arjan's teachings and if Arjan did not become a Muslim, the Sikh Panth had to be extinguished.
In 1606 CE, the Guru was imprisoned in Lahore Fort, where by some accounts he was tortured and executed, and by other accounts, the method of his death remains unresolved. The traditional Sikh account states that the Mughal emperor Jahangir demanded a fine of 200,000 rupees and demanded that Arjan erase some of the hymns in the text that he found offensive. The Guru refused to remove the lines and pay the fine which, the Sikh accounts state, led to his execution. Some Muslim traditional accounts such as of Latif in 19th-century states that Arjan was dictatorial, someone who lived in splendour with "costly attire", who had left aside the rosary and the clothes of a saint (fakir)., Quote: "Latif, writing his work in 19th century, states that Guru Arjan assumed dictatorship, and adds that he was the first one to lay aside the rosary and the garb of a fakir, and dressed himself in costly attire and converted the saintly gaddi (the seat) of his pious predecessors into a princely rostrum. He adds that Guru Arjan kept fine horses and elephants, and lived in splendour." Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi cheered the punishment and execution of Arjun, calling the Sikh Guru an infidel.Pashaura Singh (2005), Understanding the Martyrdom of Guru Arjan , Journal of Philosophical Society, 12(1), page 34 In contrast, Mian Mir – the Sufi friend of Arjan, lobbied when Jehangir ordered the execution and the confiscation of Arjan's property, then got the confiscation order deferred, according to Rishi Singh.