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ON THE SIKHS.
Whatever may have been the political organization of the original Sikh confederacy, it is obvious that it had ceased to exist; it had received its death-blow from Ranjit Sing, and was latterly a monarchy of a despotic character, tempered by the necessity of conciliating powerful military leaders, or of holding them in check chiefly through the agency of their mutual jealousies and conflicting pretensions. The Misals were destroyed, the Guru-matá was forgotten, nor has the Sikh religion preserved much more of its primitive character. Its original elements were deism of a mystical tendency, contemplative worship, peace and good-will, and amalgamation of Mohammedan and Hindu. There was not much of dogma or precept, and its doctrines were inculcated through the channel of mystical and moral verses in a popular style. Nának Shah appears to have sought the amelioration of the principles and feelings rather than an alteration of the creed or usages of the people; he does not seem to have formally abolished caste although he received proselytes from every order, and while he treated the Korán with reverence he acknowledged the whole scheme of the Hindu mythology; so do his followers to the present day, that is, such of his followers as profess the pure Sikh faith. They do not worship images, they worship the visible type of the Khalsa in the book; but they do not question the existence of Brahma, Vishnu, and Śiva; and the legends relating to them, to Vishnu especially, as popularized from the Puráúas in vernacular compositions, con
