Indian Antiquary Vol 55

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 59

MARCE, 1028 1
SOME ASPECTS OF THE CAREER OF GURU HARGOVIND
Guru Khalsa 15 however, state that the Guru was called to Delhi in 1616, and as they sug. gest that the Guru's confinement lasted for only two months, perhaps the Guru was also released in the very same year. But it is impossible to reconcile these accounts with con. temporary Muhammadan history. Jahangir left Agra in the autumn of 1613 and established his court and camp at Ajmer, in order to be in closer touch with the military operations that were then going on against Mewar.16 He left Ajmer on the 10th of November, 1616, and entered Mandu on March 6th, 1617.17 Then Jahangir started on a tour in Gujarat and returned to Agra in the middle of April, 1619, after an absence of five years and a half.18 It wag about this time that Jahangir's health broke down. His physicians advised a change of air, and his annual visits to Kashmir began, his first sojourn of seven months taking place in 1620 (March to October).19 The Sikh records unanimously say that immediately after his release, Guru Hargovind accompanied the Emperor to Kashmir. A very severe illness of the emperor is also referred to. All these tend to place the Guru's release in 1619 or the beginning of 1620. A careful study of the Sikh records makes it clear, in more ways than one, that the Guru accompanied the emperor to Kashmir about this time. The Sikhs state that, being ill-treated by her father, Kaulan, the daughter of the Kazi of Lahore, besought the protection of the Guru, Kaulan's preceptor, the celebrated saint Mian Mir, also interoeded with the Guru in her behalf. Hargovind accordingly gave her asylum and removed her to Amritsar, where, after some days, the famous tank, Kaulasar, was excavated in her memory. The date of the excavation of the tank is given as 1621.20 As Kaulan came under the protection of the Guru at the time when he came to Lahore in the emperor's camp, it seems that he accompanied the emperor at the time of his first sojourn, and as the Guru set out with the emperor immediately after his release, his release could not have taken place earlier than 1619.
This would make Hargovind's period of imprisonment extend to about seven years, as, according to Macauliffe, he had been summoned to Delhi in 1612. Mohsun Fani, however, clearly states that the Guru was kept in prison for twelve years. Leaving aside, for the present, the incontestablo nature of the evidence of Mohsun Fani, let us see whether the Sikh records themselves lend any support to his statement. We have already said that Hargovind's marriage with Nanaki took place after his return to Amritsar. It is said, however, that this Nanaki had been betrothed to Hargovind, when his father, Guru Arjan, was still living. 11 The reasons given for the postponement of the marriage are the extreme youth of Nanaki and the Gurn's absence in Delhi, Agra, Lahore and other places. But if Hargovind had been imprisoned in 1612, he had clear six years during which he might have celebrated his marriage with Nanaki. The question of youth may safely be disregarded, as the Sikh records abound in instances of very early girl marriages. The inevitable conclusion must be that after his accession Hargovind had very little time to think of his marriage. He was put into prison about 1607, perhaps a year after his accession to the gaddi of his father, his release taking place in 1619, and the period of his imprisonment being twelve years..
Now, let us consider the causes of Guru Hargovind's imprisonment and see whether they throw any light on the question at issue. Both Cunningham 28 and Narang?4 say that the reasons for Guru Hargovind's incarceration were his over-independent character, his breaking of forest-laws owing to his great passion for hunting, and his appropriating to his own use the money he should have disbursed to the troops. The fine imposed on Arjan, moro. over, had never been paid; and all these causes combined to induce the emperor to send Hargovind as & prisoner to the Fort of Gwalior. The main authority for this view is Capt.
16 P. 129. 17 Ibid., p. 277. 19 Ibid., p. 319. 21 Ibid., vol. III, p. 77. 38 History of the Sikhs, Garrot's edition, p. 67.
14 Beni Prasad's Jahangir, p. 237. 18 Ibid., p. 300. 30 Macauliffe, the Sikh Religion, vol. IV, p. 48 22 Ibid., vol. IV, p. 30. * Transformation of Sithiom, p 4.