Atlas of World Religions by Tim Dowley

Author:Tim Dowley [Dowley, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-5064-3975-4
Publisher: Fortress Press
Published: 2018-10-14T16:00:00+00:00

Sikhism

Sikhism is one of the youngest of the world’s major religions. Around 1500 ce, Nanak, the religion’s founder, is said to have been transformed by God while bathing. He emerged with the words, ‘There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim’ – a simple creed that became the basis of Sikhism.

The history of Sikhism has always been closely linked to the Punjab, the land of its origins. Sikhism first emerged in a society that was religiously divided. It is not a mere combination of Hindu and Muslim elements: from the outset it has defined itself as a new and independent third way. Yet it is the product of the relationship, in the Punjab and beyond, of a vigorous minority community with the two larger traditions of Hinduism and Islam.

Guru Nanak (1469–1539) was a capable organizer of his followers as well as an insightful and powerful teacher. He laid the foundations for some of the defining practices of Sikhism, particularly the daily offices of prayer (nitnem) and congregational assembly to hear the hymns of the Guru. Guru Nanak went outside his family to select his successor Angad (r. 1539–52) as second Guru of the Sikh community, or Panth (path, way).

After Nanak’s death, the Sikhs were led by a line of living Gurus until the death of the 10th Guru in 1708. Although the third Guru, Amar Das (r. 1552–74), symbolically rejected the Hindu caste hierarchy by instituting the langar, the temple kitchen offering food to all regardless of caste, all the Gurus were from the same Khatri caste as Nanak. From the fifth Guru onwards the succession became hereditary within a single family.

Initially the centre of the community shifted with each Guru, until Guru Arjan (r. 1581–1606) founded the great temple at Amritsar – the Golden Temple (Harimandir) – which since its inauguration in 1604 has been the focal point of Sikhism. Guru Arjan also codified the Sikh scriptures, the Adi Granth (‘original book’). This huge hymnal fills 1,430 pages in the modern edition, and is central to the ritual of Sikh temples (gurdwara – ‘gate of the Guru’).

SIKH ORIGINS (map 47)

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