Indian Antiquary Vol 01

SR No.: 032493
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 430
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 22 MB

Page 187

MAY 3, 1872.)
NOTES, &c.
161
free from tigers. The only animals seen on my visit free-masons, and no certainty prevails on the point. were the monkeys, playing and chattering on the Women are admissable to the sect and to their astrees and rocks near the entrances of both caves,
semblies; and dancing is not only allowable, but and a large flock of huge storks, nearly as tall as men,
justified on the ground of the following text from the which were stalking in the midst of the nearly
Granth:
Nachan Kudan Man da chao ripe paddy.--Abridged from Times of India, Jan. 8.
Nanak jnan man blo, wulan mau bao.
They are consequently noisy in their assemblies, reRISE OF THE KUKA SECT.
viving to some extent, it would seem, tlie ecstacies of RAM SINGH was originally a carpenter, residing in & of the howling dervishes of Egypt and the dancing small village named Bhaini, situated about seven dervishes of Constantinople, for so excited do they miles south-east of Ludhiana. He served, however, in become that some have been known to fall down in a the Sikh army as a soldier, I believe, in 1848, but after state of hal or coma. At first, votaries of the new rethe breaking up of the Sikh Raj, he retired to his nativo ligion came in slowly, and Ram Singh had not any village, and resumed his occupation as a carpenter. difficulty in initiating and baptising all the weavers We next hear of him as having undertaken a contract and carpenters who were prepared to accept him for making the road or a portion of it from Rawal as their Guru; but by degrees converts grew more Pindi to Mari. On completing this, he retired again numerous, and he was obliged to appoint lieuteto his village, and is reported to have seen a vision nants to aid him in the work. He himself, too, asWe next hear of him as .ne Guru called to purify sumed & more important role. He rode about on the Sikh faith. In the begining his ideas were modest, horseback, surrounded by noisy and numerous and his following as slender as his ideas were modest. following, who continually shouted Akal ! Akal ! As the Sikhs have ten gurus, so have they ten points of clear the way I Ram Singh comes. Akal! Laich-five afirmative and five negative. The first are Akal / ko., &c. Finally Ram Singh conceived the called five Ks, and are
idea of becoming the tenth Guru of the Sikhs, (A) Kard, Kachh, Kerpal, Kaughi, Kes.
or, if not, the first Guru of as powerful a religious and Iron ornaments, short drawers, iron quoits or wea. political association. He increased the number of pons, the comb, and hair.
his Subahs to twenty-two, the same number as the That is to say, they are not to be efteminate nor to
king of Dehli hal; and commenced very active shave, and to be always ready for fighting.
system of propagation in the cis and trans-Satlaj The negative points or moral precepts of the faith States and throughout the Sikh portion of the are contained in the following formula -
Panjab. Almost all the carpenters, masons, and (B) Nari-mar, Kuri-mar, Sri Katta, Sunnet Katta, Dhir weavers joined the new religion, and many Jats; Nalia.
but the body of the Sikhs fought very shy of That is to say, they are not to smoke, not to kill Guru Ram Singh and his followers, and the Chiefs their daughters, not to consort with or trust the crown
set their faces dead against them. The Sikhs shorn, nor the circumcised, nor the followers of the like good meat and strong drink when they can Guru of Kartarpur.
get them, better than shouting akal, and dancIt is of some importance to bear these precepts in ing and singing and telling the knots on a mind as they show (although most of them date only woollen string; and the chiefs are not at all in from Guru Govind Singh) that the Sikh faith is hostile favour of transferring any of the allegiance their subto both Hindu and Moslem,-naturally much more jects owe to them to the Guru Ram Singh, the Guru so to the latter than the former, in consequence of of Kartarpur, or any other Guru now living or yet to cow-killing.
be born. It is quite possible that Ram Singh was at Ram Singh, however, did not content himself by
first merely a religious enthusiast; but if so, there can adhering to the tenets of the faith as left by the last
be no doubt that his success turned his head, and that Guru. His endeavour appears to have been to bring
for some years past he entertained visions of becoming it back rather to the form in which it took life under the leader of a national movement the ultimate Guru Nanak with some modification of his own. aim of which was power. The Government of the
Thus the Kukas reject altogether the Hindu Shastra, l'anjab took little notice of the Guru'. proceedings have separate forms of marriage and burial services, for some years, or, indeed, until the movement had do not drink, do not eat meat, and never eat before made such progress that it would bave been bathing; wear the turban above and not over the ears ! difficult to check it. In 1867, however, or when bathe twice a day; are required strictly to speak the truth; Sir Donald McLeod last visited Ludhiana, ho never to eat from the hand of any but & Kuka; and, sent for Ram Singh, and demanded from him an above all, to preserve sacred and inviolate the Cow. The explanation of his proceedings. He disclaimed all ceremony of initiation consists of the investiture with idea of aspiring to political power, declaring his sole the sacred string of knotted wool, bathing and the giving object to be the revival of the Sikh religion in a form of a pass-word never divulged except to a brother Kuke. more pure than it had attained under any previous guru, This pass-word or phrase is said to be "Satnam Karta- or at any time in the history of the Sikhs. The tenets purk," which are the first words of the Adh granth; of the new faith were no doubt calculated to affects but hitherto the sect have observed the secrecy of the great moral regeneration, and the strictness with which
• This guru is a dissipated man who has been bankrupt twice, and is again over bond and bars in debt. He has an original Granth of Govind Singh, and has still a following.