Guru Gobind Singh
Guru Gobind Singh (गुरु गोबिंद सिंह, 1666–1708), born Gobind Rai, was the tenth and last human Guru of the Sikhs, serving from 1675 until his death. He founded the Khalsa in 1699, instituted the Five Ks, and before his death in 1708 declared the Guru Granth Sahib the eternal Guru of the Sikhs.
Life
Guru Gobind Singh was born in 1666 at Patna in Bihar, the only son of Guru Tegh Bahadur and Mata Gujri, and spent his youth at Anandpur in the Punjab hills. After his father’s execution at Delhi in 1675, he became Guru and prepared the community for armed resistance. On Baisakhi of 1699 at Anandpur he created the Khalsa — the order of the pure — initiating the Panj Piare (the five beloved ones) with amrit, and receiving initiation from them in turn. He fought battles against hill-state rajas and Mughal forces; in 1704–05 he lost all four of his sons — the elder two killed in battle at Chamkaur, the younger two bricked up and executed at Sirhind, by traditional account. He retreated south, settled at Nanded, was wounded in an assassination attempt, and died in October 1708.
Contributions
Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa and instituted the Five Ks (kesh, kangha, kara, kachera, kirpan) as marks of Khalsa identity. The compositions associated with him form the core of the Dasam Granth tradition. He added Guru Tegh Bahadur’s hymns to the Guru Granth Sahib and, before his death, ended the line of human Gurus by proclaiming the scripture itself the eternal living Guru.
Legacy
The Khalsa order he created defines Sikh identity and discipline to this day; his end of the human guruship made the Guru Granth Sahib the permanent center of Sikh authority.
Verification notes
- Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).
- Dates (1666–1708), the 1699 Khalsa founding, the Five Ks, and the 1708 proclamation of the Guru Granth Sahib as eternal Guru are per Wikipedia.
- The Sirhind martyrdom account and the authorship boundaries of the Dasam Granth are matters of tradition and scholarly debate.