[43] This must have been in the year 1701, when Baháder Sháh was detached from the Dek'hin to take charge of the government of Cábul, and was probably ordered, at the same time, to settle the disturbances in the Penjáb.
[44] There is a remarkable passage in this chapter, in which Gúrú Góvind appears to acknowledge the supremacy of the emperor. "God," he says, "formed both Bábá (Nánac) and Báber (the emperor of that name). Look upon Bábá as the Pádsháh (king) of religion, and Báber, the lord of the world. He who will not give Nánac a single damri, (a coin the sixteenth part of an ana,) will receive a severe punishment from Báber."
[45] Kahilúr, or Kahlóre, is situated on the Satléj, above Mák'havál. It is near the mountains through which that river flows into the Penjáb. Another place of the name of Kahilúr, or Kahlóre, is situated a short distance from Lahore, to the N. E. of that city.
[46] The Muhammedan authors blame Vízír Khán for this unnecessary and impolitic act of barbarity.
[47] Bhavání Durgá.
[48] In the Penjábi narrative of B'hai Gúrú Dás B'halé, the actions of Ajit Singh, and Ranjít Singh, sons of Góvind, are particularly described; and, from one part of the description, it would appear that the family of Góvind, proud of their descent, had not laid aside the zunár, or holy cord, to which they were, as belonging to the Cshatríya race, entitled. Speaking of these youths, the author says: "Slaughtering every Turk and Pahlan whom they saw, they adorned their sacred strings, by converting them into sword-belts. Returning from the field, they sought their father, who bestowed a hundred blessings on their scimetars."
[49] The Sikh author, though he may reject the superstitious idolatry of the Hindús, adorns his descriptions with every image its mythology can furnish; and claims for his hero the same high honours in Swarga, that a Bráhmen would expect for one of the Pándu race.
[50] Mr. Foster has followed this authority in his account of the Sikh nation: and I am inclined to believe that the part of it which relates to Gúrú Góvind's dying at Nadér, in the Dek'hin, of a wound received from a Patán, is correct; as it is written on the last page of a copy of the Adí-Grant'h, in my possession, with several other facts relative to the dates of the births and deaths of the principal high priests of the Sikhs.
[51] Both at Chamkóur, and other forts, from which the famished Sikhs attempted to escape, many of them were taken, and had their noses and ears cut off.
[52] Meaning Sikhs; whose faith, though it differs widely from the present worship of the Hindús, has been thought to have considerable analogy to the pure and simple religion originally followed by that nation.