As Nánac made no material invasion of either the civil or religious usages of the Hindús, and as his only desire was to restore a nation who had degenerated from their original pure worship[98] into idolatry, he may be considered more in the light of a reformer than of a subverter of the Hindú religion; and those Sikhs who adhere to his tenets, without admitting those of Gúrú Góvind, are hardly to be distinguished from the great mass of Hindú population; among whom there are many sects who differ, much more than that of Nánac, from the general and orthodox worship at present established in India.
The first successors of Nánac appear to have taught exactly the same doctrine as their leader; and though Har Góvind armed all his followers, it was on a principle of self-defence, in which he was fully justified, even by the usage of the Hindús. It was reserved for Gúrú Góvind to give a new character to the religion of his followers; not by making any material alteration in the tenets of Nánac, but by establishing institutions and usages, which not only separated them from other Hindús, but which, by the complete abolition of all distinction of casts, destroyed, at one blow, a system of civil polity, that, from being interwoven with the religion of a weak and bigoted race, fixed the rule of its priests upon a basis that had withstood the shock of ages. Though the code of the Hindús was calculated to preserve a vast community in tranquillity and obedience to its rulers, it had the natural effect of making the country, in which it was established, an easy conquest to every powerful foreign invader; and it appears to have been the contemplation of this effect that made Gúrú Góvind resolve on the abolition of cast, as a necessary and indispensable prelude to any attempt to arm the original native population of India against their foreign tyrants. He called upon all Hindús to break those chains in which prejudice and bigotry had bound them, and to devote themselves to arms, as the only means by which they could free themselves from the oppressive government of the Muhammedans; against whom, a sense of his own wrongs, and those of his tribe, led him to preach eternal warfare. His religious doctrine was meant to be popular, and it promised equality. The invidious appellations of Bráhmen, Cshatríya, Vaisya, and Súdra, were abolished. The pride of descent might remain, and keep up some distinctions; but, in the religious code of Góvind, every Khálsa Singh (for such he termed his followers) was equal, and had a like title to the good things of this world, and to the blessings of a future life.
Though Gúrú Góvind mixes, even more than Nánac, the mythology of the Hindús with his own tenets; though his desire to conciliate them, in opposition to the Muhammedans, against whom he always breathed war and destruction, led him to worship at Hindú sacred shrines; and though the peculiar customs and dress among his followers, are stated to have been adopted from veneration to the Hindú goddess of courage, Dúrga Bhavání; yet it is impossible to reconcile the religion and usages, which Góvind has established, with the belief of the Hindús. It does not, like that of Nánac, question some favourite dogmas of the disciples of Brahmá, and attack that worship of idols, which few of these defend, except upon the ground of these figures, before which they bend, being symbolical representations of the attributes of an all-powerful Divinity; but it proceeds at once to subvert the foundation of the whole system. Wherever the religion of Gúrú Góvind prevails, the institutions of Brahmá must fall. The admission of proselytes, the abolition of the distinctions of cast, the eating of all kinds of flesh, except that of cows, the form of religious worship, and the general devotion of all Singhs to arms, are ordinances altogether irreconcileable with Hindú mythology, and have rendered the religion of the Sikhs as obnoxious to the Bráhmens, and higher tribes of the Hindús, as it is popular with the lower orders of that numerous class of mankind.
After this rapid sketch of the general character of the religion of the Sikhs, I shall take a more detailed view of its origin, progress, tenets, and forms.
A Sikh author[99], whom I have followed in several parts of this sketch, is very particular in stating the causes of the origin of the religion of Nánac: he describes the different Yugas, or ages of the world, stated in the Hindú mythology. The Cáli Yug, which is the present, is that in which it was written that the human race would become completely depraved: "Discord," says the author, speaking of the Cáli Yug, "will rise in the world, sin prevail, and the universe become wicked; cast will contend with cast; and, like bamboos in friction, consume each other to embers. The Védas, or scriptures," he adds, "will be held in disrepute, for they shall not be understood, and the darkness of ignorance will prevail every where." Such is this author's record of a divine prophecy regarding this degenerate age. He proceeds to state what has ensued: "Every one followed his own path, and sects were separated; some worshipped Chandra (the moon); some Surya (the sun); some prayed to the earth, to the sky, and the air, and the water, and the fire, while others worshipped D'herma Rájá (the judge of the dead); and in the fallacy of the sects nothing was to be found but error. In short, pride prevailed in the world, and the four casts[100] established a system of ascetic devotion. From these, the ten sects of Sanyásís, and the twelve sects of Yógis, originated. The Jangam, the Srívíra, and the Déva Digambar, entered into mutual contests. The Bráhmens divided into different classes; and the Sástras, Védas, and Puránas[101], contradicted each other. The six Dersans (philosophical sects) exhibited enmity, and the thirty-six Páshands (heterodox sects) arose, with hundreds of thousands of chimerical and magical (tantra mantra) sects: and thus, from one form, many good and many evil forms originated, and error prevailed in the Cáli Yug, or age of general depravity."
The Sikh author pursues this account of the errors into which the Hindús fell, with a curious passage regarding the origin and progress of the Muhammedan religion.
"The world," he writes, "went on with these numerous divisions, when Muhammed Yara[102] appeared, who gave origin to the seventy-two sects[103], and widely disseminated discord and war. He established the Rózeh o Aíd (fast and festivals), and the Namáz (prayer), and made his practice of devotional acts prevalent in the world, with a multitude of distinctions, of Pír (saint), Paighamber (prophet), Ulemá (the order of priesthood), and Kitàb (the Korán). He demolished the temples, and on their ruins built the mosques, slaughtering cows and helpless persons, and spreading transgression far and wide, holding in hostility Cáfirs (infidels), Mulhids (idolaters), Irmenis (Armenians), Rumis (the Turks), and Zingis (Ethiopians). Thus vice greatly diffused itself in the universe."