SICLEEGUR, s. Hind. ṣaiḳalgar, from Ar. ṣaiḳal, 'polish.' A furbisher of arms, a sword-armourer, a sword- or knife-grinder. [This, in Madras, is turned into Chickledar, Tel. chikili-darudu.]
[1826.—"My father was a shiekul-ghur, or sword-grinder."—Pandurang Hari, ed. 1873, i. 216.]
SIKH, SEIKH, n.p. Panjābi-Hind. Sikh, 'a disciple,' from Skt. Śishya; the distinctive name of the disciples of Nānak Shāh who in the 16th century established that sect, which eventually rose to warlike predominance in the Punjab, and from which sprang Ranjīt Singh, the founder of the brief Kingdom of Lahore.
c. 1650-60.—"The Nanac-Panthians, who are known as composing the nation of the Sikhs, have neither idols, nor temples of idols...." (Much follows.)—Dabistān, ii. 246.
1708-9.—"There is a sect of infidels called Gurú (see [GOOROO]), more commonly known as Sikhs. Their chief, who dresses as a fakír, has a fixed residence at Láhore.... This sect consists principally of Játs and Khatrís of the Panjáb and of other tribes of infidels. When Aurangzeb got knowledge of these matters, he ordered these deputy Gurús to be removed and the temples to be pulled down."—Khāfī Khān, in Elliot, vii. 413.
1756.—"April of 1716, when the Emperor took the field and marched towards Lahore, against the Sykes, a nation of Indians lately reared to power, and bearing mortal enmity to the Mahomedans."—Orme, ii. 22. He also writes Sikes.
1781.—"Before I left Calcutta, a gentleman with whom I chanced to be discoursing of that sect who are distinguished from the worshippers of Brăhm, and the followers of Mahommed by the appellation Seek, informed me that there was a considerable number of them settled in the city of Patna, where they had a College for teaching the tenets of their philosophy."—Wilkins, in As. Res. i. 288.
1781-2.—"In the year 1128 of the Hedjra" (1716) "a bloody action happened in the plains of the Pendjab, between the Sycs and the Imperialists, in which the latter, commanded by Abdol-semed-Khan, a famous Viceroy of that province, gave these inhuman freebooters a great defeat, in which their General, Benda, fell into the victors' hands.... He was a Syc by profession, that is one of those men attached to the tenets of Guru-Govind, and who from their birth or from the moment of their admission never cut or shave either their beard or whiskers or any hair whatever of their body. They form a particular Society as well as a sect, which distinguishes itself by wearing almost always blue cloaths, and going armed at all times...." &c.—Seir Mutaqherin, i. 87.
1782.—"News was received that the Seiks had crossed the Jumna."—India Gazette, May 11.
1783.—"Unhurt by the Sicques, tigers, and thieves, I am safely lodged at Nourpour."—Forster, Journey, ed. 1808, i. 247.