Abstract
In the history of Sikhism it has been firmly established that the Khatri caste played a significant role in the development of the medieval Sikh community. Moreover, the Khatris in the Mughal period grew into a prominent commercial and scribal caste. However it has never been considered why Sikhism, in the context of the Khatri’s medieval commercial expansion, attracted a large Khatri following. In this article I endeavour to explore the appeal of Sikhism to the medieval Khatri community by examining early Sikh thought on trade and commerce. In addition, I attempt to embed the influence of Sikhism within the development of the medieval Khatri merchant family. And consider how the growth of the Khatri merchant network resulted in the spread of Sikhism across Mughal north India.
Keywords
Introduction
On 12 October 1872, the British civil servant, Kashi Nath, submitted a letter to the editor of the Indian Antiquary in response to a recent article on the history of the Khatri caste by Mr J. White, Assistant Collector of Fatehpur. Nath identifies himself as a Delhiwala Khatri residing in Allahabad and owing to his intimate caste knowledge wanted to put right the misrepresentations made by Mr White. The complex issue of caste as a social concept in South Asia was, of course, of growing interest for colonial administrator–scholars in the late nineteenth century. And for the commercial castes in north India’s great cities, this colonial fascination ignited self-reflection on the genesis and evolution of their own castes. 1 Nath, like his fellow Khatris, was interested in dispelling the notion that the Khatris were ‘foreign’ to India and akin to the Rajputs or Jats in their early history. Mr White had asserted in his article that the Khatris had moved westward into India comparatively late, but Nath states ‘had such been the case, Khatris, like Jats, would have been denominated by the Brahmans Sudras or Mlechhas. No pious Brahman eats food cooked by a Jat’. 1 While the Khatris disliked such an association with Jats, Nath felt that a more natural comparison could be made with other urban castes, namely the Kayasths, Agarwals, Banias and Oswal Jains. 1 Despite this closeness with other commercial castes, for Nath and other Khatris of the time, the Khatri caste was unique. For example, Nath says that ‘every one of that caste looks to the Panjab as his home and up to the present time it contains the largest proportion of the Khatri population, which gradually lessens as you descend towards the east, until it almost totally disappears beyond Patna’. 1 The Khatris saw their regional identity as Punjabi; and while many Khatri families had migrated to Gangetic north India the sense of being Punjabi had not ceased.
However, what is most interesting is Nath’s brief but illuminating discussion about Khatri religious beliefs:
As Guru Nanak belonged to this caste, he is regarded as the patron or national saint of the Khatris. His and his successors’ compositions (Granth Sahib) are looked upon with great reverence and respect, and generally read. The deistical doctrines and tenets inculcated by the great Khatri reformer have considerably influenced their morals, manners, and customs, weaning them to a great degree from many superstitions still clung to by other Hindu tribes. This leads some to suspect their being genuine Hindus. Not only Lahna [Guru Angad] but almost all the ten successors of Nanak were Khatris. Nanakshahi fakirs are reverentially received in our families. Chandu Lal used to feed thousands of fakirs every day. When he had reached the height of his prosperity at the Nizam’s court, he presented to the Akhada of Nirmal fakirs some lakhs of rupees. Its management rests with the Mahant and Panchs of that large body. They lend the money on good security to Rajas and Maharajas. The expenses of food, & c., of the whole body, which contains several thousand members, dispersed all over Hindustan, are defrayed from the proceeds at the Allahabad and Haridwar fairs.
1
In this fascinating paragraph Nath states that observers of the Khatri caste queried whether they were ‘genuine Hindus’. This is because as Nath explains Khatri culture and customs were considerably shaped by Guru Nanak’s deism. The categorisation of Sikh philosophy as deistic reflects Nath’s familiarity with Orientalist studies on Sikhism. 1 Nath says that the Khatris saw the Sikh Gurus as their patron saints; Guru Nanak was a Khatri reformer and Sikhism had removed from the Khatris many ‘superstitions’ held by other Hindus. The Khatris saw Sikh scriptures as sacred and the patronage of Sikh religious orders as meritorious. So much so that the noted Chandu Lal Khatri, who achieved distinction as a minister and banker in the Hyderabad court, donated several lakhs to an Akhara of Nirmala Sikhs. 1 And even more interestingly, the Akhara of Nirmalas used the donated money to establish a commercial bank lending business for kings and ensured they had good security for every loan made.
Moreover, Nath informs us of a special ceremony performed within Khatri households known as kadhaya prasad (pull out blessing). This ‘pull out blessing’ is said to have derived from an anecdote of Guru Nanak’s life.
This ceremony is celebrated by Khatris on occasions of marriage or child-birth, and sometimes as a thanks-giving when blest with prosperity in any dealing, or when relived by distress. The large pan in which the Monbhog, a sweetmeat made with butter, wheat-flour, and sugar, in equal proportions, has been prepared, is placed on a wooden elevated plate and covered with a white sheet. A Nanak Shahi fakir, either the guru of the family, or anyone else known for his religious knowledge and merit, presiding, takes a seat just behind the pan; the Granth Saheb or words of Nanak and his followers being reverentially placed on a wooden stool before him. He reads from it to the audience, which is chiefly composed of the celebrator’s friends, relations, and neighbours, invited for the occasion. When the sermon is over, the presiding fakir stands up, and with him all the party. He repeats aloud the tenets and prayers—adis sabda composed by Nanak in glorification of the one Eternal Being without form, Creator and Protector of the Universe. At the end of each hymn the party joins with the fakir in acclamation of Wah Guruji! After this every one presents to the fakir something in money (ardas) according to his means. The ceremony ends with the distribution of the contents of the pan as a treat (prasada) to all present. 1
The detail Nath provides is wonderful and it displays how Khatri families in this period saw Sikhism as very much a part of their cultural universe because this ceremony was reserved for those watershed moments of birth and marriage. Also it appears certain families had their own Nanakshahi gurus and many more had direct relationships with local Nanakshahi fakirs, most probably referring to Udasi and Nirmala Sikhs. 1
The prominence of the Khatris in the business history of medieval and early modern India has been well established. 1 The Khatris originating from the Punjab began settling along the Gangetic trade route between 1500 and 1700; and in particular Khatri merchant communities were established in Delhi, Agra, Mirzapur, Banaras and Patna. The north-west trade route was the other natural path for commercial expansion by Khatri traders who established positions in Lahore, Multan, Kabul and up to the Caspian entrepôt city of Astrakhan. This highly sophisticated merchant network must have grown out of a desire to exploit new markets and to regulate the existing supply chain of goods and services to major commercial centres such as Delhi. But this complex network could have only emerged and functioned due to bonds of trust connecting each point along the network. And trust became rooted in the culture of commercial castes: the ethics and morality of the merchant was centrally important to the corporate culture of castes such as the Khatris and Agarwals. The development of this caste corporate culture was interwoven with religion. As Bayly describes by the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the merchant family culture of Hindus, Jains and Sikhs in Gangetic north India became solidified into common ideals and practices, for example, a fear of bad credit and controlling emotions such as greed and lust. 1 Significantly a common culture of religious devotion emerged in the area mixing Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism. 1 These religious traditions had clear commonalities and would have allowed merchant castes to create a bhakti culture that provided castes with the flexibility to be different and to have a mutual language of religion.
The nineteenth century Khatri merchant family had a defined merchant culture that had been evolving since the sixteenth century. While the Khatri caste had emerged before the sixteenth century, it was in the early sixteenth century that Guru Nanak (1469–1539) began to spread Sikhism in the Punjab region. As Kashi Nath stated Guru Nanak and the other Sikh Gurus had a profound impact on the Khatris and subsequently the Gurus became the ‘patron saints’ of the caste itself. Why, it could be asked, were the Khatris so attracted to Sikhism in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that it shaped their caste practices to such a noticeable extent? Kashi Nath explained that it was partly due to the fact that the Sikh Gurus were Khatris and partly because Sikh doctrines were so appealing. The reasoning of caste affinity—that Khatris were attracted to early Sikhism because the Sikh Gurus belonged to the caste—has been reiterated by historians over time. In his study of the development of the early Sikh community, the influential scholar W.H. McLeod makes no attempt whatsoever to explain why the Khatris found Sikhism appealing. 1 His reasoning is simple: the Khatris found Sikhism attractive because the Gurus were Khatris. As he argues, ‘all ten Gurus came from Khatri families and there are other indications that the Khatris commanded a particular influence within the Panth during its early years’. 1 By contrast, considerable attention has been given by McLeod and others on the emergence and impact of the Jat caste on early Sikh society. 1 More recent research into medieval Sikh society has, however, investigated the internal structures and cultural systems of specific caste groups. It has presented a more nuanced interpretation of early Sikh society by illuminating how particular sections of the early Sikh community differed in their views and interests in relation to Sikhism. 1 This research has not extended to consider the appeal of early Sikhism to Khatri society as yet.
The widely held presumption that Sikhism was innately appealing to medieval Khatri society hides important questions about early Sikh thought regarding mercantilism and the development of the medieval Khatri merchant family’s commercial culture. Sant bhakti of the nirguna strand, associated with poets such as Kabir, Ravidas and Dadu Dyal, is characterised by the lowly social backgrounds of the poets and its anti-establishment themes critiquing the corruption and contradictions of Brahmans, kings and other holy groups. 1 Although Guru Nanak is usually included in this category of Sant bhakti, it is often overlooked that Nanak and all the Sikh Gurus did not come from the lowest strata of society. Rather they were from Khatri merchant families and members of Brahmanical society. Indeed, aside from Nanak, it is more than likely that Gurus Angad, Amar Das and Ram Das, all had performed the jeneu (sacred thread) ceremony. 1 As I will detail more clearly later, early Sikh society seems to have had an elite social appeal from its very beginning, attracting Khatris, Brahmans and the local gentry. In this regard Sikhism’s elite appeal made it unlike other contemporary Sant religions. 1 Instead, as I have argued in this article, Sikhism was in many respects a mercantile bhakti religion that would develop into a martial bhakti religion culminating in the formation of the Khalsa at the turn of the eighteenth century. 1 The impact of the Khalsa on Sikh history and identity coupled with a regional focus on the Punjab has overshadowed early Sikh mercantilism. In the many works that have been produced on the poetry of the early Sikh Gurus, little or no attention has been given to the mercantile themes that persistently appear in their verses. Nor have scholars contextualised their analysis of the sakhis (anecdotes) that emerge on Guru Nanak’s life in this period and the Hukumnamas (letters of command) sent by the Sikh Gurus to sangats (congregations) outside the Punjab within the wider development of the Khatri merchant family in Mughal India.
In this article I will explore why Sikhism was so appealing to the mercantile aspirations of the early Khatri merchant family by examining the works of the Sikh Gurus in the Adi Granth and then considering how the sakhis and Hukumnamas show the development of a medieval Khatri merchant culture. The main primary sources I have consulted include the Adi Granth, the ballads (varan) of the Sikh savant, Bhai Gurdas Bhalla (d.1636), the sakhis contained in the Adi Sakhis (First collection of anecdotes), and the Hukumnamas. Specifically I have used a standard published version of the Adi Granth which is regarded as authentic by the contemporary Sikh community. I have used a published version of Bhai Gurdas’ varans which has been edited by Bhai Vir Singh and is regarded as the standard and authentic anthology of Gurdas’ ballads. The Adi Sakhis represent one manuscript tradition of janamsakhis (life stories) on Guru Nanak’s life; it is a matter of contention and deep textual analysis to determine when specific sakhis emerge. 1 And the Adi Sakhis represent a mature manuscript tradition, but for the sake of this article the sakhi that will be examined appears in all the other manuscript traditions with no difference in the moral of the story, and so it is not vital whether the manuscript tradition can be traced definitely to the medieval period. 1 The Hukumnamas I have used have been published with facsimiles in a collection edited by Ganda Singh. Ganda Singh’s Hukumnamas are letters sent to Sikh sangats across India by the Sikh Gurus from the reign of Guru Hargobind (r. 1606–44) to Guru Gobind Singh (r. 1675–1708) and kept at present in temples and private collections.
The Sikh Gurus and Early Sikh Society
Guru Nanak was born into a Khatri merchant family based in Talwandi, a village near Lahore and he belonged to the relatively high-ranking Bedi gotra. 1 In Talwandi, Nanak’s father, Kalu Bedi, was a patwari (administrator) retained by the village headman, Rai Bhoa. In a family in which Nanak was the only son, his parents desired that he would be educated and eventually obtain employment in clerical service. Nanak received a patwari education that emphasised practical and secular knowledge such as the study of accountancy and requisite linguistic skills in Persian and Sanskrit. While Nanak was undoubtedly highly literate, he lacked the necessary enthusiasm to complete his education. In the janamsakhis that emerge on Guru Nanak’s life, Nanak is often depicted as a carefree young man solely interested in performing God’s bhakti and this is contrasted with the parental and societal pressures on Nanak to conform to the humdrum of normative behaviour. It appears that Nanak was encouraged to become a savvy trader by his father and exploit the rhythm of market forces, but in all his forays into the bazaar Nanak squandered his cash in acts of charity. Neither a civil servant nor a merchant by instinct, Nanak’s immediate family, by contrast, certainly lived up to their social roles: his father-in-law, Mulah Chonha, was a patwari for his village headman, Ajita Randhawa and his brother-in-law, Jai Ram, was in service at the darbar of Daulat Khan Lodi in Sultanpur. Indeed, Guru Nanak joined Jai Ram as a civil servant in Sultanpur when he was approximately 30 years old. Nanak’s career was brief; in Sultanpur he suddenly experienced a life-changing vision of the divine during his solitary morning worship. From there Guru Nanak began a series of udasis (journeys) across the subcontinent and beyond to the Middle East. On his udasis Nanak impressed his charisma upon the locals, and notably celebrated hatha-yoga masters, Sufi shaykhs and Sant gurus. Nanak became a prominent guru in the period and returned to his native Punjab to establish a permanent base at Kartarpur. And Kartarpur became the first Sikh community in which the Guru’s presence was central for worship and congregation. 1 The Kartarpur Sikh community established the rituals and customs that would be replicated by the Sikh sangats that emerged in the following decades in Punjab and elsewhere.
Guru Nanak was certain that his purpose was not merely to create a community, but also to sustain it by creating a lineage of Sikh Gurus. 1 At Kartarpur, Nanak appointed his most devout Sikh (student), Lahina, as his successor. Lahina, renamed Guru Angad (r. 1539–52), established the second Sikh dharamsala (hospice) in his wife’s home village of Khadur in the Punjab. Angad, like Guru Nanak, was a Khatri, but of the lesser ranking Trehan gotra. Angad too was born into a merchant family engaged in petty trade and possibly minor bank lending. While Angad’s family was not so well-to-do that they were able to attain professional employment in local and regional bureaucracies—his family was literate in the local language written in the Gurmukhi script. Gurmukhi (lit. from the mouth of the Guru) originated as an unsophisticated early Punjabi script used by petty traders for book keeping and Angad is usually attributed with establishing Gurmukhi as the script used in Sikh scriptures. 1 Following Angad, Amar Das was appointed as the next Guru. Identically with his predecessors, Guru Amar Das (r. 1552–74) was a Khatri belonging to the lower ranking Bhalla gotra, his family was also involved in petty trade and lacked the social position to pursue professional careers. Due to the fact that Amar Das became a Sikh of Guru Angad at the advanced age of about 62, he must have spent most of his life working as a trader. Guru Amar Das was succeeded by his son-in-law, Ram Das, who moved from Amar Das’ headquarters at Goindwal to Ramdaspur (later becoming Amritsar). Guru Ram Das (r. 1574–81) was from a rather impoverished background; he was a Khatri belonging to the lowly Sodhi gotra. Ram Das’ family eked out their living by selling boiled grains. But significantly Ram Das nominated his youngest son, Arjan, as his successor and Guru Arjan (r. 1581–1606) subsequently developed Amritsar into a flourishing temple town and constructed a lucrative property portfolio. Guru Arjan’s son and successor, Guru Hargobind, would build upon his father’s legacy and he experienced a process of gentrification that transformed the Sikh community into a notable political group in Mughal Punjab. 1
Prior to Guru Arjan all the Sikh Gurus and their families had been actively involved in trade and commerce in the central Punjab region. Exceptionally, Guru Nanak’s family was employed in administrative service for local and regional darbars in the Delhi Sultanate era; but Nanak’s successors came from less privileged backgrounds and thus were not afforded such opportunities. This difference can also be detected by the fact that Guru Nanak’s utilises Persian loan words in his poetry more freely than his successors. 1 Nevertheless, all the Sikh Gurus were versed in the realities of business; this would have given them at least rudimentary knowledge in subjects such as salesmanship, accounts, contracts and finance. Certainly, the Gurus’ parents and elders would have socialised their sons in the morals and ethics of the Khatri merchant family. In the sixteenth century the Khatri merchant network was expanding as Persian became the language of elites in India and the Mughal Empire brought political stability. So not only were the early Sikh Gurus steeped in the culture of the Khatri merchant, the Khatri caste was experiencing a period of commercial growth as Khatri families began migrating along the Gangetic and north-west trade routes.
The social composition of the early Sikh community has been subject to considerable academic enquiry. And the general pattern has been adequately established; the early Sikh community was composed of predominately Khatris and Jats with a significant artisanal contingent and several less well-representative castes such as Brahmans. In contrast, Khalsa Sikhism mainly attracted the Jat peasantry and artisanal castes such as Tarkhans (carpenters) and Lohars (blacksmiths). 1 The non-Khalsa Sikhs became known as sahajdhari (slow adopters) in Khalsa literature and they are also referred to sometimes as Nanakpanthi (followers of Guru Nanak). 1 Despite this general pattern, it is still necessary to explore when and why specific caste groups became members of the Sikh community. Fortunately Bhai Gurdas in his varan provides us with a list of notable Sikhs from the times of Guru Nanak to Guru Hargobind; and occasionally Gurdas identifies the caste group and location of the Sikhs. Gurdas’ list does not provide us with complete picture since he avoids mentioning certain Sikhs who are known to have been prominent members of the community; for example, Gurdas does not mention himself. And Gurdas fails to clarify the background of the majority of Sikhs he names. 1 Also Gurdas is only concerned with naming Sikhs who achieved spiritual distinction and not the general demography of the community. That said, Gurdas gives us a fairly good understanding about the castes that most vividly featured in the community’s earliest list of Sikh bhagats (apotheosised individuals). 1 Table 1, compiled from the information in Gurdas’ varan, shows what percentage of each caste group represented in Gurdas’ list of Sikh bhagats. 1
Table 1 shows that the Khatris had a dominant position among the bhagats; and I would hazard a guess that even among the unknown Sikhs, many were Khatris. The Khatri gotras that Gurdas refers to include Sodhi, Bhalla, Popat, Kiru, Soiri, Sahgal, Ohiri, Uppal, Chhura, Sabarwal, Khotra, Takyar, Khullar, Wohra, Vij, Jhanjhi, Marwaha, Dhavan, Chaujhar, Bhandari, Chadha, Sekhr, Bhiva, Kapur, Ghei, Lamba, Sethi and Wadhavan. This is an extensive list reflecting how Sikhism had a widespread appeal for Khatri society. Interestingly the early Sikh bhagats seem to have been composed of other merchant castes including the Aroras and Agarwals. And Brahmans appear to have been well represented in the community. The Jats and artisans hold less sway than expected, but we should remember that these figures represent only Sikh bhagats and not the masses of Sikhs. It is noticeable that outcastes represent the lowest percentage of all the known castes.
The Caste of Sikhs as found in Bhai Gurdas’ Varan
Gurdas provides us not only with caste names, but locations where these Sikhs lived. And unsurprisingly most Sikhs lived in the Punjab, but Sikhs were also spread along the cities of the north-west and Gangetic trade routes. The main cities, from top to bottom geographically speaking, were Kabul, Lahore, Sirhind, Thanesar, Delhi, Agra, Gwalior, Lucknow, Allahabad, Fatehpur, Jaunpur, Patna and Dhaka. 1 Many of the Sikhs that resided in those cities are identified as Khatris by Gurdas, and it is highly probable that they are all Khatris. There were also isolated pockets of Sikhs in Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, but these communities appear to have been exceptional. The general rule appears to have been as the Khatri network spread further afield they continued to see Sikhism as their merchant religion. And Sikhism exerted a strong influence on Khatri merchant culture.
So it seems that the Khatris had a strong attachment to Sikhism from its very beginnings in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and made Sikhism into their merchant religion of choice. And early Sikhism grew into a trans-regional religion along the north-west and Gangetic trade routes due to Khatri enterprise. But we return to that question, what was the appeal of Sikhism to a mobile mercantile caste engaged in a range of pursuits from retail to banking? There were of course no tax efficiencies or socio-cultural benefits to be gained by becoming a Sikh in this period, and to suggest that the Khatris merely had some sort of caste loyalty with the Gurus negates the existence of any interaction and discourse between the Guru and his Sikhs. It must have been due to the content of early Sikh teachings that were being directed to the Khatris that allowed them to become Sikhs and still pursue their occupational objective of accumulating capital. And accordingly we need to analyse how early Sikhism considered the life of a merchant.
The Merchant in Early Sikh Thought
In the Adi Granth the Sikh Gurus depict the merchant in three ways. First, the merchant is shown as inherently avaricious and the merchant is advised to overcome his greed by practicing bhakti. Second, the relationship between God and his devotees is described as a client relationship akin to the relationship between a merchant bank and a merchant. Third, the activity of trading is seen as a natural human function that must operate within an ethical and moral framework. In my analysis I have considered the writings of Gurus Nanak, Angad, Amar Das, Ram Das and Arjan collectively in order to access the early Sikh teachings of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Consequently I have given particular preference to Guru Nanak’s writings.
The first mercantile theme present in the Adi Granth is of the avaricious merchant who is wrapped in his materialism to such an extent that he has forgotten death and with it the purpose of his life. Guru Nanak in the following composition reminds the merchant that at death he will have to take his goods (vakharu) and sell those goods to the wise banker (sahu sujanu) in order to make a profit (laha) and counterfeit (khota) goods and cash are not marketable.
O Merchants (vanjariho) in business (vanju) you gather your goods (vakharu) and look after them.
In this manner purchase stock (vastu) that will remain with you (nibeh) [in the next life].
Ahead of you is the wise banker (sahu sujanu); he will take and value your stock (vastu). (1)
O Brothers say the name ‘Ram’ and meditate on him.
Pick up the merchandise of singing the Lord’s praises (hari jasu vakharu); and when the banker (sahu) assesses [your products] you will be confident [about the price]. (1) (Repeat)
If one does not have the true goods (rasi), what happiness does one gain [in life]?
If you trade in counterfeit (khota) goods, the self (manu tanu) becomes counterfeit.
Like a deer caught in the hunter’s snares, you will cry in constant distress. (2)
Just as counterfeit money (khote poteh) is not stored in the treasury [of kings]; so too those [false merchants] never get sight of the Lord.
The false merchants’ caste and honour (jati na pati) means nothing; the false merchant never achieves success [that is, liberation].
The false merchant dealing in only deceit loses all honour as he is born and re-born. (3)
Nanak, make the mind comprehend praise the teachings of the Lord (gur keh sabadi).
Those washed in the colour of Ram’s name, they have no burden or sin on them.
Meditate on the Lord, great profit (laha) will be earned; and in the self one will be with the fearless Lord. (4) 1
Nanak displays his trading knowledge by capturing the commercial concerns of the merchant and turning those concerns into an elaborate metaphor about actions in life and their impact on the self in the cycle of transmigration. The merchant is warned that without the name of Ram his wealth will not save him from the pain of death and God’s punishment. But there is respect for the honourable merchant as well because Nanak is trying to appeal to the merchant’s sense of trustworthiness by referring to counterfeit goods. Nanak’s Khatri audience would no doubt have personal experiences of meeting swindlers who had no respect for contracts and equity. And just as experienced merchants would have avoided hucksters, Nanak appealed to them to avoid investing in only material assets.
This desire to forewarn the merchant about the transience of wealth is best displayed in a series of compositions in the Sri Raga melody that are directly addressed to ‘my merchant friend’ (vanjariaa mitra). The first composition establishing this theme was by Guru Nanak, who then composed another in this manner, and then Gurus Ram Das and Arjan also compose similar compositions. 1 The composition sets the length of a human life within a time span of 12 hours at night; each quarter of three hours represents a new phase in a person’s life. The merchant is advised by Guru Nanak to observe how life suddenly disappears; and how a person is clueless about where he will depart to at death, but Nanak confirms that only actions and not possessions remain with the self.
My merchant friend (vanjariaa mitra) in the first watch at night the Lord places one in the womb.
My merchant friend you laying upside down in the womb meditate (tapu) and attempt to supplicate (ardasi) the Lord [to prevent your birth].
You petitioned the Lord and so became attached to his worship (liv laga).
You enter the world (kali) naked without dress or rank (namarjadu); and you will leave naked.
As the free flowing pen writes on your forehead, so your existence unfolds.
Says Nanak in the first watch the Lord places life in the womb. (1)
My merchant friend in the second watch at night all devotion is forgotten [when you are born].
My merchant friend the relatives rejoice by dandling the child’s hands; they celebrate like Yasoda greeting Krishna’s arrival.
Playing with the child’s hands, the mother proclaims ‘the boy is mine’.
Remember my forgetful heart [the Lord]; at the end of your life this moment will be nothing.
The one whom gave you existence is not recalled; in your heart focus to get this knowledge.
Says Nanak in the second watch the individual forgets his devotion. (2)
My merchant friend in the third watch at night your thoughts become ensconced in wealth (dhan) and youth (joban).
My merchant friend the Lord’s name is not recited; one is overcome by the bondage [of illusion].
Never contemplating the Lord’s name, you become helpless in your companionship with the material world.
Enamoured with wealth and drunk by youth, so you wasted your entire life.
Never did you trade (vaparu) with dharma nor do selfless deeds.
Says Nanak in the third watch the individual becomes solely interested in wealth and youth. (3)
My merchant friend in the fourth watch at night the reaper (lavi) arrives to harvest the crops (khetu).
My merchant friend when death seizes life, the secret [where one departs to] is not given to anyone.
When death seizes life the secret is not revealed, so focus on the Lord.
Your weeping is false and all around you [your assets] come into the ownership of others.
That merchandise (vastu) that you get [in death], is the merchandise you applied with love (hetu) [in your life].
Says Nanak in the fourth watch, my heart, the reaper harvested the field. (4) 1
This composition expresses how the merchant’s world is a material world in which the aim of life is to accumulate possessions, but these possessions will ultimately be liquidated by death. And all that remains is the naked self and only one’s actions can cover one’s modesty. Nanak advises the merchant to trade with dharma in the twelve hours of life he has. The above two compositions capture the Adi Granth image of the greedy merchant incapable of seeing beyond his professional goals. But the Sikh Gurus wanted to tell the merchant that death would seize him and accordingly the merchant had to perform bhakti in life in order to avoid the cruel pain that afflicts those who waste their lives enamoured by dying possessions.
The image of a miserly merchant became common in the sakhis on Guru Nanak’s life where Nanak often met a Khatri merchant who placed wealth ahead of his bhakti. 1 The merchant is either enlightened or suffers karmic punishment from Nanak for his greed. The early authors of the sakhis used the sentiments voiced in the Adi Granth to frame the following story. Here the listener is introduced to Mula, a childhood friend of Nanak and fellow Khatri. In the sakhi Guru Nanak arrives at Mula’s house dressed in a loincloth and accompanied with a party of other Sikhs, including Guru Angad, dressed in loincloths. Nanak desires to meet Mula out of friendship, but Nanak’s ascetic appearance makes him appear disreputable to Mula and his wife. He lied and refused to meet Nanak because he feared he would have to give him alms.
Baba Nanak arrived [at Mula’s home] with grace and Mula’s wife (joru) was there. She recognised Baba Nanak [from afar]. Recognising him she went back inside into her house. Inside Mula was sitting. She spoke to Mula, ‘Your friend is here, he is in an awful (bure) condition, his face is dead (marimuh). In the past he used to come happily on top of ox-drawn carts (bahal) or horses as a rider (asvar). Now his happiness is broken and he has come to beg for something. So now you must remain hidden from him.’ Shortly Baba arrived and stood at Mula’s door. Mula was hiding in a small room (kothari). Baba Nanak asked Mula’s wife, ‘Is Mula at home?’ She replied, ‘He is not at home’. Guru Baba said, ‘He is not at home?’ She replied, ‘No.’ Guru Baba said, ‘Vile merchant (sayada kirara) we came to meet you out of friendship and you respond by hiding.’ Guru Baba spoke this couplet (salok): ‘In friendship with merchants (kirara) one’s goodness is sullied; foolish one, the moment of death is not known’. 1 Saying this Guru Baba left Mula’s house. When Baba Nanak had gone away, that merchant (kirara) emerged out of hiding and exclaimed, ‘Life has gone. My wickedness (sayandanie) has killed me.’ 1
The sakhi conveys the tenor of the Adi Granth compositions that depict the merchant as avaricious. Nanak is judged to be a fallen man due to his ascetic dress and far from the Khatri ideal even though Nanak is offering Mula sincere friendship. But Mula’s parsimony compels him to deceitfully turn Nanak away. Since the sakhi is not the work of the Gurus, its Khatri audience would have been sensitive to the intent of the text. They would have listened or read such a story as a parable about the need to distribute alms to holy people. And here the lesson was manifest: if the merchant saw alms giving as an unnecessary expense, then he might suffer the same fate as Mula.
The second mercantile theme in the Adi Granth is the client relationship between God and his devotees akin to the relationship between a merchant bank and a merchant. In bhakti poetry of all hues, the central relationship is between the devotee and his lord. And the classical manifestation of this image is where the lord is a king and the devotee is a courtier. Alternate binaries depict the lord as a husband/beloved and the devotee as his female lover. The Sikh Gurus frequently and skilfully used these classical images, but reflecting their Khatri backgrounds and audience they effortlessly translated these relationships into one between their lord as a banker (sahu) and the Sikh as a merchant. Guru Ram Das eloquently expresses this banking relationship.
My banker (sahu) you are my lord (dhani); what stock (rasi) you deliver that is what I procure.
If you are kind then gift me your Name (hari namu) and I will trade (vanjah) it with love (rang). (1)
I am a merchant of Ram (vanjare ram ke).
The Lord has set me up in this business (vanju) by supplying me with the goods (rasi). (1) (Repeat)
He who has accumulated profit (laha) by [dealing] in the property (dhanu) of devotion;
The true Lord is in his heart.
He who has charged the stock (vakharu) of meditation (hari japi);
[On those goods] no alms tax of death (jamu jagati) is levied. (2)
They who deal in other fanciful assets suffer pain.
In accordance with the trade that the Lord has employed them, so are the results they achieve (3)
He who is engaged in the business of the Lord, has been blessed by you.
The slave Nanak, he who serves the Lord banker (sahu hari),
On him the account (lekha) is not produced again. (4) 1
The banker is not merely a lending agent in Sikh poetry, he is an important merchant who has the bargaining power to control the bazaar and subsequently all its participants. Ram Das is a merchant who traded in love and Ram’s name and his trade is tax free since death is not levied on the goods. Nor does Ram Das have to worry about book keeping because the lekha khata (merchant’s account book showing each individuals’ accounts in full) does not have to be produced and audited by karma.
This image of bhakti as a banking relationship that is tax free and free from the hassle of accounts is expressed by Guru Arjan as well.
There are five virtues; and five vices.
I dwell in five [virtues] and I have lost the five [vices]. (1)
My brother, in this city [that is, body] I live this way.
Sin has disappeared and enlightenment (guri gianu) taken hold. (1) (Repeat)
Truth and dharma are the walls enclosing the city.
The Guru’s teachings are the strong city gate. (2)
Brother, plant the Name in the soil.
And do the trade (sauda) of the Guru’s service. (3)
As the self becomes at peace; all the senses become stored in the shop (hat).
The banker and the merchant then reside together in a single structure. (4)
[In this city] neither the Jizyah nor the Islamic alms tax (jagati) is levied.
The True Guru (satiguri) has gifted me a permanent exemption stamp (chhap). (5)
Load the cart (khep) with the stock (vakharu) of the Name and travel [to the market].
Earn your profit (laha) as a Sikh (gurmukhi) and return home. (6)
The True Guru is the banker (sahu) and the Sikh the merchant (vanjare).
Their capital (punji) is the Name and their meditation the true accounts (lekha). (7)
He who lives in this city, wherein service to the Guru is perfect.
Nanak, this is the eternal city (abichal nagari). 1
In Arjan’s eternal city the trade of devotion is done by the Sikh and the wealth he acquires is worth his labour. The ability of the Sikh Gurus to convert mundane images of city fiscal policies and banking into sublime poetry must have resonated with a mercantile audience that would have found their quotidian struggles turned into bhakti remarkable. And the Gurus were also capable of using this merchant imagery within the classical bhakti archetype. Guru Nanak remarks to his girlfriends ‘O Girlfriends my beloved Ram is a merchant (vanajara). It is from Ram I bought his name; that good’s sweetness and price are unquantifiable.’ 1
The third image in the Adi Granth is that trading is a natural human function that does not need to be discouraged, but does need to be kept within a bhakti framework. The Sikh is shown as a spiritual entrepreneur who utilises the other factors of production to produce spiritual capital. Guru Amar Das says that the Sikh must purchase the land, sow the seeds, harvest the crops and then trade the produce.
A Sikh (gurmukhi) sows the truth; and truth sprouts; he then trades (vaparu) the Name.
He who is employed to make a profit (laheh) this way; he earns a treasury of devotion. (3) 1
The responsibility lies with the individual to have the endeavour to want to earn a fortune; and to trade the name is natural, the Sikh does not shy away from the bustle of the bazaar for a simple life in retreat. Rather Guru Amar Das says those traders deserve to be congratulated for their entrepreneurship.
The Name is the only permanent asset (dhanu); other assets dissipate.
This asset cannot be stolen by thieves (taskaru) or seized by robbers (ouchaka).
This asset of Hari dwells in the heart and leaves with life.
It is placed in the devoted by the Guru and not in the foolish.
Nanak, praise to the merchant (vapari);
Who has come into this life and traded the asset of the Name to earn his living. (2) 1
The image of Sikh bhakti as an entrepreneurial task would certainly have resonated with Khatri audiences who were in the midst of expanding their trading network across north India in search of prosperity and to shore up existing supply chains. This audience would have recognised the danger that thieves and robbers posed to their livelihoods especially as they moved into new locales where hidden dangers may have lurked.
The Sikh entrepreneur however did not have to search the breadth of north India to find this venture. Instead as Guru Nanak informed his Sikhs their goods dwelt within, but keeping the company of the virtuous and learning the Guru’s teachings were necessary.
If one is selling virtues (gunu) and there is no customer (gahak) demand, then virtues are sold cheaply (sahagho).
But if one stumbles upon customer demand, then virtues are sold at a premium (lakh).
But virtues can be gained [for free] by meeting the virtuous; and taking to heart the Guru’s teachings.
That priceless good cannot be valued nor can it bought at any shop (hati).
Nanak, the weight (tolu) [of those virtues] is always perfect, it is never deficient. (1) 1
Nanak displayed his understanding of price elasticity and consumer demand. And as the Khatri network expanded over longer distances so also their concerns regarding the impact of fluctuating demand and supply and their consequences on profit margins. Guru Angad succinctly states that stock, like any asset, is pointless if there is no demand.
Master, he who is blind to him you can give sight.
One acts in the manner one thinks, even if the wise say contrary a hundred times.
It is unknown to him where the goods (vastu) are kept, he knows only himself.
Nanak, how can the customer (gahaku) buy the goods, if he cannot see them? (2) 1
The Khatri merchant could access these demand-side bhakti images quite easily. The uniqueness of the Sikh Gurus to turn business economics into devotional poetry is a literary originality not found in the works of other Sant poets and similar devotional traditions of the period such as Sufi poetry. 1
The above compositions from the Adi Granth provide us with a valuable insight into early Sikh thought on mercantilism. The Sikh Gurus were certainly well-informed about the realities of business and considered the practice of bhakti from the merchant’s perspective. The merchant was never chastised for being a trader because the function of trading was natural and even the Sikh and God were traders. But the merchant was vulnerable to the illusion of wealth; an illusion that hid the predatory presence of death. However, the Sikh Gurus balanced the merchant’s trading ambitions with the practice of bhakti. The merchant could be Ram’s trader like Guru Ram Das, a favourable attitude towards trade that would have appealed to the medieval Khatri community. The Khatris may have been willing to listen to the Khatri Sikh Gurus, but if the Gurus had presented a view that deprecated the life of the merchant, where he could only be saved by giving up his trading, then, shared caste affiliations notwithstanding, Sikhism would have held little attraction. Sikhism instead offered the Khatris a mercantile bhakti in a period of rapid commercial growth for the caste. The appeal of their message was enhance when combined with the fact that the Gurus were Khatris and based in the Punjab. Moreover Sikhism gave the Khatris a freedom to trade by removing fears about caste purity and travel; Khatri merchants were not confined by the limits imposed by the kala pani (dark waters) and could move into Central Asia and the towns of Balkh and Astrakhan where they established substantial colonies. 1 In the Sikh dharamsalas that appeared across north India and the Sikh sabhas (forums) emerging in urban centres like Delhi and Banaras, the Khatris must have been listening to these teachings by the Gurus and heard stories about all the Khatri Sikh bhagats that were achieving fame within the community. 1
Early Sikh thought on mercantilism and bhakti was the main reason why the Khatri community became the early Sikh community’s largest supporters. And Sikh ethics, morals and practices became embedded into medieval and early modern Khatri commercial culture. But what was the role of Sikhism in the medieval Khatri merchant family? The Hukumnamas of the period reveal aspects about the relationship between the Guru and his Khatri Sikhs; and what the Khatris sought from their Guru.
The Devotion in the Medieval Khatri Merchant Family
The Khatri Sikh migrations along the Gangetic trade route resulted in significant sangats forming in Delhi, Mirzapur, Lucknow, Allahabad, Banaras and Patna by the early seventeenth century. As the Khatris settled into their locales they continued to communicate with the Sikh Gurus in the Punjab. For these émigré Sikhs maintaining their ties of devotion with the Guru and receiving the Guru’s blessings was of great importance. And the Gurus replied to their trans-regional community by providing it with specific advice on how to perform bhakti and requesting from their Sikhs specific items designed for either personal or communal consumption. The practice of sending Hukumnamas appears to have started with Guru Hargobind in the early seventeenth century and continued well into the reign of Guru Gobind Singh. The letters were written either by the Guru or by a court scribe; and typically the letters were undated. The Hukumnamas always began with a long list of names to whom the letter was addressed; and these addressees were plainly reputable members of that sangat. The letters were sent either via masands (administrative officers employed by the Guru) and gradually exclusively by specialist messengers (mevara). The predominance of the Khatris in the management of these non-Punjabi sangats is indicated by the fact that the addressees have distinctly Vaishnava names as found in the medieval Khatri community. And because these Sikhs increasingly began sending hundis (mercantile bills of exchange/remittance) to the Gurus and long-distance hundis could only have been sent by creditworthy parties.
Culturally and professionally the nineteenth century merchant family was primarily concerned about risk and liabilities. 1 These were the omnipresent concerns of an evolving merchant caste that had witnessed and experienced commercial success and failure in equal measure. Due to the fact that a merchant family was fundamentally interested in preserving itself as a social body, and thus distinct from a corporation that has no social identity per se, most merchant families developed a risk-averse attitude to counter the potential damage caused by economics and politics on their businesses and caste status. Accordingly risk management strategies were employed by merchants from conventional forms like security and insurance to more philosophically complex forms like religion and astrology. Relationships with gods and gurus played a key role in the merchant family’s risk management. While one cannot conclude then that religious devotion was motivated by callous commercialism, the sincere devotion displayed by merchants was reasonably linked to their desire for a prosperous livelihood and for explanations why misfortune occurred in trade and life. This connection between profit-making and religion is best displayed in the khatas (account books) produced by merchant families that began ‘with salutations to various deities, list of temple accoutrements and offerings to religious preceptors. The daily expense account (kharach khata) recorded constant expenditures on worship, bathing in the Ganges and gifts to Brahmins.’ 1 The merchant family bonded piety and profit.
The Hukumnamas show how the medieval Khatri merchant family saw Sikhism as a religion that joined sewa (devotional service) and rozgar (business; employment) together. The dutiful performance of sewa by the Sikh ensured that his rozgar would be protected and maintained by the Guru who was the ultimate source of spiritual and material happiness. The relationship between the Sikh and his Guru was of course the central bhakti relationship of subordination by a devotee to his lord; and replicated the established bhakti mechanism of service (sewa) and grace (prasad). But the emphasis on rozgar and karbar (business; trade) in the Hukumnamas reflects the mercantile bhakti relationship between the Guru and his Khatri Sikhs in this period.
In order to contextualise the contents of the Hukumnamas a brief description of the internal workings of the Sikh community is needed. As the Sikh community grew in followers in the early sixteenth century it became necessary to establish an infrastructure of masands (officers) to collect donations from sangats that were geographically far from the Guru’s headquarters. The masand system was established by Guru Amar Das and the masands became the trusted points between the Guru and his Sikhs. But by the late seventeenth century the masand system became corrupt; it was widely believed that many masands were defrauding Sikhs by siphoning off donations and abusing their exalted positions by propagating their own ideas. As a result, Guru Gobind Singh abolished the masand system in 1699 when he formed the Khalsa. Guru Gobind Singh sent instructions to sangats to no longer acknowledge the authority of the masands and instead the Guru advised Sikhs to use hundis if they wanted to send him gifts. This change in structures is visible in the following Hukumnamas that will be considered in chronological order.
The first Hukumnama is by Guru Hargobind sent to his sangats in Patna, Alamganj, Bina and Manger. Hargobind advised his Sikhs to practice bhakti by performing simran (remembrance of God’s names); keeping a vegetarian diet; and remaining united as a congregation by accepting the administrative leadership of the masand Gurdas.
Recite ‘Kartar, Kartar (Lord, Lord)’ the Guru will keep your honour (laj). Say ‘Guru, Guru’ and adorn your life (janamu savaru). The Guru will fulfil the sangat’s desires and the sangat’s rozgar will be fulfilled. Maintain the injunction (dasi) of not eating meat and fish (masu machhi). The sangat’s letter reached me and I am aware of all the key matters of business (hakikati sabh malum); and the sangat’s aims will be achieved. The Guru’s instruction is that the entire sangat must operate as a single district (majati) and remain under the leadership of Gurdas. Give your offerings (karvar) to Gurdas and the Guru will be pleased by this arrangement and the sangat’s rozgar will be maintained. Inside the sangat work together, the sangat’s happiness will be given by the Guru; you are all my sons. Everyone belonging to the sangat collectively obtain the gifts (karvar) that I have requested in writing and then send them to me. Send me cardamom (eilaiche) cloth worth one hundred (daha das) maithe (?). Send the cloth in a thick woven bag (basala gare). Along with the cloth that is to be sent, send me a pair of young Asian koels that have begun to call and send them in a birdcage. Also send me a pair of Patna’s clucking (kuko) pigeons. Speedily collect and send these items. Bhai Dyal the Guru will protect you, your gift (pagat) has reached me of twenty-two rupees, and the Guru has blessed you (guru thaei paieaa). Bhai Dyal in all places your body and soul is with the Guru. 1
Hargobind’s early seventeenth century letter reveals how within the Sikh community the performance of sewa and rozgar was interlinked. The Sikhs were instructed that by individually doing simran and collectively working as a community the Guru would maintain their rozgar. Hargobind’s request for luxury goods such as koels and pigeons reflects the wider development of an aristocratic comportment at the Guru’s court in this period. 1 The specific reference to the gift given by Bhai Dyal provides an example of a personal relationship between the Guru and his Sikhs. Bhai Dyal seems to have been someone experiencing a troublesome time in his life and hence Guru Hargobind made the effort to acknowledge his gift and offered him a blessing to ease his mind. It is reasonable to believe that many such direct relationships existed between the Guru and his Sikhs.
The promise by the Guru to sustain the rozgar of his Sikhs became thematic in the later Hukumnamas. In another letter sent by Guru Hargobind to his Patna sangat he makes it transparent that sewa and rozgar are interlinked.
The sangat’s wishes (kamna) will be fulfilled. The sangat’s rozgar will be maintained. He who takes on the sangat’s work (kar) he will gain the Guru’s blessing (agiaa). Perform kirtan (Sikh devotional music). In order to have good lives keep this injunction (das) of not eating meat or fish. The sangat of the east is the Guru’s Khalsa (pure subjects). In addition, the Guru’s order is that Bhai Japu and Bhai Gurdas it is your responsibility to gather everyone together and assign tasks for the Gurpurb (festival commemorating a Sikh Guru). Whosoever gifts a rupee in the work of the Gurpurb he will be fully blessed in the Guru’s court (guru di dargah) and there will be no shortcomings (thuru) in this blessing and it will be the case for all donors (haval sav ki). Send me a hundi of seven and a quarter rupees. Send me fifteen pairs of tailored clothes (jore savaei) and fifteen pairs to Baba Jiu. 1
The Sikhs of the east (purb di sangat) are reminded that if they practice simran, perform kirtan, maintain a vegetarian diet and donate as much as they can in the administration of the sangat, then they will be blessed by the Guru. And Hargobind’s grace is not reserved for rewards in the afterlife; sewa is directly beneficial for rozgar in this life. The type of bhakti expressed in these two letters by Guru Hargobind show aspects of the medieval Khatri merchant family and why Sikhism was appealing. The Khatri merchant family is displayed as strictly vegetarian; Guru Hargobind makes it clear that it is inappropriate for the sangat in Patna to eat meat or fish. Also Sikhism was a religion that emphasised work and reward: the Sikh both spiritually and materially earned in accordance with his labour. Such a work ethic would have undoubtedly appealed to a mercantile community that wanted protection from the innumerable uncertainties of life and business.
The single Hukumnama of Guru Har Krishan (r. 1661–63) continues the interplay between sewa and rozgar in early Sikh thought. The Guru acknowledges receipt of offerings from his Patna sangat and instructs them to recite the Aarti Sohila.
Sri Guru Har Krishan confirms that all the offerings (bhet) of the entire Patna sangat collected by Bhai Ani Rai, Bhai Jasu, Bhai Ranga, Bhai Hazuri and Bhai Nichal, and sent by hand to Bhai Bathe has reached me and been accounted for (mujara). The Sri Guru is happy (khushi) and elated (nihal) by the offerings. The Guru will assist (bahuri) the sangat and Guru will maintain the sangat’s rozgar and everyone’s desires (manorath) will be satisfied. Keep on sending your offerings and they will keep on arriving at the Guru’s hospice (dharamsal). Remember to recite the Aarati Sohila this will please the Sri Guru. The Guru will always assist the sangat and upon you is the Guru’s joy (khushi). 1
As in the earlier letters by Guru Hargobind, the Guru is depicted as the true source of all spiritual and material well-being. The gifts given to Guru Har Krishan will result in the judicious bestowal of rozgar on those Sikhs who have sought the Guru’s assistance.
In the late seventeenth century as Guru Tegh Bahadur (r. 1663–75) expanded the political presence of the Sikh community in Mughal Punjab, he began communicating more with his trans-regional community. Tegh Bahadur sent letters in particular to his Sikhs in Patna and Banaras. In continuity with his predecessors he continued to stress the relationship between sewa and rozgar, and in several letters he uses the rather prophetic phrase ‘sewa ki vela’ (it is the time for sewa). For instance, Tegh Bahadur tells his Patna sangat that by coming for his darshan they will have their rozgar fulfilled.
The entire sangat of Patna come with your gifts for my darshan. Whichever Sikh arrives to meet me his rozgar shall be fulfilled. It is the time for sewa (sewa ki vela)…I have sent a new order to the sangat requesting to be sent forty (do koriaa) Bihari turbans and twenty (ek koriaa) turbans worth twenty-four rupees. The sangat’s rozgar will be satisfied. 1
In a similar vein Guru Tegh Bahadur informs his Banaras sangat that at this moment the performance of sewa is paramount and that all offerings should be given to his masand Javehari.
The entire sangat of Banaras will be kept safe by the Guru. What offerings you wish to favour me (karbar loch ke) give them to Bhai Javehari and Bhai Javehari will pass them onto Bhai Dyal Das and they will definitely reach me. It will give the sangat excellence (bhala). It is the time for sewa (sewa ki vela). 1
Guru Tegh Bahadur’s use of the phrase ‘sewa ki vela’ reflected wider changes in the political direction of the Sikh community. Tegh Bahadur arguably needed greater resources from his network of north Indian sangats to help fund his welfare projects such as establishing a peripatetic langar (free kitchen) that travelled with his retinue and constructing his temple town of Makhowal in the Punjabi Hills. 1
Guru Tegh Bahadur most succinctly captures the link between sewa and rozgar when signing off a letter to his Banaras sangat he assures ‘the entire sangat of Banaras province the Guru shall protect your businesses (karbar).’ 1 The use of karbar instead of rozgar lucidly refers to a Khatri audience who would have wanted their sewa to yield a kind of divine risk protection for their karbar. In some respects the relationship between the merchant Sikh and the Guru was comparable to a brokerage service; the Guru for a fee (that is, sewa and bhakti) would broker a deal with God for the faithful Sikh’s rozgar and mukti (liberation).
At the turn of the eighteenth century the extensive chain of north Indian sangats gave the Sikh Gurus a valuable network of goods and services to finance their courts and projects. Guru Gobind Singh continued to advise his Sikhs that the Guru was the maintainer of their rozgar. In his letter to his sangat in modern day Bangladesh he requests a war elephant to be sent.
The Sri Guru’s order is for Bhai Hulas Chand and Bakhshish Chand and the entire sangats of Dhaka, Chittagong, Sandwip and Sylhet. The Guru will protect you. Send me a quality war elephant (hachha hathi jangi) and all the sangat will be in bliss (nihal). In the sangat’s rozgar the Guru will bless you and the sangat will be happy. Whichever Sikh donates even a penny (kavadi) he will be content. The Guru shall assist the sangat. 1
While the Sikh Gurus often requested luxury items such as koels and elephants, the Gurus inform their Sikhs that the amount of the gift is unimportant. The true value of the gift derives instead from the sincerity of the giver; Guru Gobind Singh says that even a gift of a penny is more than satisfactory. Crucially the rozgar of the Sikhs does not disappear from the rhetoric of the Sikh Gurus; it is not deemed to be a minor issue, it is treated as an issue of the utmost significance for ordinary Sikhs.
The prominent role of gift giving in early Sikh society is a visible feature of the Hukumnamas. Sikhs wanted to give presents to the Guru as a sign of their devotion; and the Guru recognising this desire prudently requested goods that his court needed. The abolishment of the masand system created a problem for Guru Gobind Singh as he was no longer able to rely on his established communications system to send letters and collect donations. It appears he adapted by outsourcing postal services to specialist messengers known as mevare; this may be a reference to the central Indian runner and tracker caste, the Mewias. 1 And in order to safely transfer donations Guru Gobind Singh depended upon the Khatri merchant network and their access to a secure hundi system across north India. This change in the Guru’s communications system is explained in his letter to his Patna sangat dated 4 November 1700.
This is the Guru’s order for the sangat of Patna, Farid. The Guru will keep safe the sangat and recite ‘Guru, Guru’ to adorn your lives. The sangat is my Khalsa and whosoever wishes to give me an offering (navit ka hove) he must not give it to the masands. He must keep it himself and deliver it personally to me. If a Sikh is unable to deliver it personally, he must keep it himself and await further orders from the Guru. It makes me happy (khushi) if offerings are sent via hundi. I have requested in writing an offering of a tola (approximately thirteen grams) of gold it will please the Guru if the sangat can send this amount to me via hundi. Whichever Sikh partakes in the request [for the requisition of the gold] he will be happy (nihal). 1
The choice of the hundi as the financial instrument that Sikhs are encouraged to use indicates a strong Khatri presence. This is because only the Khatris would have the creditworthiness and connections to execute long-distance hundi transfers. The request for gold instead of cash may be due to a desire by Guru Gobind Singh to fill his treasury with a stable commodity to help fund his Khalsa army. 1 But the central principle remains the same: the performance of sewa results in happiness for the Sikh.
The Hukumnamas provide us with only a glance into the medieval Khatri merchant family and its relationship with Sikhism. But it is possible to see the values of the nineteenth century Khatri merchant family in these seventeenth century Hukumnamas. Sikhism it appears was an ideal risk management religion for the Khatris because it balanced bhakti and sewa with rozgar. This is because the Sikh Gurus provided a bhakti philosophy that emphasised the householder path and this obviously was a prerequisite for any merchant family. 1 More than that, however, the Sikh Gurus did not disregard the material welfare of their Sikhs; the Sikh was assured by his Guru that his material well-being would accompany his spiritual well-being. The melding of religion and materialism was a unique feature of Sikhism in this period. Unlike other bhakti religions, Sikhism was interested in the merchant’s activities and did not undermine the lifestyle of a trader. Rather, it sought to polish the karma of a trader by allowing him to become Ram’s merchant in both, the temporal and the metaphysical bazaar. In order to obtain this divine risk protection the merchant had to abide by the Guru’s teachings including practicing simran and kirtan, and performing sewa. The merchant Sikh who lived this way would gain his rozgar in this life, as well as the virtuous gains for the life thereafter.
Conclusions
In the medieval and early modern periods the Khatri merchant family had an appreciable influence on the politics and economics of north India. Inside the Khatri merchant family, a caste culture had been gradually developing over the centuries. An important part of this Khatri cultural system was Sikhism. While many Khatris appear to have found Khalsa Sikhism unappealing, they continued to find Sikh bhakti as critical to their identity and customs in the nineteenth century. In Gangetic north India it was principally Khatri Sikhs that patronised Sikh temples, the hospices of Udasi and Nirmala Sikhs, and within the household Khatris performed distinctly Sikh ceremonies. But why did this interest in Sikhism emerge at all? Studies on early Sikh society have reiterated that the Khatris were an important part of the early Sikh community, and Khatri membership has thus far been rather unsatisfactorily explained on the basis of their caste affinity with the Sikh Gurus. Unquestionable the Khatris were attracted to the charismatic teachings of the Khatri Sikh Gurus, but this meant that they were interacting with the Sikh Gurus and their ideas, an interaction that needs to be more systematically and carefully parsed. It seems on closer inspection that Sikhism in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries offered the Khatris a mercantile bhakti religion in which the professional objectives of the merchant family could be balanced with Sikh bhakti. In the compositions of the Adi Granth, the sakhis, and the Hukumnamas of the period the merchant Sikh was given a religion that allowed him to work as a merchant and find salvation.
There are larger contextual factors to keep in mind as well. Sikhism’s favourable attitude to trade coincided with the migration and commercial expansion of the Khatris between 1500 and 1700. The growth in the commercial horizons of the Khatris was matched with that of Sikhism, a religion that interlinked sewa and rozgar providing for an element of risk management. In early Sikh thought, the Sikh Guru was not depicted as an average Sant guru, he was a teacher who would protect the material welfare of his Sikhs irrespective of the wider economic climate. Through the seventeenth century, the image of the Guru as the ultimate source of spiritual and material happiness appears to have been the most popular image within the Sikh community.
The fortunate alignment between the early spread of Sikhism and the commercial expansion of the Khatris seems to have had a major impact on the growth of the Sikh community in Mughal Punjab. This is because the Khatri merchant network became an almost parallel network of Sikh sangats across north India. It appears that the Sikh Gurus were fully attuned to the potential of this vast network. And they expertly managed their trans-regional community to extract goods and services in order to support their policies and projects in Punjab and elsewhere. The study of Sikhism has unfortunately been largely confined to the Punjab region, often ignoring non-Punjabi Sikh communities. However the existence of such a vast chain of Sikh sangats across the great cities of north India from the early seventeenth century offers the possibility of constructing a historical narrative of Sikhism with a wider north Indian rather than a limited Punjab focus. Furthermore, in acknowledging the prominence of the Khatri merchant family in early Sikh society in contrast to its minimal presence in later Khalsa Sikhism lies the need to reconfigure the narrative history of early Sikhism that shifted from its mercantile bhakti orientations to one that was martial. But this does not mean that in the early history of martial Sikhism the role of Khatri Sikhs can be dismissed as unimportant. Khatri Sikhs did not feature prominently as soldiers; nevertheless, behind the chaos of war their key role as financiers still needs to be properly appreciated. In the Hukumnamas from the early eighteenth century, it appears Guru Gobind Singh was attempting to garner greater financial resources from his trans-regional Khatri Sikhs via hundis. The ability of Guru Gobind Singh to amass a sizable war chest to fund his Khalsa army is likely to have been an influential factor in establishing the foundations of the Khalsa’s insurgency in Mughal Punjab. Therefore when analysing the history of the early Sikh community it is not always useful to create definitive boundaries between transitional periods. It is necessary instead, to give due consideration to the subtle shifts in the attitudes and interests of the caste groups that composed the early sangat especially during major turning points in our meta-narratives.