Sikh Gurus Family Tree

hi this is savish from aluma and today i'm going to show you the family tree of the gurus of the sikh religion as well as some other prominent figures in sikh and punjabi history including the maharajas of the sikh khalsa empire note that i'm also on this chart so be sure to watch till the end before i start with history let me explain what punjab is punjab is a large region in the northwest of the indian subcontinent punjab means five rivers as the name suggests the region has five major rivers that make it an agricultural powerhouse today punjab is divided between pakistan and india the pakistani half has a muslim majority while the indian half has a sick majority okay let's start with history now the founder of the sikh religion baba nanak was born to a hindu family around 1469 in punjab while at the time it was a small village his birthplace is now a huge complex known as nargana sahab located near lahore in pakistan nanak worked as a government official during his youth but became disillusioned with the governmental structures as well as the rigid societal structures he began longing for something more than the life he had and started going on long journeys to visit the sacred sites of the various religions found in india he is generally believed to have visited many places including mecca baghdad ayodhya tibet and even sri lanka he met and studied with many hindu and muslim religious leaders obviously his biographies include many colorful details as the biographies of religious leaders usually do but we can construct some historical details from it sometime around 1510 he began teaching the message of meaning one god he preached that all religions believe in the same god and are merely different routes to the same destination he became known as guru nanak guru meaning teacher his followers became known as sikh meaning learners or pupils guru nanak continued teaching and settled in kartarpur in modern-day pakistan he gathered a small band of followers whose numbers are difficult to estimate his followers came from all walks of life and from all castes and statuses this was unheard of in hindu society which had a rigid caste system while the muslims of india did not have a caste system muslims and people of other religions weren't exactly equal guru nanak died around 15 years later his reputation and perhaps his message can both be summed up by an interesting story about his death it's said that both hindus and muslims claimed him as one of their own and fought over how funeral proceedings would go when they accidentally uncovered his body they found only a pile of flowers gurnanigh was succeeded not by a son but by a follower who would be named guru angadeva guru nanak had called him his own or limb and that's how he got the name angad he formalized the gurmukhi which is the script indian punjabi is written in guru angadev also chose a disciple to be his successor the successor who would be known as guru amardas was actually 25 years older than guru angadev he started the canonization of sikh faith by codifying the teachings of guru nanak into a unified book which would eventually become the adi grant on the marriage of his daughter bibi bahani to the man who would become the fourth guru shansha akbar of the mughal empire gifted the couple quite a bit of land in order to improve relations with this new community that land would eventually become the city of amritsar the spiritual capital of sikhism it said that when akbar came to visit the guru asked him to sit down with everyone else on the floor and eat with the peasants before he would meet him akbar did so guru amardas was succeeded by son-in-law guru ramdas he formed the center of his work at the site which would become the harmandar sahab also known as the golden temple he was also the first guru to choose a son to succeed him all the following human gurus descended from him technically they also descend from guru amardas through his daughter by the time of guru arjandev the sikhs for a community influential enough for the mughal emperor to see them as a threat on top of that the guru had supported a rebellious son of shanxia jahangir guru arjandev was arrested by chahagir he was told to choose between conversion or death he chose death this is a recurring theme in sikh history he was tortured and executed in 1606. in his life guru arjun dev started the process of turning sikhs from a religious group into a political group he built the golden temple in amritsar he even invited a muslim sufi leader named miami to lay the foundation of the temple to show that the temple would be open to everyone he also finished the compilation of adigaran and installed it in the golden temple his young son guru hargobind became guru at the age of only 11. his father's execution had an impact on his tenure as a guru it said that he used to wear two swords one to represent pd religious leadership and the other to represent meaty secular leadership he started the process of militarization of the sikh community he also constructed the akal which was meant to serve as the political center point of the sikh community while the golden temple was a religious center point he was the first guru to lead an army and actually clash with the mughals when guru hargobind passed away in 1644 he chose his grandson guru harai to succeed him guru hara's father baba gurudeva had pre-deceased his father during his tenure as guru there was a war of succession in the mukhal empire prince aurangzeb and prince darashiko were contesting for the throne the guru supported the rashiko who was more influenced by the sufis as compared to the orthodox aurangzeb eventually won and summoned the guru to answer for his support of the losing side the guru in turn sent his son ramrai to the mukhal court ramrai was asked by aurangzeb to interpret a verse from the adi granth which at least on surface appeared anti-islamic ramrai misinterpreted it on purpose in order to not cause offense while aurangzeb was pleased guru harai was certainly not he excommunicated his son and pushed him out of succession instead of him he chose his younger son har krishna to succeed him har christian became guru at the age of only five and died of smallpox when he was seven his successor and the next guru was his grandfather's brother bahadur gurudev bahadur traveled the country preaching sikhism and meeting with people who had been victims of aurangzeb's religious persecution he was arrested by aurangzeb due to his continuous support for kashmiri hindus whom aurangzeb was persecuting aurangzeb ordered the guru to either perform a miracle convert or die the guru chose death hence guru bahadur was executed before being arrested he had already given his son gobindrai command of the six gobindra became the tenth guru of the six at the age of only eleven he is known for having founded the khalsa and hence became the most influential guru since guru nanak himself the story goes that he asked for a volunteer who would give his life for the guru one volunteer came forth he took him inside his tent the guru came out alone after a while with a bloody sword in all appearance having killed the previous volunteer and asked for another he did this till he had five volunteers he then came out with all five of them still alive they came to be known as panchjpayari the five beloved ones the guru baptized them by giving them amrit a drink of sugared water these five became the first to join the khalsa the new sikh community they then baptized the guru making him the sixth to join the khalsa all of them including guru gobind ray changed their last name to singh meaning lion all men to enter the khalsa took singh as their last name while women took kor as their last name this arranged their past social statuses and made them all equal guru gobind singh also gave the six the five k's or panchkakar they go as following case meaning uncut hair meant to give the six a distinguished look ganga meaning a wooden comb meant to represent cleanliness kara meaning an iron bracelet meant as a symbol of the never-ending god kachera meaning undergarments which look something like boxer shorts this is meant to represent control over lust and desire and finally gerpan which is a small dagger meant to defend the helpless khalsa was also meant to centralize all the various sikh communities spread throughout india this was seen as a necessity by the guru in response to the increasing threat of the mughals in fact the mughal emperor and his governors in punjab sent various armies to crush the sikhs guru gobind singh himself lost all four of his sons to the mughals two of them sabzada ajit singh and sabzada jujar singh died in the battle of chamkor while the younger two sahabzado zuravar singh and sabzadafati singh were both caught and picked up alive by wazir khan the mughal governor of the region of sarkhand neither of these two was older than ten the guru lost all four of his sons within just a few days at the end of 1704 after aurangzeb died in 1707 his son and successor bahadur shah invited the guru for peace negotiations the guru was camped at nandeth in maharashtra when assassins sent by wazir khan attacked and injured him the guru realizing his death was near did not declare a follower to be the next guru instead he declared the adi granth to be the next and eternal guru hence it is now known as guru granth sahib guru gobind singh ji passed away on 7th of october 1708. before his death guru gobind singh gave the command of his army to banda bahadur and told him to conquer punjab to end the tyranny of the mughals there banda singh bahadur became the secular head of the sikhs along with the panchpiari he conquered a large portion of punjab and established the first sikh state there he even minted coinage to win supporters he started massacring the muslim land owners of punjab and started distributing their land among his followers included in the massacre were a large number of members of the arai tribe which happens to be my tribe but it happened over 300 years ago so i'm over it however the mughals regrouped and started pushing banda singh bahadur eventually in 1716 he was captured along with 786 they were taken to delhi where they were told to convert to islam or die none of them converted all of them died following the death of both aurangzeb and guru gobind singh authority in punjab had begun to erode taking advantage of the weakened mughal empire and the road to delhi being relatively easy nadarsha of iran invaded in 1739 and massacred everything in his path this further weakened punjab after bandhasing bahadur various sikh tribes had formed into 12 confederations called missiles together they formed the dal khalsa while they came together for the benefit of the greater sikh community there were often jealousies alliances intrigue and warfare among the missiles local muslim rulers that paid lip service to delhi fought alongside the sikh missiles against ahmad shabdali's various invasions starting in 1747 often working together and sometimes not working together abdali invaded india eight times in 20 years and led a campaign of genocide against the sex he desecrated their holiest sites and murdered thousands in the middle of this chaos was a man from the muslim iran tribe named adena bay khan adina was born to a poor iran family but had taken the turkic title of bei khan to hide his humble origin he had also fought against abdali after having invited him to invade india in the first place that's how quickly political interests shifted in punjab he had been made the governor of jalandhar region of punjab by the mughals and in 1753 he declared independence from both the mughals and ahmad shah abdali to put an end to abdali's rule of punjab once and for all alina bay khan invited the marathas to fight alongside him the marathas expelled abdali in 1758 but it wasn't the end of dali after winning and losing territory various times he was finally made the ruler of all punjab by the marathas technically he had to pay tribute to the marathas but punjab being so far away from the maratha capital at pune he was independent in all but name he declared all six to be outlaws and led campaigns against them but couldn't achieve much he died in the same year several generations later his descendant aka me started a youtube channel called al-mukadema to teach people history sadly since i descend from a daughter of his i cannot actually claim all of punjab after him there was once again no central authority left in punjab the missiles became more and more powerful in 1783 jason alawalia bhagal singh pancharya and jasa singh ramgariyah led an offensive against delhi itself they conquered and then raided the city they brought aurangzeb's throne back to amritsar as a symbol of their victory over the tyrant who had tried to uproot sikhism in its entirety it still remains there some other interesting missiles were the bungies who get their name from their leader puma singh's addiction to pang or hashish there's the nissan valley missile who were the flag bearers of the dal khalsa army the shahida missile gets its name which means the martyr from baba deep singh who lost his life defending the golden temple against amitjabdali ultimately it was the sukha chakra missile that came out on top charat singh and his son mahan singh had conquered quite a bit of land and established themselves as a powerful missile however it was maharaja ranjit singh the first maharaja of the khalsa empire who consolidated control over all of punjab and established central authority in punjab once again he took lahore from the grandson of amity abdali and established his capital there he also conquered amritsar from the pangi missile and renovated the golden temple it is because of his work in overlaying gold on the temple that it gets its name by the end of his reign he controlled the entire northern half of modern-day pakistan while he's respected today as a sikh hero and a great conqueror it was actually in my opinion his diplomacy and political brilliance that make him one of a kind he made a treaty with the british where he would stay north of satellite river while the british would remain south he understood their power and knew his own limits so he always worked within them when he saw a group of british soldiers parading his men thought of it as a useless quirky dance but ranjit singh saw it for what it was a disciplined and trained army he got the kohinoor diamond from the grandson of ahmad shabdali in exchange for supporting his claim to the throne the kohinoor as well as ranjit singh's throne are now in possession of the british royalty his reign was also very progressive and tolerant he wasn't a tyrant and at least in the heartland of the empire he was very tolerant to minorities muslims who were actually the majority in punjab were also treated very well at least in the heartland his personal life is very interesting as well his first wife was mahatab god whom he had married at a very young age because of political reasons however over the years the couple became estranged and ranjitsingh married other women his eldest son kalaxing was born from one of his later wives however after separation matabkar gave birth to twin sons tara singh and shersing while there were rumors that the boys weren't ranjeets he still loved them very much and raised them without ever paying attention to the rumors although some sources say the opposite maharaja ranjit singh of the sikh khalsa empire passed away on 27th of june 1839 in his sleep he was around 58 years old and had many health issues stemming mostly from his alcoholism his son and successor maharaja karaxing was a simple-minded brute who kept himself busy with wine opium and women sensing weakness intrigue grew in the court as various powers were attempting to turn the maharaja into a puppet karaxing died after only 11 months on the throne apparently of poison maharaja no singh died the day of his father's funeral when entering the palace a huge block of stone fell on him that crushed his skull his wife was pregnant at the time and his mother maharani chandigarh declared herself acting region for the yet unborn child of no nehal singh however another one of ranjit singh's sons shir singh attacked lahore and no nehal singh's wife gave birth to a stillborn son so sher singh was able to consolidate power maharaja shiitsing himself was assassinated after only two years on the throne his five-year-old half-brother was put on the throne with his mother acting as regent in 1843 during his five-year tenure the six fought two wars with the british losing both the second ended in 1849 with punjab annexed by the british the maharaja was deposed the maharani was exiled it would be 13 years before the leap singh was allowed to see his mother again he was taken by the british and put under something of a house arrest i believe they call that kidnapping he was anglicized and he converted to christianity at the age of 15. he was sent to england in 1854 where he lived for the bigger part of the remainder of his life later in his life he reconnected with his mother and the rest of his family he tried to return to india in 1886 to re-convert to sikhism but he was intercepted in othern in modern-day yemen where he was arrested he did reconvert to sikhism there though which wasn't as grand and symbolic as his conversion in punjab would have been he died in 1893 in paris his body against his wishes was not returned to punjab he was put to rest in elviden church so that was the family tree of the sikh gurus and some other important figures from the history of punjab you can watch other videos on the channel as well we have one about the mughal emperors who played an important but negative role in sikh history thank you for watching [Music] [Music] you

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Length: 18min 22sec (1102 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 18 2021