Guru Tegh Bahadur

Tegh Bahadur, the ninth of the ten Sikh gurus, was beheaded by the Moghuls in 1675. The bodies of those so executed were usually quartered and exposed to public view, but Tegh Bahadur's followers managed to steal the body under cover of darkness, cremate the limbs in Delhi, and bring the severed head to Tegh Bahadur's son Gobind, who performed the last rites for his father.

This example of Sikh poster art shows Tegh Bahadur in the center, surrounded by scenes from his life: his validation as the true Sikh Guru (among many claimants) by reading the mind of a prominent devotee (upper left), his execution (lower right), the delivery of his head to his young son Gobind (upper right), and at the lower left a picture of Gurudwara Sisganj, the Sikh house of worship built at the site of his martyrdom in Delhi. This picture comes from Popular Sikh Art by W.H. McLeod (Oxford U. Press, 1991)

 

This photo shows the inside of the Sisganj Gurudwara, which marks the spot where Tegh Bahadur was martyred.  The chandelier is for both light and for decoration, and the golden canopy in the center covers the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scripture.  The tinsel decoration in the ceiling had been put up for Guru Gobind Singh's birthday, which had been celebrated a short time before.  By the windows in the background is a stairway leading down to a lower level, which marks the exact spot at which Tegh Bahadur was martyred. 

 

Here's a shot of the exterior, which is a magnificent building set in the hustle and bustle of Chandni Chowk (see the traffic passing by at bottom).  Sikhs have a very keen sense of their identity, and history is very important to them; when Sikh forces took Delhi in the late 1700s, one of the conditions under which they made peace was that they would be given control over various Delhi sites associated with the Sikh gurus, including this one.

 

All gurudwaras have two centers--the place where the Guru Granth Sahib is displayed and venerated, and the langar or community kitchen, where simple meals are served to anyone who is hungry.  The langar was a means to break down caste distinctions, since everyone eats next to each other, and also highlights the Sikhs' commitment to serving others, since all the labor is done by volunteers.  This photo shows men and women rolling out the dough for chapattis (flat breads).

 

After the chapattis have been rolled out, they are taken to the griddle for cooking (the griddle here is a huge gas-fired slab of metal).  The people next to the wall put the chapattis on the griddle--often tossing them like frisbees, as in this photo), and the people on the sides flip them with long metal rods.  The perforated griddle part on the right is to puff up the chapattis in the final phase of cooking.

 

Dal (beans/lentils) is usually served with the chapattis, to make a simple but nourishing meal.  Since a gurudwara may feed hundreds or even thousands of people, the dal is cooked in large vessels such as these.  As with the cooking, all of the cleaning is also done by volunteers, to fulfill their religious obligation to serve the community and all humanity.

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Last modified 16 March 2001