They conform to no rites or mantras.  Kab[=i]r assailed all idolatry, ridiculed the authority of all scriptures, broke with Pundit and with Mohammedan, taught that outer form is of no consequence, and that only the ’inner man’ is of importance.  These Panth[=i]s are found in the South, but are located chiefly in and about Benares, in Bengal in the East, and in Bombay in the West.  There are said to be twelve divisions of them.  Kab[=i]r assailed idolatry, but alas!  Discipline requires subordination.  The Guru, Teacher, must be obeyed.  It was not long before he who rejected idolatry became himself a deity.  And in fact, every Teacher, Guru, of the sect was an absolute master of thought, and was revered as a god.[97]

In the fifteenth century, near Laho[.r]e, was born N[=a]nak (1469), who is the nominal founder of the Sikhs, a body which, as N[=a]nak claimed, was a sect embodying the religion of Kab[=i]r himself, of whom he claimed to be a follower.  The Granth, or bible of the Sikhs, was first compiled by the pontiff Arjun, in the sixteenth century.  Besides the portions written by N[=a]nak and Arjun himself, there were collected into it extracts from the works of ‘twelve and a half’ other contributors to the volume, Kab[=i]r, R[=a]m[=a]nand, etc.[98] This Granth was subsequently called the [=A]digranth, or First Book, to distinguish it from the later, enlarged, collection of several books, one of which was written by Guru Govind, the tenth Sikh pontiff.  The change from a religious body to a church militant and political body was made by this Govind in the eighteenth century.[99] The religious sect settled in the Punj[=a]b, became wealthy, excited the greed of the government, was persecuted, rose in revolt, triumphed, and eventually ruled the province.  One of the first to precipitate the uprising was the above-mentioned Arjun (fourth pontiff after N[=a]nak).  He played the king, was accused of rebellion, imprisoned, and probably killed by the Mohammedans.  The Sikhs flew to arms, and from this time on they were perforce little more than robbers and plunderers.  Govind made the final change in organization, and, so to speak, at one blow created a nation, for the church at his hands was converted into the united militant body called Kh[=a]ls[=a] under the Guru as pontiff-king, with a ‘council of chiefs.’  They were vowed to hate the Mohammedan and Hindu.  All caste-distinctions were abrogated.  Govind instituted the worship of Steel and Book (sword and bible).  His orders were:  “If you meet a Mohammedan, kill him; if you meet a Hindu, beat and plunder him.”  The Sikhs invoked the ‘Creator’ as ‘highest lord,’ either in the form of Vishnu or R[=a]ma.  Their founder, N[=a]nak, kept, however, the Hindu traditions in regard to rites.  He was a travelled merchant, and is said to have been in Arabia.  As an example of the Sikh bible may serve the following extracts, translated from the original dialect by Trumpp and Prinsep respectively: