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Guru Har Krishan Ji: Serving Delhi During the Smallpox Epidemic

Professor: Kavi Santokh Singh Source: SikhLibrary

This course provides a focused examination of Guru Har Krishan Ji's humanitarian service during the smallpox and cholera epidemic that struck Delhi in the early 1660s. Drawing on hagiographical sources, Sikh ethical principles, and historical context, students analyze the Guru's selfless actions as an expression of Sikh seva, the epidemic's human toll, and the enduring memory preserved at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib.

Begin course12 lessons · 10-question test · 80% to pass
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Prerequisite recommended. This is a 200-level course. To get the most out of it, we recommend completing the 100-level courses first.

What you'll learn

  • Describe the historical circumstances of the Delhi epidemic of the early 1660s
  • Analyze Guru Har Krishan Ji's service during the epidemic as an expression of Sikh seva ethics
  • Explain the theological significance of the Guru contracting smallpox himself
  • Evaluate the historical sources that preserve accounts of the Guru's service
  • Connect the eighth Guru's humanitarian service to broader Sikh values of compassion
  • Trace the transformation of the service site into Gurdwara Bangla Sahib

Key terms — ਸ਼ਬਦਾਵਲੀ

ਸੇਵਾ

Selfless service rendered without expectation of reward; a core Sikh spiritual practice

ਲੰਗਰ

The community kitchen providing free food to all, regardless of religion, caste, or status

ਮਾਨਵਤਾ

Humanity; the recognition of all human beings as children of one Creator

ਦਇਆ

Compassion; one of the five virtues emphasized in Sikh teaching

ਸਾਰੋਵਰ

Sacred pool associated with a gurdwara, used for spiritual bathing

ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਬੰਗਲਾ ਸਾਹਿਬ

Gurdwara in central Delhi commemorating Guru Har Krishan Ji's service during the epidemic

ਬਿਸ਼ਟੀ

Water carrier; the occupation of Chhaju Ram, whom the Guru blessed

ਪਰਉਪਕਾਰ

Altruism; doing good for others without personal benefit

ਭਗਤੀ

Devotion to God; combined in Sikhism with seva as the dual path of spiritual life

ਅਰਦਾਸ

The formal Sikh supplicatory prayer recited daily and at significant occasions

Lessons

1. Introduction: Seva as Spiritual Practice in Sikhism

Full course contents
  1. Introduction: Seva as Spiritual Practice in Sikhism
  2. Delhi in the Seventeenth Century: A City of Contrasts
  3. The Epidemic: Smallpox and Cholera in Mughal Delhi
  4. The Guru's Arrival and Initial Response
  5. Raja Jai Singh's Bungalow: The Base of Operations
  6. The Distribution of Water and Medicine
  7. Who Did the Guru Serve? Caste, Religion, and Inclusion
  8. The Guru Contracts Smallpox
  9. Community Response to the Guru's Illness
  10. The Guru's Passing and Its Immediate Aftermath
  11. Memory and Commemoration: The Making of Bangla Sahib
  12. The Living Legacy: Seva at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib Today

The Theological Roots of Seva

The concept of ਸੇਵਾ — selfless service — is among the most fundamental in Sikh spiritual practice. From the time of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the Sikh path has insisted that love of God and love of neighbor cannot be separated. The Guru Granth Sahib is filled with verses proclaiming that service rendered to the suffering is service rendered to the Creator: the one who sees the divine light in every human being naturally rushes to relieve suffering wherever it is found. This is not mere humanitarianism as a social ethic; it is a spiritual discipline through which the practitioner encounters ਅਕਾਲ ਪੁਰਖ in the face of the one being served. W. Owen Cole and Piara Singh Sambhi, in The Sikhs: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, identify seva as one of three core disciplines of Sikh life — alongside nam simran (remembrance of God's name) and sangat (holy fellowship) — that together constitute the Sikh path of spiritual development (Cole and Sambhi 1995, 88).

Seva and the Guru Tradition

The Sikh Gurus modeled seva throughout their ministries. Guru Nanak Dev Ji served the poor and traveled to the margins of society to offer spiritual teaching. Guru Amar Das Ji established the practice of langar — free communal meals — as a non-negotiable feature of Sikh communal life. Guru Arjan Dev Ji sat on a hot iron plate with composure, his suffering transmuted into seva for the faith community. In each case, service involved personal cost and self-giving. Guru Har Krishan Ji's service during the Delhi epidemic stands fully within this lineage. That the Guru himself contracted smallpox and died is not presented in Sikh tradition as a failure of divine protection but as the ultimate expression of ਪਰਉਪਕਾਰ — giving oneself fully in love for others.

Course Goals and Method

This course will examine the episode of Guru Har Krishan Ji's service during the epidemic in careful historical and theological detail. We will situate it within the social conditions of seventeenth-century Delhi, analyze the sources that preserve its memory, consider who the beneficiaries of the Guru's service were, and trace the transformation of the site into Gurdwara Bangla Sahib. Throughout, we will hold in view the broader question: what does it mean for a faith community to honor a leader not for military conquest or theological brilliance, but for dying in service to the sick?

2. Delhi in the Seventeenth Century: A City of Contrasts

Shahjahanabad: The Imperial Capital

By the time Guru Har Krishan Ji arrived in Delhi in the early 1660s, the city had been substantially rebuilt by Emperor Shah Jahan and was known as Shahjahanabad. It was one of the largest and most cosmopolitan cities in the world, with a population estimated at several hundred thousand people. The Red Fort served as the seat of Mughal imperial power; the Jama Masjid, completed in 1656, stood as a monument to Mughal Islamic architecture. Yet Delhi was also a city of profound inequality. Magnificent palaces and mosques coexisted with crowded neighborhoods of artisans, water-carriers, and laborers living in conditions vulnerable to disease and famine.

Religious Diversity and Mughal Policy

Delhi in the 1660s was religiously diverse — Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, and others lived within the city — but the political environment had shifted significantly since the reign of the more tolerant Shah Jahan. Aurangzeb, who had deposed his father and assumed the throne in 1658, was pursuing an increasingly orthodox Sunni Muslim agenda. The jizya tax on non-Muslims had not yet been formally reimposed (that would come in 1679), but the direction of imperial policy was unmistakable. It was in this politically charged atmosphere that the child Guru arrived in Delhi following his summons.

The Urban Poor and Public Health

The urban poor of Shahjahanabad — among whom water-carriers like Chhaju Ram were numbered — lived in conditions that made epidemic disease a constant threat. Access to clean water was limited; sanitation was minimal in the densely packed residential areas beyond the imperial precincts. Smallpox in particular was endemic throughout South Asia in this period, and periodic outbreaks caused devastating mortality. When a severe epidemic struck in the early 1660s, the poor bore the greatest burden. It was precisely this population — those with no political power, no wealth, and no access to the Mughal court's resources — whom Guru Har Krishan Ji chose to serve.

3. The Epidemic: Smallpox and Cholera in Mughal Delhi

The Nature of Smallpox

Smallpox (caused by the Variola virus) was one of the most feared epidemic diseases in the pre-vaccination world. Its symptoms — high fever, severe pain, and distinctive pustular rash — were unmistakable, and the disease killed a significant proportion of those infected, with survivors often left with permanent scarring or blindness. In the absence of any effective treatment, the only responses available were isolation, supportive care (water, food, shade), and prayer. Cholera, the other disease associated with the Delhi epidemic of the 1660s, caused rapid death through dehydration and was particularly devastating in densely populated urban areas with limited access to clean water.

The Epidemic's Human Toll

Sources do not provide precise casualty figures for the Delhi epidemic of this period, and scholars must be cautious about accepting hagiographical accounts at face value. What is historically credible is that epidemic disease was a recurring feature of life in seventeenth-century Delhi and that outbreaks could cause severe mortality. Louis E. Fenech and W. H. McLeod, in the Historical Dictionary of Sikhism, note that the tradition of Guru Har Krishan Ji's service during the epidemic is one of the most firmly established elements of his brief Guruship, corroborated not only by Sikh hagiographical sources but by the physical fact of the well and the site that became Gurdwara Bangla Sahib (Fenech and McLeod 2014, 127).

The Social Dimension of Epidemic Response

In the Mughal social hierarchy, care for epidemic victims was largely left to families, neighbors, and whatever religious institutions chose to engage. There was no organized public health infrastructure. The wealthy could retreat to country estates; the poor had nowhere to go. It was therefore a significant act of deliberate choice for the young Guru and his companions to remain in the city and provide organized relief. This choice reflected not merely personal bravery but a principled commitment to the Sikh value of ਦਇਆ — compassion — as a non-negotiable spiritual obligation.

4. The Guru's Arrival and Initial Response

From Audience to Action

Guru Har Krishan Ji's arrival in Delhi was primarily in the context of the imperial summons from Aurangzeb's administration. However, as the epidemic's severity became apparent to the Guru and his companions, the focus of the visit shifted dramatically. Where a political or diplomatic engagement had been anticipated, a humanitarian emergency presented itself. The Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth records the young Guru's response as immediate and unequivocal: the suffering of the people took precedence over any court protocol or political consideration (Santokh Singh 1843, 3.8.28).

Organizing the Sikh Community

The Guru's response was not individual but communal. The Sikhs who had accompanied him from Punjab — together with members of the Delhi ਸੰਗਤ — were mobilized for ਸੇਵਾ. Groups were organized to carry water to the sick, prepare and distribute food, and provide whatever physical care was possible to the afflicted. The organizational model was that of the ਲੰਗਰ — the free communal kitchen — extended into an emergency relief context. This model demonstrated that Sikh institutions were not merely for the spiritual benefit of Sikhs but were resources available to all human beings in need.

The Choice to Stay

As the epidemic worsened and the danger of contagion became unmistakable, the young Guru did not retreat. This choice — to remain and continue serving in full awareness of the risk — is the dimension of the story that most profoundly reflects Sikh spiritual values. Guru Arjan Dev Ji had faced torture without flinching; Guru Hargobind Ji had carried a sword to defend the faith and the innocent. Guru Har Krishan Ji faced a different kind of threat — invisible, indiscriminate, and lethal — with the same equanimity. The Sikh tradition honors this courage as an expression of complete surrender to ਹੁਕਮ: doing what ਅਕਾਲ ਪੁਰਖ requires and leaving the outcome to the divine will.

5. Raja Jai Singh's Bungalow: The Base of Operations

The Rajput Noble and the Sikh Guru

Raja Jai Singh of Amber was among the most prominent Hindu Rajput nobles at the Mughal court. As a trusted commander in Aurangzeb's military, he occupied a position of significant power within the imperial hierarchy, yet he also maintained devotion to his Hindu faith and respect for other religious traditions. When Guru Har Krishan Ji came to Delhi, Raja Jai Singh offered his residence — his bangla (bungalow) — as a place of accommodation for the Guru and his companions. This act of hospitality by a Hindu nobleman toward the Sikh Guru reflects the cross-religious respect that characterized relationships between the Sikh Gurus and many Hindu leaders throughout this period.

The Well at the Center

The property included a well that became the central feature of the Guru's humanitarian operation. In a city where clean water was essential for survival — and where the epidemic was killing people in part through dehydration and fever — access to a good well was of enormous practical importance. The Guru is said to have drawn water from this well personally and offered it to the sick who came to the compound seeking help. The act of offering water — ਜਲ — to the thirsty is one of the most elemental forms of ਸੇਵਾ in South Asian religious traditions; the Guru's use of Raja Jai Singh's well for this purpose gave the site its enduring sacred character.

The Site's Transformation

After Guru Har Krishan Ji's passing, the site of Raja Jai Singh's bungalow gradually became a place of pilgrimage and devotion for Sikhs. The memory of the Guru's service there was preserved through oral tradition and eventually formalized through the construction of a gurdwara. Over subsequent centuries, the structure was rebuilt and expanded, and the well's water was incorporated into a ਸਾਰੋਵਰ. Today, Gurdwara Bangla Sahib stands at Connaught Place in central New Delhi as one of the most visited Sikh sacred sites in the world, a testament to the enduring power of the eighth Guru's sacrifice.

6. The Distribution of Water and Medicine

Water as Medicine and Grace

In the absence of effective medical treatment for smallpox, supportive care — hydration, rest, and physical comfort — was the primary means of helping the afflicted survive. Water was thus not merely a comfort but a potentially life-saving intervention. The tradition that Guru Har Krishan Ji personally drew water from the well and offered it to the sick is therefore medically plausible as well as spiritually significant. Hagiographical accounts in the Sikh tradition often speak of the water distributed by the Guru as possessing healing properties beyond what could be attributed to hydration alone — a reflection of the community's conviction that the Guru's grace accompanied every act of service.

The Organization of Medical Aid

Beyond water distribution, the Guru's relief operation apparently involved whatever medicinal preparations were available to the seventeenth-century practitioner. Traditional South Asian medicine (Ayurveda and Unani) offered various remedies for fever and skin conditions, and it is likely that these were employed alongside the more basic interventions of food, water, and shelter. The Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth does not provide detailed medical accounts, but it emphasizes the comprehensiveness of the Guru's care — that he attended to those others had abandoned and that no one was turned away (Santokh Singh 1843, 3.8.30).

Service Without Discrimination

A critical feature of the Guru's service, emphasized in all accounts, is its complete lack of discrimination. The sick who came to the Guru's compound for help were not screened by religion, caste, or social status. Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and others received the same care from the same hands. This principle — that ਮਾਨਵਤਾ (humanity) is the only category that matters when suffering is present — is foundational to Sikh humanitarian ethics. It anticipates by centuries the principles now enshrined in international humanitarian law. J. S. Grewal notes that the Sikh tradition of non-discriminatory service has its roots in the Gurus' own practice and represents one of the most distinctive contributions of Sikhism to South Asian religious culture (Grewal 1990, 72).

7. Who Did the Guru Serve? Caste, Religion, and Inclusion

The Caste Hierarchy in Seventeenth-Century Delhi

The social world in which Guru Har Krishan Ji operated was governed by a rigid caste hierarchy that assigned different human worth to different groups. The water-carriers, sweepers, and laborers of Delhi occupied the lowest rungs of this hierarchy, socially invisible to the powerful and religiously marginalized by Brahminic tradition. The very occupation of Chhaju Ram — the water-carrier whose transformation is described in the previous episode — represents the class of people most deeply affected by the epidemic and most ignored by the city's religious establishments.

The Guru's Counter-Hierarchical Practice

By establishing a relief operation that served all without discrimination, Guru Har Krishan Ji enacted in practice what Gurbani proclaimed in theology: that all human beings are equal before ਅਕਾਲ ਪੁਰਖ. The Sikh langar had long served this function in the context of spiritual community — people of all castes ate together, side by side, as an embodied rejection of hierarchical distinctions. The epidemic relief work extended this principle into a crisis context: the child Guru served the water-carrier with the same hands that had blessed the Brahmin scholar, and served the Muslim craftsman with the same care given to the Sikh devotee.

Historical Significance of Inclusive Service

The historical significance of this inclusive service should not be underestimated. In a society where caste pollution was a governing concern — where physical proximity to the sick and the low-caste was considered ritually defiling — the sight of a young Guru personally handling water vessels and tending to epidemic victims from across the social spectrum was a radical act. It embodied the Sikh teaching that ਭਗਤੀ (devotion) and ਸੇਵਾ (service) are inseparable: one cannot truly love God and simultaneously treat any human being as beneath one's care. Harbans Singh identifies this synthesis of devotion and service as one of the most enduring gifts of the Sikh Guru tradition to the wider world (Singh 1994, 118).

8. The Guru Contracts Smallpox

The Moment of Contagion

At some point during the intensive relief work in Delhi, Guru Har Krishan Ji himself contracted smallpox — the very disease he was working to alleviate in others. The exact timing is not recorded with precision, and hagiographical sources vary in their accounts of when the illness became apparent. What is consistent across all accounts is the manner in which the Guru's illness is presented: not as a divine punishment, not as a failure of divine protection, and not as a sign that the Guru had made a mistake. Rather, it is presented as the natural consequence of total immersion in service — and as spiritually significant precisely because the Guru did not hold back from full engagement with the suffering in order to protect himself.

The Sikh Theology of Suffering

The question of why the Guru — through whom divine grace had so recently flowed — should contract disease and die is addressed within Sikh theology through the doctrine of ਹੁਕਮ. Everything that occurs does so within the divine will; the Guru, as the supreme exemplar of surrender to divine will, models the acceptance of whatever ਅਕਾਲ ਪੁਰਖ ordains without resistance or resentment. This is not passive fatalism but an active spiritual posture: continuing to do what is right and good while releasing attachment to particular outcomes. The child Guru served because service was right, not because service would guarantee his survival.

Parallel to Earlier Guru Sacrifice

Guru Har Krishan Ji's death through service stands in a line of sacrificial deaths that characterizes the Sikh Guru lineage. Guru Arjan Dev Ji and Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji gave their lives through martyrdom at the hands of the Mughal state. Guru Har Krishan Ji gave his life through service to the state's victims. The form differs but the principle is identical: the Guru is not exempt from the consequences of full engagement with the world's suffering. This parallel was not lost on later Sikh theologians and teachers, who saw the eighth Guru's death as a form of martyrdom-by-compassion — giving everything in the service of ਮਾਨਵਤਾ.

9. Community Response to the Guru's Illness

Grief and Faith in Tension

When the ਸੰਗਤ learned that the young Guru had contracted smallpox, the response was one of deep grief mingled with a faith tested to its limits. The community had already witnessed the death of two Gurus (Guru Arjan Dev Ji and Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji would be the martyred Gurus, but the community's experience of losing Guru Har Rai Ji was recent) and understood that the human form of the Guru was mortal. Nevertheless, the illness of a seven-year-old child who had given himself so completely in service struck the community with particular force. The Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth records the grief of Mata Sulakhni Ji and the assembled Sikhs who maintained continuous vigil and prayer at the Guru's side.

Prayers and Intercessions

The ਅਰਦਾਸ — the formal Sikh prayer of supplication — was recited continuously. Gurbani was read aloud. Whatever medical care was available was administered. This combination of spiritual practice and practical care reflects the Sikh approach to illness: prayer and medicine are not alternatives but complements, both expressions of the community's love and the individual's surrender to divine will. The community did not abandon hope; they entrusted the Guru's wellbeing to ਅਕਾਲ ਪੁਰਖ while doing everything humanly possible to support recovery.

Sustaining the Service Work

Even as the Guru's condition worsened, there is evidence in hagiographical tradition that the relief work among the epidemic victims continued. The Sikhs who had been organized for ਸੇਵਾ did not cease their work when the Guru fell ill. In this sense, the Guru had successfully transferred the spirit of service from his own person to the community: the practice of compassionate care for the suffering had taken root in the ਸੰਗਤ itself, independent of the Guru's personal presence. This capacity of the Sikh community to sustain service without requiring the physical presence of the Guru would prove essential in the centuries that followed.

10. The Guru's Passing and Its Immediate Aftermath

The Final Days

As smallpox progressed through its severe stages, it became evident that Guru Har Krishan Ji would not survive. The disease, which kills a significant proportion of those infected even in healthy adults, was particularly dangerous for a young child. The Guru's companions and his mother maintained their vigil. According to hagiographical accounts, the Guru maintained his characteristic composure and spiritual presence even as his physical condition deteriorated — speaking words of comfort and assurance to those around him rather than expressing fear or regret. This composure in the face of death is presented as the ultimate expression of surrender to ਹੁਕਮ.

The Dying Words and Their Impact

As discussed in the biographical course on the eighth Guru's life, his reported dying words — ਬਾਬਾ ਬਕਾਲੇ — directed the community toward the village of Bakala for the next Guru. These words, spoken in the midst of the community's grief, immediately gave the community both a purpose and a direction. Rather than collapsing into leaderless despair, the ਸੰਗਤ had a task: to travel to Bakala, identify the Guru who had been indicated, and receive the ਗੁਰਗੱਦੀ once more. The practical orientation of the dying Guru's last words is characteristic of the entire Sikh Guru tradition: even in the moment of passing, the emphasis is on continuity, community, and the forward movement of the path.

The Site as Sacred Memorial

In the immediate aftermath of Guru Har Krishan Ji's passing, the site of his service — Raja Jai Singh's bungalow with its sacred well — became a place of gathering and prayer for Delhi's Sikhs. The connection between the site and the Guru's sacrifice was immediate and powerful. Khushwant Singh notes that the establishment of the site as a gurdwara began relatively soon after the Guru's passing, as the community recognized that the location embodied the highest expression of Sikh values — ਸੇਵਾ, ਦਇਆ, and ਪਰਉਪਕਾਰ — in a form that could inspire and instruct future generations (Singh 1963, 80).

11. Memory and Commemoration: The Making of Bangla Sahib

From Memory to Monument

The transformation of a Rajput nobleman's bungalow into one of the most revered Sikh gurdwaras in the world is a process that unfolded over several centuries. In the decades immediately following Guru Har Krishan Ji's passing, the site was maintained by the Delhi Sikh community as a place of prayer and remembrance. The construction of a formal gurdwara structure likely began in the eighteenth century as the Sikh community grew in confidence and resources. By the nineteenth century, Gurdwara Bangla Sahib had established itself as a major site of Sikh pilgrimage in the capital city.

The Role of the Sarovar

The conversion of the original well into a ਸਾਰੋਵਰ — a sacred pool — is central to the gurdwara's identity. Water from the well, associated in community memory with the Guru's service to the epidemic victims, was preserved and made accessible to pilgrims seeking healing and blessings. The tradition of bathing in or drinking from the sarovar's water, and of that water possessing healing properties, connects Gurdwara Bangla Sahib to a long South Asian tradition of sacred waters while grounding it specifically in the Sikh narrative of seva and sacrifice. The sarovar is thus simultaneously a practical water source, a site of devotional practice, and a living memorial to the eighth Guru's service.

Bangla Sahib as a Model of Sikh Service

Today, Gurdwara Bangla Sahib operates one of the largest langars in Delhi, serving tens of thousands of meals daily to all comers without charge. It maintains a hospital and dispensary offering free medical care — a direct institutional continuation of the Guru's epidemic relief work. Schools, accommodation for pilgrims, and extensive community service programs complete the picture of a gurdwara that has taken seriously its founder's example. For the Sikh tradition, Bangla Sahib is not merely a historical memorial; it is a living demonstration that ਸੇਵਾ is not an abstract ideal but an ongoing practice to be renewed in every generation.

12. The Living Legacy: Seva at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib Today

The Scale of Contemporary Service

Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in central New Delhi receives hundreds of thousands of visitors annually and operates one of the largest free communal kitchens in Asia. The langar hall runs continuously, with thousands of volunteers preparing and serving meals to all who enter — tourists, pilgrims, the homeless, government officials, and religious leaders alike. No question of religion, caste, nationality, or social status is asked. The only requirement is hunger. This extraordinary scale of service, embedded in one of the world's most stratified cities, is a direct institutional expression of the values modeled by the child Guru during the epidemic of 1664.

Medical Service as Ongoing Seva

The gurdwara also operates a hospital and free dispensary, continuing the medical dimension of Guru Har Krishan Ji's service. During major public health crises in modern India — including the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2021 — Gurdwara Bangla Sahib and other major Sikh gurdwaras across India established large-scale relief operations providing oxygen, meals, medicines, and transportation to the sick and their families. The pattern was explicitly and consciously connected in Sikh public communication to the legacy of the eighth Guru's service during the Delhi epidemic. This living continuity between a seventeenth-century child's ਸੇਵਾ and twenty-first-century humanitarian response is one of the most remarkable threads in Sikh institutional history.

Theological Reflection: What the Eighth Guru's Service Teaches

The enduring power of Guru Har Krishan Ji's story lies in its simplicity and its totality. A child saw people suffering and chose to help — without calculation of cost, without discrimination, and without holding back even when the cost proved to be his own life. In Sikh theology, this total self-giving is not exceptional heroism but the natural expression of a heart fully aligned with ਅਕਾਲ ਪੁਰਖ. The Guru who teaches us to see the divine in every human face (ਮਾਨਵਤਾ) will inevitably serve every human face with everything available, holding nothing in reserve. Gurdwara Bangla Sahib stands as a permanent invitation to all who enter to ask themselves: what would it mean, in my own life and time, to serve with the completeness modeled by the Bala Pritam?

References & further reading

  1. Santokh Singh, Kavi. Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth. Patiala: Bhasha Vibhag Punjab, 1963.
  2. Singh, Khushwant. A History of the Sikhs, Vol. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963.
  3. Singh, Harbans. The Heritage of the Sikhs. New Delhi: Manohar, 1994.
  4. Fenech, Louis E., and W. H. McLeod. Historical Dictionary of Sikhism. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2014.
  5. Grewal, J. S. The Sikhs of the Punjab. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
  6. Cole, W. Owen, and Piara Singh Sambhi. The Sikhs: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 1995.

From the source text

(੧੭੬) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ਹੈ, ਤਿਸ ਬੀਰਜ ਤੇ ਹੀ ਸਰਬ ਕੀ ਉਤਪਤੀ ਹੈ। ਅਰ ਜਲ ਕੇ ਬਰਸਬੇ ਤੇ ਸਰਬ ਉਤਭੁਜ੧ ਕੀ ਉਤਪਤੀ ਹੈ। ਇਸੀ ਹੇਤ ਕਰਿ ਸਰਬ ਜਗਤ ਕੋ ਪਿਤਾ ਜਲ ਹੈ। ‘ਮਾਤਾ ਧਰਤਿ ਮਹਤੁ’=ਸਰਬ ਜਗਤ ਕੀ ਮਾਤਾ ਧਰਤੀ ਹੈ। ਕੈਸੀ ਧਰਤੀ ਹੈ? ‘ਮਹਤੁ’ ਕਹੀਏ ਬਡੀ ਹੈ।
(176) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Yes, from that seed, everything originates. And from the raining of water, all vegetation originates. For this reason, water is the father of the entire world. ‘Mata dharat mahat’ = the earth is the mother of the entire world. What kind of earth is it? It is called ‘mahat’, meaning great. A mother is one who supports and raises a child, nourishes them by producing milk from her own body, and bears the impurities of the child; in the same way, the earth relates to the entire world. First, it supports and holds everything upon itself; second, the earth produces grain and other sustenance within itself to feed everyone—the nourishment of all comes from the earth, and everything that originates from it consumes it.
— from Garab Ganjinee Teeka. Gurmukhi is the author's original text (OCR); the English is a machine translation. Both are short study excerpts — refer to the original for an authoritative reading.Read the full work on SikhLibrary ↗

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Course test

Pass with 80% or higher to complete the course and unlock the next one.

1. What is the Sikh concept of selfless service that motivated Guru Har Krishan Ji's work during the epidemic?
2. At whose residence did Guru Har Krishan Ji establish his base of operations during the Delhi epidemic?
3. Which diseases struck Delhi during Guru Har Krishan Ji's visit in the early 1660s?
4. How does Sikh theology interpret the fact that the Guru himself contracted smallpox?
5. What physical feature of Raja Jai Singh's bungalow became the most sacred element of Gurdwara Bangla Sahib?
6. Who were the primary beneficiaries of Guru Har Krishan Ji's epidemic relief work?
7. What Punjabi term refers to the sacred pool incorporated into Gurdwara Bangla Sahib?
8. Which term describes the Sikh communal kitchen that provides free meals to all visitors at Bangla Sahib?
9. What principle governed Guru Har Krishan Ji's service — ensuring no one was turned away on grounds of religion or caste?
10. In which modern Indian city is Gurdwara Bangla Sahib located?

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