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The Travels of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji: Panjab, Bihar, Bengal, and Assam

Professor: Kavi Santokh Singh Source: SikhLibrary

This course examines the extensive travels of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji across the Indian subcontinent — from Punjab through Bihar, Bengal, and Assam — during the active years of his Guruship (1665-1675). Drawing on historical sources and hagiographical traditions, students trace the Guru's itinerary, the sangats (communities) he established or strengthened, the Gurbani he composed during these journeys, and the lasting institutional legacy of his travels for Sikh communities in eastern India.

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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

  • Trace the major routes and destinations of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji's subcontintental travels
  • Identify the key sangats the Guru established or strengthened in Bihar, Bengal, and Assam
  • Explain the spiritual and institutional significance of the Guru's travels beyond Punjab
  • Analyze the relationship between the Guru's travel experiences and his Gurbani compositions
  • Evaluate the lasting institutional legacy of the ninth Guru's travels for Sikh communities in eastern India
  • Situate the travels within the broader context of the ninth Guru's ministry and the political environment

Key terms — ਸ਼ਬਦਾਵਲੀ

ਸੰਗਤ

A congregation of Sikh devotees; the local community of Sikhs established at various locations by the Guru

ਧਰਮਸ਼ਾਲਾ

A resting place and place of worship established by the Guru at various locations during his travels

ਪ੍ਰਚਾਰ

The spreading of Sikh teachings; the ninth Guru's travels were fundamentally a mission of parchar

ਪਟਨਾ ਸਾਹਿਬ

City in Bihar; birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh Ji and site of major Sikh historical gurdwara

ਮਾਤਾ ਗੁਜਰੀ

Wife of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji who accompanied him on parts of his travels

ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਤਖ਼ਤ ਸ੍ਰੀ ਪਟਨਾ ਸਾਹਿਬ

One of the five Takhts (thrones) of Sikhism; located at Patna, birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh Ji

ਢਾਕਾ

Dhaka (present Bangladesh); a significant center visited by the ninth Guru during his eastern travels

ਆਸਾਮ

Assam; the easternmost region of the ninth Guru's travels, establishing Sikh presence there

ਨਾਨਕਸ਼ਾਹੀ

Of or relating to the Guru Nanak lineage; used for coins and institutions established by the Sikh Gurus

ਮਸੰਦ

Local Sikh agent collecting offerings; the ninth Guru had to deal with corrupt masands during his travels

Lessons

1. Introduction: The Traveling Guru

Full course contents
  1. Introduction: The Traveling Guru
  2. The Punjab Base: Anandpur and the Early Ministry
  3. Motivations for the Eastern Travels
  4. The Route East: Through the Gangetic Plain
  5. Bihar: The Guru in the Land of the Ganges
  6. Patna: The City That Would Witness a Guru's Birth
  7. Bengal: Sikh Communities in the East
  8. Dhaka and the Bengali Sangat
  9. Assam: The Furthest East
  10. The Return Journey and Its Significance
  11. Gurbani Composed During the Travels
  12. The Lasting Legacy: Sikh Communities in Eastern India

The Guru as Traveler

The tradition of the traveling Guru is as old as Sikhism itself. Guru Nanak Dev Ji undertook four great journeys (ਉਦਾਸੀਆਂ) that took him across the Indian subcontinent, to Sri Lanka, the Arabian Peninsula, and Central Asia — spreading his teachings and establishing communities of followers wherever he went. Subsequent Gurus continued this tradition of active engagement with the wider world. Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji's travels, covering thousands of miles across northern and eastern India, stand fully within this tradition while having their own distinctive character shaped by the specific needs of the Sikh community in the 1660s-1670s.

Why the Eastern Travels Matter

The significance of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji's travels to Bihar, Bengal, and Assam lies in their establishment of Sikh presence far beyond the Punjab heartland. The ninth Guru's journeys created or strengthened Sikh communities in regions that had not previously been centers of Sikh life, planted the seeds of institutions that would persist for centuries, and demonstrated through practice the universal scope of the Sikh mission — that the Guru's grace is not limited to any geographical or cultural region. The gurdwaras established in the wake of these travels continue to mark the landscape of eastern India today.

Sources for the Travel Accounts

The primary sources for the ninth Guru's travels are the Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth of Kavi Santokh Singh and various regional hagiographical traditions preserved in the communities the Guru visited. Trilochan Singh's scholarly synthesis in Guru Tegh Bahadur: Prophet and Martyr provides the most comprehensive modern account of the travels, drawing on multiple sources and assessing their reliability. Students should note that the travel accounts contain both well-documented historical facts and hagiographical elaborations whose historical status requires critical assessment.

2. The Punjab Base: Anandpur and the Early Ministry

Anandpur as Center of Ministry

Following his recognition as ninth Guru at Bakala in 1665, Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji established Anandpur Sahib (initially named Chakk Nanaki) as his primary base of operations. This new town, located in the Shivalik Hills near Kiratpur, served as the physical center of his ministry throughout his Guruship. From Anandpur, he received visitors, conducted kirtan and katha, managed the community's affairs, and organized his extensive travels. Mata Gujri Ji and the young Gobind Rai resided at Anandpur during the Guru's absences, maintaining the community's life and spiritual practice.

The Early Punjab Ministry

Before undertaking his extensive eastern travels, Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji conducted an initial ministry tour of Punjab — visiting the main Sikh centers including Amritsar, confirming his authority as the true Guru in the context of competing claims, and beginning the pastoral work of rebuilding trust and coherence in a community that had been through a period of succession uncertainty. The Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth records numerous episodes from this early Punjab ministry: the Guru receiving visitors of various backgrounds, demonstrating spiritual gifts, and establishing the quality of his ministry as centered on Gurbani, seva, and the grace of ਨਾਮ (Santokh Singh 1843, 3.9.25).

The Decision to Travel East

The decision to undertake the extensive eastern travels appears to have been motivated by several factors: the genuine missionary impulse to spread Sikh teaching beyond the Punjab; the practical need to visit and strengthen Sikh communities that had developed in various parts of northern India; and possibly a desire to maintain distance from Mughal administrative centers in Punjab, where the political environment was increasingly tense. Whatever the combination of motivations, the eastern travels transformed Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji from a regional religious leader into a figure of genuinely pan-Indian spiritual significance.

3. Motivations for the Eastern Travels

The Missionary Impulse

The most fundamental motivation for the ninth Guru's eastern travels was the Sikh missionary tradition — the conviction that the Guru's grace should be made available to all human beings regardless of geography, caste, or religious background. Guru Nanak Dev Ji had modeled this universal reach through his own journeys; the ninth Guru's travels carried on this tradition in his own historical moment. The establishment of ਧਰਮਸ਼ਾਲਾ (resting places and places of worship) at locations along the travel route was a concrete institutional expression of this missionary impulse: the Guru was not merely passing through but planting the seeds of permanent communities.

Strengthening Existing Sangats

Beyond establishing new communities, the ninth Guru's travels were also motivated by the need to strengthen existing Sikh sangats in various parts of India. The Sikh community had been spreading organically for over a century since Guru Nanak Dev Ji's time, and there were established communities of varying vitality in many parts of northern India. Some of these communities had been weakened by the succession disputes and the problematic masand system. The Guru's personal visit — bringing the authority, the Gurbani, and the darshan of the tenth Guru — revitalized these communities in a way that could not be accomplished from a distance.

Political Considerations

J. S. Grewal notes that the political dimension of the ninth Guru's travels should not be overlooked (Grewal 1990, 78). By spending extended periods away from Punjab — where Mughal administrative pressure was most intense — the Guru reduced the risk of direct confrontation with Mughal authorities before the confrontation became necessary. The eastern travels can thus be read as a period of strategic consolidation: strengthening the Sikh community's institutional base before the inevitable conflict with Aurangzeb's conversion campaign. Whether or not the Guru consciously calculated in these terms, the effect of the travels was to establish a stronger, more geographically dispersed Sikh community that would better survive the subsequent persecution.

4. The Route East: Through the Gangetic Plain

The Gangetic Plain as Highway

The Guru's eastern travels followed the great highway of the Gangetic plain — the fertile, densely populated river valley that has been the highway of Indian civilization for millennia. Moving eastward from Punjab through the towns and cities of what are now Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Bengal, the Guru traveled along established routes used by merchants, pilgrims, and armies. This route took him through communities of extraordinary religious and cultural diversity — the birthplace of Buddhism, the heartland of Hindu pilgrimage, the centers of Mughal administration.

Significant Stops in the Middle Gangetic Plain

Among the significant stops in the middle Gangetic plain, the tradition records the Guru visiting several important locations in what is now eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. These visits are associated with the establishment of sangats and the performance of ਸੇਵਾ — some accounts record the Guru helping communities during floods or famines, continuing the humanitarian service tradition of the Guru lineage. The Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth provides accounts of various episodes during the journey eastward, including encounters with local people from diverse religious backgrounds who were drawn to the Guru's presence (Santokh Singh 1843, 3.9.32).

Traveling with Family and Companions

The ninth Guru did not travel alone. Mata Gujri Ji accompanied him for at least part of the journey, and she was present at Patna when the future Guru Gobind Singh Ji was born. A group of companions and Sikh devotees also accompanied the Guru, providing security, assistance with community organization, and the companionship of the ਸੰਗਤ throughout the journey. Trilochan Singh provides a detailed reconstruction of the travel party's composition and route, noting the significance of various stopping points along the way (Singh 1967, 60).

5. Bihar: The Guru in the Land of the Ganges

Bihar's Religious Landscape

Bihar — the land of the Buddha's enlightenment, of the ancient Magadha empire, of the great Nalanda university — had a religious landscape of extraordinary richness when Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji arrived in the mid-1660s. It was a region of active Hindu pilgrimage (Bodh Gaya, Vaishali), significant Muslim population and culture, and the remnants of the ancient Buddhist heritage. For the ninth Guru, Bihar represented both an established environment for spiritual encounter and an opportunity to establish the Sikh presence in a region with limited previous exposure to the Guru tradition.

The Guru's Reception in Bihar

Hagiographical sources record warm receptions for the Guru in various parts of Bihar — local people, regardless of their own religious background, being drawn to his presence, his Gurbani, and the ਲੰਗਰ that accompanied his traveling community. The ninth Guru's approach to engagement with communities of different religious backgrounds — respectful, curious, and centered on the universal themes of ਨਾਮ simran and seva — was well-suited to the diverse environment of Bihar. He is not recorded as seeking to convert local people to Sikhism in any aggressive sense, but rather to share the Guru's grace with all who were drawn to it.

Institutional Foundations

The ninth Guru's time in Bihar laid institutional foundations for Sikh communities that would persist across generations. Gurdwaras established in his wake — some at locations specifically associated with his visit — created physical anchors for these communities. The tradition of ਸੰਗਤ and ਲੰਗਰ was established in locations far from the Punjab heartland, ensuring that Sikh practice would be maintained even in the absence of the Guru's physical presence. This institutional dimension of the travels — the planting of communities that could sustain themselves — may be as significant as the spiritual impact of the Guru's personal presence.

6. Patna: The City That Would Witness a Guru's Birth

Patna in the Ninth Guru's Travels

Patna — the capital of Bihar, historically known as Pataliputra — was one of the most significant stops in the ninth Guru's eastern travels. The ancient city on the Ganges had been a center of successive Indian civilizations for over two millennia. When Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji arrived in Patna, he established a sangat there and spent significant time engaging with the local community. Mata Gujri Ji was residing in Patna while the Guru continued further east to Bengal and Assam.

The Birth of Guru Gobind Singh Ji at Patna

The most consequential event associated with Patna in Sikh history is the birth of the future Guru Gobind Singh Ji — then named Gobind Rai — on December 22, 1666, while his father was on his eastern travels and his mother was staying in Patna. News of the birth eventually reached the Guru as he traveled further east. The birth of his son at this distant eastern city rather than at the Punjabi base of Anandpur Sahib is a minor biographical detail that would take on enormous significance: it made Patna a sacred site in Sikh history, forever associated with the birth of the creator of the Khalsa.

Takht Sri Patna Sahib

ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਤਖ਼ਤ ਸ੍ਰੀ ਪਟਨਾ ਸਾਹਿਬ — the gurdwara at Patna — is one of the five Takhts (thrones of Sikh authority) in the Sikh world. Its status as a Takht reflects the exceptional historical significance of Patna in Sikh history: birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh Ji and a major site of the ninth Guru's ministry. The Takht continues to function as a center of Sikh religious authority and pilgrimage, drawing Sikhs from across India and the diaspora. The institution founded by the ninth Guru's travels thus persists in one of the most authoritative forms in the Sikh institutional structure.

7. Bengal: Sikh Communities in the East

Bengal in the Seventeenth Century

Bengal — the delta region of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers — was one of the most populous and economically productive regions of the Mughal empire in the seventeenth century. Dhaka (in present Bangladesh) was the Mughal provincial capital and a significant center of trade and culture. The region had a complex religious landscape: the majority Hindu Bengali population maintained its own distinctive form of devotional Hinduism; there was a substantial Muslim population, particularly in the Dhaka region; and smaller communities of various other traditions were present. For the ninth Guru's mission of spreading Sikh teaching, Bengal represented both a challenge and an opportunity.

Communities of Devotees

The tradition records that the ninth Guru found existing communities of Sikh devotees in Bengal — evidence that the Guru Nanak tradition had spread beyond Punjab in the more than a century since the first Guru's travels. These communities, often centered on ਧਰਮਸ਼ਾਲਾ established by earlier missionaries, were strengthened by the Guru's personal visit. The ninth Guru's extended stay in Bengal — reportedly lasting several months — allowed for deep engagement with these communities, the resolution of disputes and organizational issues, and the establishment of new institutional structures.

The Bengali Sikh Legacy

The ninth Guru's travels in Bengal left an institutional legacy that persisted through subsequent centuries. Sikh communities in Bengal maintained their distinct identity, often centered on gurdwaras that traced their origins to the ninth Guru's visit. The tradition of Sikh ਸੰਗਤ in eastern India, while smaller than the Punjab-centered community, has maintained continuity from the ninth Guru's time to the present. Harjot Oberoi, in The Construction of Religious Boundaries, notes that the eastern sangats represented a distinctive form of Sikh community life adapted to local cultural contexts while maintaining core theological and institutional connections to the Punjab heartland (Oberoi 1994, 125).

8. Dhaka and the Bengali Sangat

Dhaka as Capital and Center

ਢਾਕਾ — Dhaka — served as the Mughal provincial capital of Bengal and was a major center of commerce, Islamic scholarship, and cultural life in the seventeenth century. The city's cosmopolitan environment — home to Muslim administrators, Hindu merchants, and people from across the Mughal empire — made it an important stop for the ninth Guru's mission. The presence of a Mughal administrative center in the city might appear to create risk for the Guru's visit; in practice, the Mughal provincial administration in Bengal appears to have been less focused on religious suppression than the central administration in Delhi.

The Guru's Ministry in Dhaka

The Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth records the ninth Guru's ministry in Dhaka with accounts of large numbers of devotees coming to receive his darshan and participate in Gurbani and langar (Santokh Singh 1843, 3.9.40). The Guru's approach was consistent with his ministry elsewhere: open to all regardless of background; centered on Gurbani recitation and simran; accompanied by langar for all; and attentive to the practical needs of the community. Accounts describe a significant local response — people of various religious backgrounds being drawn to the Guru's presence and the spirit of his community.

Institutional Legacy at Dhaka

The gurdwara established in the wake of the ninth Guru's Dhaka visit — known by various names in different periods of history — represents one of the easternmost anchors of Sikh institutional life in South Asia. The community established there maintained its Sikh identity through the subsequent centuries, including the traumatic Partition of India and Pakistan and the later creation of Bangladesh in 1971. The persistence of this tiny community across three and a half centuries of political upheaval is testimony to the depth of the institutional roots the ninth Guru planted during his eastern travels.

9. Assam: The Furthest East

The Journey to Assam

ਆਸਾਮ (Assam) represents the easternmost extent of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji's recorded travels. The region — known for its distinctive culture, its Brahmaputra river valley landscape, and its complex mix of tribal, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions — was at the periphery of Mughal administrative control in the seventeenth century. Reaching Assam from the Punjab heartland was an extraordinary undertaking, covering over a thousand miles through some of the most diverse religious and cultural terrain on the subcontinent. The ninth Guru's willingness to make this journey reflects the universality of his mission: no human community was too remote for the Guru's grace to reach.

The Guru's Encounter with Assam

The tradition preserves various accounts of the ninth Guru's encounters in Assam, including his interaction with local religious traditions and the establishment of a small Sikh community there. The Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth records that the Guru received a significant reception from local people and established a sangat before beginning his return journey westward (Santokh Singh 1843, 3.9.45). The specific details of the Assam visit are less fully documented than those of the Bihar and Bengal phases, reflecting both the greater distance from the Punjab tradition's centers of historical memory and the smaller scale of the community established there.

The Significance of the Eastern Boundary

The fact that the ninth Guru traveled to Assam — establishing Sikh presence at the far eastern reaches of the Indian subcontinent — is theologically and institutionally significant. It demonstrates the scope of the Sikh mission as the Guru understood it: not a religion of the Punjab but a path open to all human beings, wherever they were located. The establishment of even a small sangat in Assam created a thread of connection between the most eastern communities of India and the Guru tradition at Anandpur Sahib — a thread that was maintained, however tenuously, in the subsequent centuries.

10. The Return Journey and Its Significance

The Return Route

After completing his eastern ministry tour, Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji made his way back westward toward Anandpur Sahib, stopping at various communities along the return route to continue his ministry. The return journey was not merely a logistical retracing of steps but an additional phase of ministry — communities that had received the Guru's visit on the outward journey now had the opportunity for a second encounter. The tradition records various episodes of healing, teaching, and community building along the return route.

Reuniting with Family at Patna

A significant moment in the return journey was the Guru's reunion with Mata Gujri Ji and the infant Gobind Rai at Patna. The future tenth Guru had been born during the Guru's absence on the eastern travels; the father-son meeting at Patna is preserved in tradition as a moment of joy and spiritual significance. The infant Gobind Rai would travel westward with his father and mother, eventually arriving at Anandpur Sahib — the city that would later become the center of his own transformative ministry. The ninth Guru's travels thus quite literally carried the tenth Guru across the subcontinent before the child could walk.

What the Guru Brought Back

Beyond the institutional foundations planted in various eastern communities, the ninth Guru returned from his travels with deepened spiritual experience and with a clearer sense of the scope of the Sikh community he was called to lead. The travels had demonstrated both the vitality of Sikh communities far from the Punjab heartland and the challenges they faced — challenges of organizational coherence, masand corruption, and distance from the Guru's physical presence. This knowledge would inform the ninth Guru's continued pastoral work in the years before his martyrdom.

11. Gurbani Composed During the Travels

The Traveling Composer

Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji was a prolific composer of Gurbani throughout his Guruship, and the travels through Bihar, Bengal, and Assam provided both the time for reflection and the experiences of encounter with diverse human communities that shaped his compositions. While it is difficult to attribute specific compositions precisely to specific travel experiences — the hagiographical tradition does not always make this connection explicit — the themes of the ninth Guru's Gurbani are deeply resonant with the experiences of a traveler encountering the world's diversity and impermanence at first hand.

Themes Resonant with Travel Experience

Several themes in the ninth Guru's Gurbani seem particularly resonant with the experience of extensive travel. The repeated meditations on impermanence and the transience of the world take on added meaning when the Guru has literally seen the rise and fall of civilizations — the ruins of ancient Pataliputra near Patna, the Buddhist sites of Bihar, the diverse communities of Bengal. The reflections on the universality of human experience — ਸੁਖ ਦੁਖ (pleasure and pain) as the common condition of all beings regardless of culture or religion — would have been confirmed and deepened by direct encounter with the extraordinary diversity of the subcontinent.

Composing in the Spirit of the Journey

The ninth Guru's saloks on the nature of the mind, the impermanence of the world, and the sufficiency of ਨਾਮ simran were composed by a man who had experienced the full range of human life — from contemplative stillness to active journey, from the intimate environment of the Guru's court to the public spaces of distant cities. This breadth of experience gives the Gurbani its distinctive quality: it speaks with equal authority to those in the contemplative life and those in the midst of active engagement with the world's complexity.

12. The Lasting Legacy: Sikh Communities in Eastern India

Institutional Persistence

The most concrete legacy of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji's eastern travels is the persistence of Sikh communities and gurdwaras in Bihar, Bengal, and Assam from the seventeenth century to the present. While these communities are much smaller than the Punjab-centered mainstream of the Sikh world, they represent an unbroken thread of institutional continuity from the ninth Guru's ministry. Takht Sri Patna Sahib, one of the five highest authorities in the Sikh world, is the most visible expression of this legacy — but it is supported by a network of smaller gurdwaras and communities across the eastern region that trace their origins to the ninth Guru's journeys.

The Pan-Indian Scope of Sikhism

The ninth Guru's eastern travels established, institutionally and geographically, the pan-Indian scope of the Sikh tradition. Sikhism has sometimes been characterized in popular discourse as exclusively a Punjabi religion, but the institutional history tells a different story. From the ninth Guru's time, Sikh communities have existed in Bihar, Bengal, Assam, Maharastra, and other regions far from the Punjab — communities with their own distinctive local character but connected to the Guru tradition through the same Gurbani, the same ਲੰਗਰ, and the same commitment to the Guru Granth Sahib. The ninth Guru's travels were foundational for this pan-Indian dimension.

A Model for Sikh Mission

The ninth Guru's travels also established a model for Sikh missionary activity that has been followed by Sikh missionaries and travelers in subsequent centuries. The model combines personal presence (the Guru going to where people are, rather than requiring them to come to him), universal hospitality (langar for all, without discrimination), centered practice (Gurbani, simran, seva as the core of every stop), and institutional foundation (establishing sangats and dharmshala that can sustain practice after the traveler has moved on). This model continues to inform Sikh missionary and service activity in the twenty-first century — carried forward by the ninth Guru's example across three and a half centuries.

References & further reading

  1. Santokh Singh, Kavi. Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth. Patiala: Bhasha Vibhag Punjab, 1963.
  2. Singh, Trilochan. Guru Tegh Bahadur: Prophet and Martyr. Delhi: Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, 1967.
  3. Singh, Harbans. The Heritage of the Sikhs. New Delhi: Manohar, 1994.
  4. Grewal, J. S. The Sikhs of the Punjab. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
  5. Singh, Khushwant. A History of the Sikhs, Vol. 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963.
  6. Oberoi, Harjot. The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity, and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.

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

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1. Which Guru's birth is associated with the city of Patna, making it one of the five Takhts of Sikhism?
2. What does the Punjabi term 'Dharmshala' refer to in the context of the ninth Guru's travels?
3. To which region did Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji travel furthest east during his subcontintental journeys?
4. What was the original name of Anandpur Sahib when Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji founded it?
5. Who was Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji's wife who accompanied him during the eastern travels?
6. What is the significance of Takht Sri Patna Sahib in the Sikh world?
7. According to scholars like J. S. Grewal, what was one political motivation for the ninth Guru's extended eastern travels?
8. What Sikh practice did Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji establish at every stop on his travels, open to all regardless of religion?
9. What does the Punjabi term 'Parchar' mean in the context of the ninth Guru's travels?
10. What institutional system did the ninth Guru have to address during his travels due to corruption?

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