INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

Hari Krishan ‒ did propaganda of Sikhism in Varanasi and later met with Guru Arjan
in the Punjab to hand over Sanskrit hymns composed by Guru Nanak for inclusion in
the Sikh scripture. 93
During the reign of the ninth Sikh Guru, Tegh Bahadur, in the late seventeenth
century clearer references to the local congregation at Varanasi emerge. In the 1660s
Guru Tegh Bahadur left the Punjab and set out on a long tour of Eastern India. At
Patna, the present capital of Bihar, his son Govind Rai (later Gobind Singh) was born
in 1666. The Guru’s family came to live in the city for several years while the Guru
was visiting devotees at different places. It seems that the congregation at Patna constituted
the centre for a larger geographical diocese (manji) in the Eastern regions,
including Sikh congregations at Varanasi and Mirzapur. 94
It is said that Guru Tegh Bahadur stopped at Varanasi for seven months during
his eastwards travel towards Patna in 1666. The hukam-namas or letters of the Guru,
preserved at Nichibagh Gurdwara in Varanasi and at Patna Sahib, acquaint us with
local disciples and their activities. Several of the letters addressed to the Varanasi
congregation mention a Sikh named Bhai Jawehar Mal, who apparently worked as a
local agent to collect donations from Sikh devotees in Varanasi and stayed in close
contact with the Guru through the Sikhs at Patna Sahib. 95 In one letter Guru Tegh
Bahadur writes: “let the congregation entrust to Bhai Jawehar their donations out of
their earnings, which Jawehar shall convey to Bhai Dayal Das. These shall then be
conveyed to the holy stores.” 96 On behalf of the Sikhs in Varanasi Bhai Jawehar
handed over offerings to the Guru through Bhai Dayal Das, who apparently worked
as the head of the congregation at Patna. 97 Some representatives of the Varanasi Sikhs
93
The references are mentioned in Suraj Prakash by Bhai Santokh Singh from 1844 (See Gian
Singh 2004) and Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha’s Mahankosh from 1930 (See Nabha 1996 (1930).
94
The late eighteenth century Gurbilas Padshahi Das of Bhai Sukha Singh tells us that Guru
Gobind Singh supposedly selected and sent two masands ‒ the Guru’s nominees or agents in
distant congregations ‒ to Varanasi and others places in the eastern parts of India in order to
collect tithes (Parkash 1981: 87). Guru Amardas organized the masand system to meet the demands
of a growing and geographically dispersed Sikh community. The local masands worked
as representatives of the Guru in different dioceses, with the main task to guide local Sikhs in
religious matters, collect offerings and keep the local communities in touch with the Guru and
Sikh headquarters. The deputies were responsible to the Guru for the organization within their
dioceses and could appoint their own agents. Apparently the masands became corrupted. In a
hukam-nama of 1701, preserved at Patna Sahib, Guru Gobind Singh ordered the Sikhs to avoid
dealings with the masands. When the Guru created the Khalsa in 1699 the system was abolished
(Parkash 1981: 88).
95
In one hukam-nama Bhai Jawehar Mal is addressed “masand“(Fauja Singh 1996: 71).
96
Fauja Singh 1996: 67.
97
See Parkash 1981: 135. In one letter addressed to the congregation in Varanasi the Guru exhorts:
“let Dayal Das’s communication be obeyed by the Congregation as the Guru’s own command”
(Fauja Singh 1996: 71). The hukam-namas confirm that donations from the Varanasi congregation
reached the Guru through the masands. One hukam-nama informs that Guru Tegh
Bahadur received 80 rupees from the Sikhs in Varanasi by way of Bhai Dayal Das and according
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008