GURUS

•  Guru Nanak Dev (1469-1539) – He was the founder of Sikh Religion.
• Guru Angad (1539-1552) – He started Gurumukhi language that is the writing script Sikh Religion.
• Guru Amardas (1552-1574) – He demolished many social evils like stoppage of child marriage, widow re-marriage etc.
• Guru Ramdas (1574-1581) – He discovered the Amritsar city by contributing 500 villages. Akbar had gifted him these villages
• Guru Arjan Dev (1581-1606) – He built Golden Temple and also wrote Aadigranth. At last, he was executed by Emperor Jahangir.
• Guru Hargobind (1606-1645) – He placed Akal Takht in the Golden Temple.
• Guru Har Rai (1645-1661)
• Guru Harikishan (1661-1664) – Many schools were built across the country by the names of Hari Kishan.
• Guru Tegbahadur (1664-1675) – Emperor Aurangzeb sentenced his death
• Guru Gobind Singh (1675-1708) – He started Khalsa Panth.

GURU AMARDAS

• Guru Amar Das born on 5 May 1479 mwas the third of the Ten Gurus of Sikhism and became Sikh Guru on 26 March 1552 at age 73.

• Before becoming a Sikh, Amar Das had adhered to the Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism for much of his life.One day he heard his nephew’s wife, Bibi Amro, reciting a hymn by Guru Nanak, and was deeply moved by it.
• Bibi Amro was the daughter of Guru Angad, the second and then current Guru of the Sikhs. Amar Das persuaded Bibi Amro to introduce him to her father and in 1539, Amar Das, at the age of sixty, met Guru Angad and became a Sikh, devoting himself to the Guru. In 1552, before his death, Guru Angad appointed Amar Das as Guru Amar Das, the third Guru of Sikhism.

EARLY LIFE

• Guru Amar Das was born on April 5, 1479 at Basarka village in Amritsar district. He was the eldest son of his parents, Bhai Tej Bhan and Mata Lakhmi.
• His father was Tej Bhan Bhalla,, a local petty trader. They were all staunch sanatanists, and vegetarians.
• At the age of 24, he was married to Mansa Devi who gave birth to two sons, Mohan and Mohri, and two daughters, Bibi Dani and Bibi Bhani GURU
• Before coming into contact with Sikhkism Guru Amar Das had crossed sixty years of age. His brother Manak chand lived nearby his house, Manak Chand’s wife Bibi Amro use to sing Guru Nanak’s hymns.
• It was in 1541, when Amardas was 62 years old. Guru Amardas ji were on Guruship from 1552 to 1574, he moved to Goindwal from Khadur to avoid conflict with Guru Angad’s son’s., elder of whom named Datu had declared himself as a Guru.
• After meeting Guru Angad Dev he became a devout Sikh and decided to devote the rest of his life in service of the guru. He actively began serving the guru and participated in community services.

GURU

• Guru Amar Das strengthened the langar system. Everyone, irrespective of religion, caste, or social status had to first share a meal at the community kitchen with others before being granted an audience with the guru. Emperor Akbar also ate at the langar before meeting the guru.

• Guru Amar Das worked hard to spread the message of Sikhism and started the Manji and Piri system for this purpose. He appointed 94 men as Manji and 52 women as Piris, whom he sent to preach the tenets of Sikhism to the masses. A prolific writer, he composed several hymns of which 907 are included in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib

GURU

• Guru Amardas ji, condemnned Hindus for Sati, allowed widow remarriage.
• He divided the area into 22 branches called Manjis and appointed a local Sikh preacher at each place. The preacher sat on a Manji (a cot) while the congregation all around it.
• He started the system of holding two annual gatherings of his disciples from all over the country. At his headquarters, he undertook the construction of a baoli (a well with a perennial source of spring water). For the Sikhs the headquarters of the Guru and this baoli became a holy place of pilgrimage.

GURU KA LANGAR

• Guru’s free kitchen (Guru ka Langar) which was started by Guru Nanak and developed by Guru Angad, was further strengthened by Guru Amar Das.
• The Guru intended to remove the caste restrictions and prejudices of untouchability. It was, therefore, declared unequivocally that all persons of all castes, high or low, rich or poor, Brahmans or Sudras, Hindus or Muslims, must sit in the same line and eat the same food from Guru’s kitchen.
• When Raja of Haripur or even Akbar, the Mughal Emperor of India, came to see the Guru, they had to sit with common people and dine with them before they could have audience with the Guru.

GURU

• Guru Amardas ji were highly pleased with one of his disciple named Bhai Jetha, first Guru Amardas ji married his daughter Bibi Bhani to Bhai Jetha, and then delighted with the couple’s devotion, he passed on the Guruship to Bhai Jetha as Guru Ramdas.
• He departed from this world on September 1, 1574. They administered both to the religious and the temporal needs of the disciples; for, in the Guru’s system legitimate temporal needs were included in the religious needs. • Guru Amar Das selected the site in Amritsar village for a special temple, that Guru Ram Das began building, Guru Arjan completed and inaugurated, and the Sikh Emperor Ranjit Singh gilded.

 TEACHINGS

• Guru Amar Das preached against Sati and advocated the remarrying of widows. He asked the women to discard ‘Purdah’ (veil). He introduced new birth, marriage and death ceremonies.
• Thus he raised the status of women and protected the rights of female infant who were killed without question as they were deemed to have no status
• These teachings met stiff resistance from the Orthodox hindus and Muslim fundamentalists. He fixed three Gurpurbs for Sikh celebrations: Diwali, Vaisakhi and Maghi
• He tried to liberate women from the practices of purdah (wearing a veil) as well as preaching strongly against the practice of sati (hindu wife burning on her husband’s funeral pyre). Guru Amar Das also disapproved of a widow remaining unmarried for the rest of her life