Prithi Chand

Prithi Chand (1558-1618) was the eldest son of Guru Ram Das – the fourth Guru of Sikhism, and the eldest brother of Guru Arjun – the fifth Guru.[1][2] He wanted to inherit the Sikh Guruship from his father, who instead favored and appointed his youngest son the 18-year old Arjun Dev as the next Guru. Chand was embittered and notably started one of the major subsects of early Sikhism. This subsect came to be labelled as the Minas, literally "unscrupulous scoundrels", by his competition.[1][2] According to The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Prithi Chand was a Sikh rebel leader who took a "distinctly hostile view" of his brother's appointment.[3] Modern scholars have called his movement one of the unorthodox but influential sects that emerged in the history of Sikhism.[4]

Chand was an accomplished devotional poet.[4] He created a parallel scripture which included the hymns of earlier Gurus and his own. His spiritual discourses attracted a large following and the official support of the Mughal Empire. His followers gained control of the Sikh holy city of Amritsar and neighboring region, while Guru Hargobind – the sixth Guru of Sikhism, had to relocate his Guruship to the Himalayan Shivalik foothills.[5] Chand and his followers rejected Guru Arjan and Guru Hargobind as the official followers of Guru Nanak – the founder of Sikhism.[1] His poetic abilities and his distribution of hymns of Guru Nanak and those of his own, likely triggered Guru Arjan to formulate and release the official first edition of the Adi Granth.[4]

There was a bitter competition between the followers of Guru Arjan and Prithi Chand for three generations. In contemporary Sikhism, the followers and movement led by Prithi Chand are considered as "dissenters".[2] In the hagiographies and official Sikh history written by Chand's opposition, Chand is accused of attempting to poison Hargobind when he was a boy. He and his descendants – Manohar Das (Miharban) and Harji (Hariji) – are also accused of conspiring with the Muslim leaders such as Sulahi Khan to hurt and end the later Sikh Gurus, as well prevent them from entering Amritsar.[1][2][4] The Minas literature does not support these allegations, presenting Chand as a devout supporter of Guru Arjan.[4] There is likely "overt bias" against Chand in the competing biographies.[4]

Prithi Chand established his Guruship in Kotha Guru (about 35 kilometers northeast of Bathinda). He died there in 1618.[4] His son Manohar Das, popularly known as Miharvan, grew up closely attached to both his father Prithi Chand and his uncle Guru Arjan. Miharvan succeeded Chand-led Sikh sect's fellowship. He was also a literary talent and a "luminary among medieval Sikh and Panjabi litterateurs" states Syan, and he composed hymns under the pen name of Prithi Chand.[4] Prithi Chand and his early Sikh sect claimed to have the Guru Harsahai pothi, the earliest compiled Sikh scripture from the time of Guru Nanak.[6] According to the literature of the Miharvan Sikhs, the pothi was given to Prithi Chand by Guru Arjan and this was in part the reason they claimed authenticity of their hymns and movement.[7]

The wars of Guru Gobind Singh against the Muslim commanders and the rise of the militant Khalsa ultimately ended the control of Amritsar by the followers of Prithi Chand. His movement and the "Minas" sect thereafter became largely extinct.[2] According to Gurinder Singh Mann, the Sodhis of Guru Harsahai (35 kilometers west of Faridkot) and of Malwa region are the descendants of the Prithi Chand and Miharvan movement.[7]

References
  1. Hardip Singh Syan (2014). Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies. Oxford University Press. pp. 171–172. ISBN 978-0-19-969930-8.
  2. Minas, Masands, Dhir Malias, Ram Raiyas, Overview of World Religions, PHILTAR, University of Cumbria (2011)
  3. Prithi Chand: Sikh Rebel Leader, Encyclopaedia Britannica
  4. Hardip Singh Syan (2013). Sikh Militancy in the Seventeenth Century: Religious Violence in Mughal and Early Modern India. I.B.Tauris. pp. 49–55. ISBN 978-1-78076-250-0.
  5. Pashaura Singh; Louis E. Fenech (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies. Oxford University Press. pp. 638–639. ISBN 978-0-19-100411-7.
  6. Arvind-Pal S. Mandair; Christopher Shackle; Gurharpal Singh (2013). Sikh Religion, Culture and Ethnicity. Taylor & Francis. pp. 20–22. ISBN 978-1-136-84634-2.
  7. Gurinder Singh Mann (2001). The Making of Sikh Scripture. Oxford University Press. pp. 33–35. ISBN 978-0-19-513024-9.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.