The Ten Sikh Gurusਦਸ ਸਿੱਖ ਗੁਰੂ

The ten Sikh Gurus are the ten human teachers who led the Sikh faith from its founding by Guru Nanak Dev Ji at the end of the 1400s until 1708, when Guru Gobind Singh Ji ended the line of human Gurus and installed the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scripture, as the eternal Guru of the Sikhs. Across 239 years, a hymn-singing founder, a child of five, two martyrs and a king who gave away his throne to a book each carried the same light, and between them they built a faith, a scripture, a city of God and a nation of saint-soldiers.

The Ten Gurus in order

1. Guru Nanak Dev Ji (1469 to 1539) - the founder of Sikhism, who travelled across Asia teaching one God, honest work, sharing with others and the equality of all people, high and low, and settled at Kartarpur to farm and sing his hymns with the first Sikh community.

2. Guru Angad Dev Ji (1504 to 1552) - the devoted disciple Lehna, renamed Angad, a part of the Guru's own body, who consolidated the young community at Khadur Sahib, standardised the Gurmukhi script in which the hymns are written, and built schools, wrestling grounds and the langar his wife Mata Khivi made famous.

3. Guru Amar Das Ji (1479 to 1574) - the third Guru, who became Guru at 73, founded Goindwal Sahib and its Baoli of 84 steps, organised the faith through 22 manjis, made langar compulsory before an audience, and composed the Anand Sahib, the Song of Bliss.

4. Guru Ram Das Ji (1534 to 1581) - the fourth Guru, founder of Ramdaspur, the city that became Amritsar, who began the great sarovar around which the holiest shrine of the Sikhs would rise, and whose humility became the community's model of service.

5. Guru Arjan Dev Ji (1563 to 1606) - the fifth Guru, who completed the Harmandir Sahib, compiled the Adi Granth in 1604 with 2,218 hymns of his own, and in 1606 became the first Sikh martyr, executed at Lahore on the orders of Emperor Jahangir.

6. Guru Hargobind Ji (1595 to 1644) - the sixth Guru, who answered his father's martyrdom by wearing the two swords of Miri and Piri, raising the Akal Takht, keeping the first Sikh standing army, and winning freedom for 52 princes alongside his own release from Gwalior Fort.

7. Guru Har Rai Ji (1630 to 1661) - the seventh Guru, the gentle healer of Kiratpur Sahib, who kept his grandfather's army but fought no battles, healed the sick of every faith from his garden of medicinal herbs, and is remembered today as the Green Guru.

8. Guru Har Krishan Ji (1656 to 1664) - the eighth Guru, the Bal Guru, a child of five when he became Guru, who served Delhi through its smallpox epidemic from the bungalow that became Gurdwara Bangla Sahib, caught the disease himself, and died at seven pointing to his successor with the words Baba Bakale.

9. Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji (1621 to 1675) - the ninth Guru, Hind di Chadar, the Shield of India, who founded Anandpur Sahib, composed 116 hymns, and gave his head in Delhi in 1675 defending the right of Kashmiri Hindus to practise a faith that was not his own.

10. Guru Gobind Singh Ji (1666 to 1708) - the tenth and last human Guru, who in 1699 created the Khalsa, the order of saint-soldiers, gave Sikhs their visible identity, and in 1708, before his death at Nanded, ended the line of human Gurus by installing the Guru Granth Sahib as Guru for all time.

One light, ten Gurus

Sikhs do not think of the ten as ten separate religions or ten rival teachers. In Sikh belief, a single jot, a single divine light, passed from Guru to Guru, as one lamp lights another without itself diminishing. That is why the Gurus signed their hymns with the one name Nanak, adding only a number, Mahalla 2, Mahalla 3, Mahalla 4, to show which body the light was speaking through. When the tenth Guru closed the line in 1708, the light did not go out: it passed into the scripture the Gurus themselves had written and compiled, and the Guru Granth Sahib has been the eternal Guru of the Sikhs ever since.

Who are the ten Sikh Gurus?

In order, the ten Sikh Gurus are: Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Guru Angad Dev Ji, Guru Amar Das Ji, Guru Ram Das Ji, Guru Arjan Dev Ji, Guru Hargobind Ji, Guru Har Rai Ji, Guru Har Krishan Ji, Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji and Guru Gobind Singh Ji. Together they led the Sikh community from 1539, when Guru Nanak passed the Guruship to Guru Angad, until 1708, when Guru Gobind Singh Ji made the Guru Granth Sahib the eternal Guru.

Who was the first human Guru of Sikhism?

Guru Nanak Dev Ji (1469 to 1539) was the first Guru and the founder of Sikhism. Born at Talwandi, now Nankana Sahib in Pakistan, he travelled for over two decades across India and beyond, to Tibet, Arabia and Persia in tradition's telling, before settling at Kartarpur on the River Ravi, where he farmed, sang his hymns and gathered the first Sikh community.

Who was the last human Guru of Sikhism?

Guru Gobind Singh Ji (1666 to 1708) was the tenth and last human Guru. The son of the martyred Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, he created the Khalsa in 1699, fought to defend the community against Mughal and hill-chief persecution, and lost all four of his sons in that struggle. In 1708, at Nanded, he declared that after him the Guru would be no person but the Guru Granth Sahib, and Sikhs have had no human Guru since.