The Birth of Guru Gobind Singh

Guru Gobind Singh, who would become the tenth and final human Guru of the Sikh faith, was born in 1666 CE at Patna, in present day Bihar, while his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Guru, was traveling through eastern India on a preaching tour. His mother, Mata Gujri, remained at Patna for several years of his early childhood before the family was reunited with Guru Tegh Bahadur, who had continued his travels through Bengal and Assam during this period.

The young Gobind Rai, as he was originally named, was formally installed as Guru in 1675, at around the age of nine, following his father's execution by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, and he grew up amid the continuing tension between the Sikh community and Mughal imperial authority that had defined much of his father's and grandfather's leadership before him. He would go on to lead the Sikh community through several decades of conflict, literary and scriptural work, and, in 1699, the founding of the Khalsa, before his own death in 1708.

Before his death, Guru Gobind Singh declared that the line of human Gurus would end with him, and that the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scripture, would thereafter serve as the eternal Guru of the Sikh faith, a declaration that fundamentally shaped the structure of Sikh religious authority from that point forward.

Guru Gobind Singh's birthplace at Patna developed into Takht Sri Patna Sahib, one of the five Takhts, seats of temporal authority within Sikh religious and institutional life, alongside sites at Amritsar, Anandpur Sahib, Damdama Sahib and Nanded, the last associated with his own eventual death. This designation reflects the importance Sikh tradition places on the specific locations connected to the lives of the Gurus, treating them as sites of ongoing religious and community significance rather than only historical curiosity.

Guru Gobind Singh's birthday, Gurpurab, is celebrated by Sikh communities worldwide, typically in the winter months according to the lunar calendar traditionally used, with celebrations including scripture readings, processions and communal meals characteristic of major Sikh religious observances.

His life, from his birth at Patna through his installation as Guru, his literary and scriptural contributions, his military leadership against Mughal forces, and his founding of the Khalsa, is treated within Sikh tradition as a single continuous narrative of increasing responsibility and consequence, making his birth the opening chapter of a life Sikh history regards as decisive for the faith's subsequent institutional and religious identity.