Takht Sri Keshgarh Sahib

The Khalsa was founded at Anandpur Sahib on Baisakhi in 1699, and the account of how has a structural feature that is usually passed over.

What is said to have happened

Guru Gobind Singh called an assembly and asked for a volunteer willing to give his head.

One man came forward. The Guru took him into a tent and returned with a bloodied sword. He asked again. Another came, and the same thing happened. Five times in all.

Then he presented all five alive.

The five

They became the Panj Pyare, the five beloved. Their origins are the point of the story as it is told:

• Daya Singh, from Lahore
• Dharam Singh, from Hastinapur
• Himmat Singh, from Jagannath Puri
• Mohkam Singh, from Dwarka
• Sahib Singh, from Bidar

They came from across the subcontinent, and from a range of castes including those classed as low. Initiated together, they ate from the same bowl.

The part that inverts

The Guru initiated the five. He then asked the five to initiate him.

That is the structurally remarkable move and it carries the doctrine. The Guru placed himself under the authority of the body he had just created, receiving initiation from his own disciples. He is called Ape Gur Chela, himself both Guru and disciple.

The consequence is that authority in the Khalsa does not rest in a person above the community. Five initiated Sikhs acting together can administer initiation and can summon the Guru himself, and to this day five Sikhs constituted as the Panj Pyare carry an authority that no individual holds.

What was instituted

The initiated take the name Singh or Kaur, discarding caste surnames, and maintain the five articles of faith: uncut hair, comb, steel bracelet, sword and prescribed undergarment.

The community became visibly identifiable, which was the intention and the risk: a Sikh could no longer avoid recognition.

The place

Weapons associated with Guru Gobind Singh are kept and displayed at the takht.

Hola Mohalla is held the day after Holi, Nihang orders demonstrating horsemanship, swordsmanship and mock combat. Guru Gobind Singh is said to have instituted it deliberately as a martial festival set against a festival of colour and play.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee administers the takht.

Keshgarh Sahib still holds weapons its founder is said to have personally carried, kept as relics rather than as museum pieces behind glass alone.

Weapons kept as living relics

The gurdwara preserves a collection of arms attributed to Guru Gobind Singh and other Sikh figures, including swords and other weapons displayed and, on specific occasions, ceremonially presented to the congregation, treated as sacred objects connected directly to the Guru's own person rather than only as historical artefacts.

A festival built around martial display

Hola Mohalla, an annual festival established by Guru Gobind Singh as a martial counterpart to the Hindu festival of Holi, is celebrated at Anandpur Sahib with mock battles, horse riding and displays of traditional Sikh martial arts performed by the Nihang warrior order, a deliberately physical, disciplined alternative to Holi's more informal celebration.

As this entry's companion article covers

The founding of the Khalsa in 1699, the Panj Pyare who volunteered their lives, and the Guru's reciprocal initiation by the very disciples he had just initiated, are addressed in this entry's companion article rather than repeated here.