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CHAPTER VIII. BATTLE OF GUJERAT—1849. of the bravest and most powerful nationalities of the many races and nations of India, during the early half of the present century, was that of the Sikhs. Like most other Oriental nations, they owe their origin to religious belief, the word "Sikh" signifying "Disciple." The founder of their faith was a Hindoo named Nanek, who was born about the middle of the fifteenth century of the Christian era. His father intended him for a merchant, but he felt an irresistible longing for religious studies, which resulted in an uncontrollable dislike to the Hindoo, the Moslem, and the Bhuddist forms of worship. He taught the unity of God, the equality of all in the sight of heaven, and inculcated universal kindness, charity, and forbearance among men. He rejected the distinctions of caste, the burning of widows, and all other peculiar features of the Hindoo religion, and at the same time rejected the sensual paradise and devout observances of the followers of Mohammed. The progress of the new faith was steady, though in its early history it met with much opposition; for four centuries the Sikhs contended with the enemies that surrounded them, and gradually increased their power over the neighboring states. They were emphatically a soldier race, and in the early part of the present century, under the leadership of Runjeet Singh, "The Lion of the Punjaub" the Sikh Confederacy 117