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 MAY 3, 1872.]

161

NOTES, &c.

free-masons, and no certainty prevails on the point.

free from tigers. The only animals seen on my visit were the monkeys, playing and chattering on the

Women are admissable to the sect and to their as

trees and rocks near the entrances of both caves,

semblies ; and dancing is not only allowable, but justified on the ground of the following text from the

and a large flock of huge storks, nearly as tall as men, which were stalking in the midst of the nearly ripe paddy.—Abridged from Times of India, Jan. 8. RISE OF THE KUKA SECT.

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RAM SINGH was originally a carpenter, residing in a small village named Bhaini, situated about seven miles south-east of Ludhiana. He served, however, in the Sikh army as a soldier, I believe, in 1845, but after the breaking up of the Sikh Raj, he retired to his native village, and resumed his occupation as a carpenter. We next hear of him as having undertaken a contract for making the road or a portion of it from Rawal Pindi to Mari. On completing this, he retired again

to his village, and is reported to have seen a vision We next hear of him as the Guru called to purify the Sikh faith. In the begining his ideas were modest, and his following as slender as his ideas were modest. As the Sikhs have ten gurus, so have they ten points of faith—five affirmative and five negative. The first are called five Ks, and are— (A)

Kard, Kachh, Kerpal, Kaughi, Kes.

Iron ornaments, short drawers, iron quoits or wea pons, the comb, and hair. That is to say, they are not to be effeminate nor to shave, and to be always ready for fighting. The negative points or moral precepts of the faith are contained in the following formula :(B)

Nari-mar, Kuri-mar, Sri Katta, Sumnet Katta, Dhir

Malia.

That is to say, they are not to smoke, not to kill their daughters, not to consort with or trust the crown

shorn, nor the circumcised, nor the followers of the Guru of Kartarpur.” It is of some importance to bear these precepts in mind as they show (although most of them date only from Guru Govind Singh) that the Sikh faith is hostile to both Hindu and Moslem,-naturally much more so to the latter than the former, in consequence of cow-killing.

Ram Singh, however, did not content himself by adhering to the tenets of the faith as left by the last Guru. His endeavour appears to have been to bring

Granth:— -

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Nachan Kudan Man da chao

Nanak jivan man bho, unham man bhao.

They are consequently noisy in their assemblies, re viving to some extent, it would seem, the ecstacies of of the howling dervishes of Egypt and the dancing dervishes of Constantinople, for so excited do they become that some have been known to fall down in a state of hal or coma. At first, votaries of the new re

ligion came in slowly, and Ram Singh had not any difficulty in initiating and baptising all the weavers and carpenters who were prepared to accept him as their Guru ; but, by degrees converts grew more numerous, and he was obliged to appoint lieute. nants to aid him in the work. He himself, too, as sumed a more important rôle. He rode about on horseback, surrounded by a noisy and numerous following, who continually shouted Akal / Akal / clear the way ! Ram Singh comes. Akal / Akal / &c., &c. Finally Ram Singh conceived the idea of becoming the tenth Guru of the Sikhs, or, if not, the first Guru of as powerful a religious and political association. He increased the number of his Subahs to twenty-two, the same number as the king of Dehli had ; and commenced a very active system of propagation in the cis and trans-Satlaj States and throughout the Sikh portion of the Panjab. Almost all the carpenters, masons, and weavers joined the new religion, and many Jats ; but the body of the Sikhs fought very shy of Guru Ram Singh and his followers, and the Chiefs set their faces dead against them. The Sikhs like good meat and strong drink when they can get them, better than shouting akal, and danc ing and singing and telling the knots on a woollen string ; and the chiefs are not at all in favour of transferring any of the allegiance their sub jects owe to them to the Guru Ram Singh, the Guru of Kartarpur, or any other Guru now living or yet to be born. It is quite possible that Ram Singh was at first merely a religious enthusiast; but if so, there can be no doubt that his success turned his head, and that for some years past he entertained visions of becoming

it back rather to the form in which it took life under Guru Nanak with some modification of his own.

the leader of a national movement

Thus the Kukas reject altogether the Hindu Shastra, have separate forms of marriage and burial services,

Panjab took little notice of the Guru's proceedings for some years, or, indeed, until the movement had made such progress that it would have been

do not drink, do not eat meat, and never eat before

bathing ; wear the turban above and not over the ears ;

bathe twice a day; are required strictly to speak the truth; never to eat from the hand of any but a Kuka ; and, above all, to preserve sacred and inviolate the Cow. The

ceremony of initiation consists of the investiture with the sacred string of knotted wool, bathing and the giving of a pass-word never divulged except to a brother Kuka. This pass-word or phrase is said to be “Satnam Karta

the

ultimate

aim of which was power. The Government of the

difficult to check it. In 1867, however, or when Sir Donald McLeod last visited Ludhiana, he sent for Ram Singh, and demanded from him an

explanation of his proceedings. He disclaimed all idea of aspiring to political power, declaring his sole object to be the revival of the Sikh religion in a form more pure thanithadattained under any previous guru, or at any time in the history of the Sikhs. The tenets

purkh,” which are the first words of the Adh granth;

of the new faith were no doubt calculated to affect a

but hitherto the sect have observed the secrecy of the

great moral regeneration, and the strictness with which

• This guru is a dissipated man who has been bankrupt twice, and is again over head and ears in debt. He has an original Granth of Govind Singh, and has still a following.