From this time, the Sicks animated with enthusiasm, began to A H. 1118.
A D. 1706. collect together from all parts of the Empire, and multitudes of new proselytes were daily enrolled in the sect, which was rendered important by the martyrdom of Taigh Behader.—Gooroo Gobind Sing, established a ceremony to be used on the reception of new proselytes, which ceremony is called Poil, and consists in making them drink Sherbet out of a cup, stirring it round with a dagger, and pronouncing a certain* incantation at the same time.

Advice being conveyed to Aurungzebe of all these particulars, he sent orders to the Navab Vizier Khan, who was then Foujdar of Sirhind, to take the requisite steps for suppressing this threat­ening insurrection; but before this order was received, Gooroo Gobind, having gone to collect his followers from the eastern provinces, died at the city of Patna; and his wife having died sometime before, two children whom he had, the one about six, the other about five years old, were left under the care of his mother, (the widow of Taigh Behader) who hearing of the Shah’s orders to Vizier Khan, attempted to fly with her two grand children from Amrutsur to Macowal, which was her native place.—Many of Gooroo Gobind’s followers accompanied, in order to escort them safe to the place of their destination.—By the time they had got to the village of Chumkore, which was seven coss from Sirhind, the Navab Vizier Khan, according to the Shah’s orders, sent a body of troops commanded by Khizzer Khan Malnere, together with the Buckshy of his own army, to take Gooroo Gobind’s family prisoners, and bring them to Sir­hind.—Khizzer Khan having overtaken them at that place, the Sicks who accompanied the Gooroo’s family, defended them with the greatest resolution; many of the Shah’s people were killed, as well as of the Sicks; but as the former were vastly superior in number, the two children, together with their grandmother, were taken prisoners, and all their wealth and property, which they were carrying away with them was plundered;—the few Sicks who survived, escaped by flight.—Khizzer Khan brought his prisoners to the Navab Vizier Khan at Sirhind, who put them in confinement, and advised Aurungzebe of it.

They say, that Vizier Khan, who had been forty years Foujdar of Sirhind, had never oppressed any person under his authority, but was distinguished for his justice and humanity; and from the natural goodness of his disposition, he conceived a regard for these children of Gooroo Gobind, often sent for them, and shewed them kindness.—It happened one day, that he was asking them in a jesting manner, how much they had been plun­dered of, to which the eldest of the children innocently replied, “that the wealth of Dervishes was too great to be counted.”— Suchanund, a Kettery, who was Dewan to the Navab Vizier Khan, said to him, “perhaps these children may give the same kind of answer if they are examined by the Shah; if so, what will become of us all, and who shall satisfy his Majesty? it would be safer to put the children to death, which is the only way of securing ourselves from the Shah’s rapacity.”

Vizier Khan being unwilling to destroy these innocent children, hesitated a long time; but at length his dread of the Shah’s dis­pleasure,* should he suspect him of having secreted the treasure plundered from Gooroo Gobind’s family, getting the better of every other consideration, he said to Khizzer Khan, “Many of your friends and followers were killed by the Sicks, who escorted these children, you ought to retaliate by killing the children, as the cause of the death of so many of the faith­ful.”* —Khizzer Khan, however, rejected the proposal with horror, and nobly replied, “both I and my followers are soldiers, and whoever oppose us in open war, we either kill them, or are killed ourselves; but what you propose, is the business of an executioner.” However, the destined period of the childrens lives being come, one Kurruckchy Beg, a Mogul in the Shah’s service, undertook to perpetrate this barbarous murder, and went to the prison where the innocent victims were confined: the children clung round the neck of their grandmother to save themselves, but the villain tore them away, and cut their throats with a knife, in the presence of this miserable woman, who, unable longer to bear such a load of calamity, her husband, Taigh Behader, having been murdered before, (as was related) and her grand children now butchered before her eyes, sunk under the violence of grief and horror, excited by this last scene, and divine mercy by an immediate death, released her from further sufferings.*

One Bundah, a Biragee Fakeer, and the native of a village called Pundory, in the the Doab of Beit Jalinder, had been for many years the intimate friend of Gooroo Gobind; and hearing of the destruction of his defenceless family, he gave way to the deepest impressions of grief and resentment, which at length settled into a fixed determination to seek revenge; for this purpose, he went to all the most powerful and zealous of the Sicks, who had been the followers of Gooroo Gobind, and having excited in them the same spirit with which he himself was actuated, and enrolled himself in the fraternity of the Sicks, he, with surprising dili­gence and activity, and aided by uncommon abilities, collected the sect together in arms from all quarters, and inspired them with the most ardent spirit of revenge.