Nanak Shah, the founder,
was born in A.D. 1469. The _Adi Granth_, the Sikh Bible, containing
compositions by Nanak, his next four successors, and other persons,
was completed in 1604. A second _Granth_ was compiled in 1734 by
Govind Singh, the tenth Guru. The only authoritative version of the
Sikh scriptures is the great work by Macauliffe, _The Sikh Religion_
(Oxford, 1909, 6 vols.).
The political power of the sect rested on the institutions of Guru
Govind, as framed between 1690 and 1708. In 1764 the Sikhs occupied
Lahore. Full details of their history will be found in Cunningham, _A
History of the Sikhs_ (1st ed., 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1849, suppressed
and scarce; 2nd ed. 1853); and more briefly in Sir Lepel Griffin's
excellent little book, _Ranjit Singh_ (Oxford, 'Rulers of India'
series, 1892).
c. See R. 0. Temple, 'The Coins of the Modern Chiefs of the Panjab'
(_Ind. Ant._, vol. xviii (1889), pp. 321-41); and C. J. Rodgers, 'On
the Coins of the Sikhs' (_J.A.S.B._, vol. 1. Part I (1881), pp. 71-
93). The couplet is in Persian, which may be transliterated thus:--
Deg, tegh, wa fath, wa nasrat be darang
Yaft az Nanak Guru Govind Singh.
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