Martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur

Guru Tegh Bahadur, Martyrdom of

November-December; during the Sikh month of Magar

Tegh Bahadur (1621-1675) was the ninth of the ten Sikh gurus, or spiritual teachers. His son, Guru Gobind Singh, was the last human guru. When Tegh Bahadur was 43 years old, he was installed as guru. The tyrant Aurangzeb was the Muslim emperor of India at the time, and his goal was to make everyone in his domain Muslim. Then, as now, most people living in India were Hindu, though there were also small populations of Sikhs, Jains, and other religious groups. Under Aurangzeb's rule, everyone was forced to convert to Islam under threat of death.
At the behest of a group of Hindu priests, Tegh Bahadur went to Delhi in November 1675 to meet with Aurangzeb, who put him in prison. Legend has it that before Tegh Bahadur was beheaded (since he would not convert to Islam), he wrote a message which read, "I gave my head but not my faith." Guru Tegh Bahadur is remembered for giving his life to preserve the integrity of the Sikh religion.
Sikhs everywhere observe his martyrdom with religious processions and pilgrimages at gurdwaras, or houses of worship, with a special devotion to him, and especially at the site of his martyrdom in Delhi where the Gurdwara Sisganj temple was built.

SOURCES:
RelHolCal-2004, p. 204
SikhFest-1989, p. 18