Early life Guru Arjan was born in
Goindval to Bibi Bhani and Jetha Sodhi. Bibi Bhani was the daughter of
Guru Amar Das, and her husband Jetha Sodhi later came to be known as
Guru Ram Das. Arjan's birthplace site is now memorialized as the Gurdwara Chaubara Sahib. He had two brothers:
Prithi Chand and Mahadev. Various Sikh chroniclers give his birth year as 1553 or 1563, the latter is accepted by scholarly consensus as the actual year of birth with 15 April as the accepted birth date. Guru Arjan spent the first 11 years of his life in
Goindwal and the next seven years with his father in Ramdaspur. He was appointed as the Sikh Guru in 1581 after the death of his father. Guru Ram Das was a
Khatri of the
Sodhi sub-caste. With Arjan's succession, the Guruship remained in the Sodhi family of Guru Ram Das.
Marriages According to historians, Guru Arjan wedded twice. His first wife was
Mata Ram Dei, whom he married on 20 June 1579.
Succession and time as Guru crowning Guru Arjan as the next guru by placing tilak on his forehead, known as the
Gurgadi ceremony.
Guru Ram Das is depicted to the immediate bottom right of Arjan. Guru Ram Das chose Arjan, the youngest, to succeed him as the fifth Sikh Guru. Mahadev, the middle brother chose the life of an
ascetic. His choice of Guru Arjan as successor, as throughout most of the history of Sikh Guru successions, led to disputes and internal divisions among the Sikhs. The succession dispute regarding Guru Arjan created a schism that yielded different narratives for the two factions. The Sikhs following Arjan referred to the breakaway faction as
Minas (literally, "scoundrels"). Prithi Chand and his followers attempted to assassinate the young
Hargobind thrice. Prithi Chand also befriended Mughal agents. The competing texts acknowledge the disagreements. They state Prithi Chand left
Amritsar, became the
Sahib Guru after the martyrdom of Guru Arjan and one who disputed the succession of Hargobind as the next Guru. The followers of Prithi Chand considered themselves the true followers of
Guru Nanak as they rejected the increasing emphasis on militarization of the
panth under Hargobind to resist Mughal persecution in the wake of Arjan's martyrdom, in favor of non-violent interiorization. Upon the first
parkash of the Adi Granth according to Gurbilas, Guru Arjan said, “Listen you all to my directive. And believe it as ever true. Accept the Granth as equal with the Guru. And think no distinctions between the two.” The mainstream Sikh tradition recognised Guru Arjan as the fifth Guru, and Hargobind as the sixth Guru. Arjan, at age 18, became the fifth Guru in 1581 inheriting the title from his father. After his execution by the Muslim officials of the
Mughal Empire, his son Hargobind became the sixth Guru in 1606 CE. A similar theory floated in the early 20th-century, asserts that this was just a politically-motivated single execution. According to this theory, there was an ongoing Mughal dynasty dispute between Jahangir and his son
Khusrau suspected of rebellion by Jahangir, wherein Arjan blessed Khusrau and thus the losing side. Jahangir was jealous and outraged, and therefore he ordered the Guru's execution. But according to Jahangir's own autobiography, most probably he didn't understand the importance of Sikh gurus. He referred to Arjan as a Hindu, who had
"captured many of the simple-hearted of the Hindus and even of the ignorant and foolish followers of Islam, by his ways and manners...for the three or four generations (of spiritual successors) they had kept this shop warm." The execution of Arjan marks a sharp contrast to Jahangir's tolerant attitude towards other religions such as
Hinduism and
Christianity. But even earlier, there has been dispute between emperor
Akbar and Guru Arjan and his peasant base regarding the new land revenue system of Mughal empire. Akbar had visited the guru at
Goindwal and land revenue of
Bari doab was subsequently exempted. in
Lahore,
Pakistan, commemorates the spot where Guru Arjan Dev is traditionally believed to have died. The Sikh tradition has a competing view. It states that the Guru's execution was a part of the ongoing persecution of the Sikhs by Islamic authorities in the Mughal Empire, and that the Mughal rulers of Punjab were alarmed at the growth of the Panth. According to
Jahangir's autobiography
Tuzk-e-Jahangiri (
Jahangirnama) which discussed Arjan's support for his rebellious son
Khusrau, too many people were becoming persuaded by Arjan's teachings and if Arjan did not become a
Muslim, the Sikh Panth had to be extinguished. and by other accounts, the method of his death remains unresolved. Some Muslim traditional accounts such as of Latif in 19th-century states that Arjan was dictatorial, someone who lived in splendour with "costly attire", who had left aside the rosary and the clothes of a saint (
fakir). Shaikh
Ahmad Sirhindi cheered the punishment and execution of Arjun, calling the Sikh Guru an
infidel. In contrast,
Mian Mir – the
Sufi friend of Arjan, lobbied when Jehangir ordered the execution and the confiscation of Arjan's property, then got the confiscation order deferred, according to Rishi Singh. Some scholars state that the evidence is unclear whether his death was due to execution, torture or
forced drowning in the
Ravi river.
J.S. Grewal notes that Sikh sources from the seventeenth and eighteenth-century contain contradictory reports of Arjan's death.
J. F. Richard states that Jahangir was persistently hostile to popularly venerated saints, not just Sikhism.
Bhai Gurdas was a contemporary of Arjan and is a noted 17th-century Sikh chronicler. His eyewitness account recorded Arjan's life, and the order by Emperor Jahangir to torture the Guru to death. A contemporary Jesuit account, written by Spanish
Jesuit missionary
Jerome Xavier (1549–1617), who was in
Lahore at the time, records that the Sikhs tried to get Jahangir to commute the torture and death sentence to a heavy fine, but this attempt failed. Dabistan-i Mazahib Mobad states Jahangir tortured Arjan in the hopes of extracting the money and public repudiation of his spiritual convictions, but the Guru refused and was executed.
Jerome Xavier, in appreciation of the courage of Guru Arjun, wrote back to
Lisbon, that Arjan suffered and was tormented. According to the Sikh tradition, before his execution, Arjan instructed his son and successor
Hargobind to take up arms, and resist tyranny. His execution led the Sikh
Panth to become armed and pursue resistance to persecution under the Mughal rule. Michael Barnes states that the resolve and death of Arjun strengthened the conviction among Sikhs that, "personal piety must have a core of moral strength. A virtuous soul must be a courageous soul. Willingness to suffer trial for one's convictions was a religious imperative". Recent scholarship have offered alternative analyses, wary of "exaggerating fragmentary traces of documentary evidence in historical analysis". The alternate versions include stories about the role of Arjan in a conflict between the Mughal Emperor Jahangir and his son who Jahangir suspected of trying to organize a patricidal coup. An alternate version highlights the role of a Hindu minister of Jahangir named
Chandu Shah. He, in one version, takes revenge on Arjan for not marrying his son Hargobind to Chandu Shah's daughter. In another Lahore version, Chandu Shah actually prevents Arjan from suffering torture and death by Muslims by paying 200,000 rupees (100,000 crusados) to Jahangir, but then keeps him and emotionally torments him to death in his house. Several alternative versions of the story try to absolve Jahangir and the Mughal empire of any responsibility, but have no trace or support in the documentary evidence from early 17th century, such as the records of Jesuit priest Jerome Xavier and the memoirs of Jahangir. ==Legacy==