The Sikh gurus ( Punjabi: ਸਿੱਖ ਗੁਰੂ;

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

: सिख गुरु) are the spiritual masters of

Sikhism Sikhism is an Indian religion and Indian philosophy, philosophy that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the 15th century CE. It is one of the most recently founded major religious groups, major religio ...

, who established the religion over the course of about two and a half centuries, beginning in 1469. The year 1469 marks the birth of

Guru Nanak Gurū Nānak (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539; Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ; pronunciation: , ), also known as ('Father Nanak'), was an Indian spiritual teacher, mystic and poet, who is regarded as the founder of Sikhism and is t ...

, the founder of Sikhism. Nine other human gurus succeeded him until, in 1708, the '' Guruship'' was finally passed on by the tenth guru to the holy

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

scripture,

Guru Granth Sahib The Guru Granth Sahib (, ) is the central holy religious scripture of Sikhism, regarded by Sikhs as the final, sovereign and eternal Guru following the lineage of the ten human gurus of the religion. The Adi Granth (), its first rendition, w ...

, which is now considered the living Guru by the followers of the Sikh faith. The guruship was also passed onto the ''Guru Panth'', consisting of the Khalsa; however, this form of guruship went into decline following to rise of

Ranjit Singh Ranjit Singh (13 November 1780 – 27 June 1839) was the founder and first maharaja of the Sikh Empire, in the northwest Indian subcontinent, ruling from 1801 until his death in 1839. Born to Maha Singh, the leader of the Sukerchakia M ...

Etymology and definition

''Guru'' (, ; , Punjabi: ਗੁਰੂ,

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Brahmic family, Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that ...

: ''guru'') is a

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

term for a "

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

guide A guide is a person who leads travelers, sportspeople, or tourists through unknown or unfamiliar locations. The term can also be applied to a person who leads others to more abstract goals such as knowledge or wisdom. Travel and recreation Exp ...

expert An expert is somebody who has a broad and deep understanding and competence in terms of knowledge, skill and experience through practice and education in a particular field or area of study. Informally, an expert is someone widely recognized ...

, or master" of certain knowledge or field. Bhai Vir Singh, in his dictionary of

describes the term

Guru Guru ( ; International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''guru'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian religions, Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: tr ...

as a combination of two separate units: "Gu;(ਗੁ)" meaning darkness and "Rū;(ਰੂ)" which means light. Hence,

is who brings light into darkness or in other words, the one who enlightens. Bhai Vir Singh's definition provides further insight about Sikhi itself and explains why

is considered the living Guru. The word

is derived from the

term ''shishya'' ( Punjabi: ਸਿੱਖ) which means a disciple or a student. Thus,

Sikhs Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Sikh'' ...

have a student–teacher relationship with their Gurus since their teachings, written in

, serve as a guide for the Sikhs. According to Sikh beliefs, all the Gurus contained the same light or soul and their physical body was a vessel for containing the same essence. When one Guru passed, the successor inherited this light and that is why the Gurus are also referred to as ''mahalla'' (house).

The gurus

Timeline

ImageSize = width:750 height:auto barincrement:50 PlotArea = left:250 bottom:20 top:0 right:0 Period = from:1469 till:2023 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal Alignbars = late Colors = id:1 value:orange id:2 value:blue id:3 value:blue id:4 value:darkblue id:5 value:purple id:6 value:yellow id:7 value:claret id:8 value:powderblue id:9 value:magenta id:10 value:blue id:11 value:green ScaleMajor = increment:100 start:1469 BarData= bar:Nanak text:"Guru Nanak Dev (1469–1539)" bar:Angad text:"Guru Angad Dev (1504–1552)" bar:Amar text:"Guru Amar Das (1479–1574)" bar:Ram text:"Guru Ram Das (1534 –1581)" bar:Arjan text:"Guru Arjan Dev (1563–1606)" bar:Hargobind text:"Guru Hargobind (1595–1644)" bar:Har text:"Guru Har Rai (1630–1661)" bar:HarK text:"Guru Har Krishan (1656–1664)" bar:Tegh text:"Guru Tegh Bahadur (1621–1675)" bar:Gobind text:"Guru Gobind Singh (1666–1708)" bar:Granth text:"Guru Granth Sahib (1708–present)" PlotData= bar:Nanak from:1469 till:1539 color:1 bar:Angad from:1504 till:1552 color:2 bar:Amar from:1479 till:1574 color:3 bar:Ram from:1534 till:1581 color:4 bar:Arjan from:1563 till:1606 color:5 bar:Hargobind from:1595 till:1644 color:6 bar:Har from:1630 till:1661 color:7 bar:HarK from:1656 till:1669 color:8 bar:Tegh from:1621 till:1675 color:9 bar:Gobind from:1666 till:1708 color:10 bar:Granth from:1708 till:end color:11

Pedigrees

Listed names and relations might vary from source to source since different aspects of Sikh history have been written by many different individuals over the course of past six centuries

Notes

References