Four threads that run through every chapter

Where the centre of the Sikh community sat in each period. It begins at Lahore, the seat of the province Guru Nānak was born into, moves to Kartārpur on the Rāvī and then with the Gurus between the Beās and the Śivālik hills, settles in Amritsar and Lahore, and ends in a diaspora that reaches far beyond this map. Numbers are chapter numbers; follow them in order.

Each point marks the place a chapter treats as the centre of its period, not the only place Sikhs lived; from the Gurus' time there were congregations across northern India, and later in the diaspora, and the line between points is a reading order, not a route. A centre outside the frame is pinned to its edge. Rivers and coastlines from Natural Earth (public domain).

When each idea arrives

The first datable appearance of each idea and institution, with the text or document that attests it. Read top to bottom and the series' argument is visible: Guru Nānak's hymns are early, but the line of Gurus, the scripture as a book, the sword beside the rosary, the Khālsā, the Granth as Guru, the Five Ks as a list, the hard boundary with Hinduism and the written code of conduct arrive later, each with a date.

1. 1552–1574 (tradition) The Guru appoints deputies (mañjīs) Majority view Sikh tradition; no early record Guru Amar Dās is credited with organising the scattered Sikhs through deputies, each holding a mañjī; the count of twenty-two is the tradition's.
2. c. 1570–1572 (earliest dated); credited to Guru Aṅgad by tradition Gurmukhī in use for the hymns Majority view The Goindvāl pothīs Tradition credits Guru Aṅgad with the script; its letters are older than he is, and its earliest dated examples are the Goindvāl pothīs.
3. c. 1570–1572 A written collection of the Gurus' and bhagats' hymns Majority view The Goindvāl pothīs Hymns of Guru Nānak and Guru Amar Dās copied at Goindvāl beside those of Kabīr, Nāmdev and other bhagats, within about thirty years of Guru Nānak's death; dated by Mann (1996).
4. 1574–1581 A Sikh's daily round described Consensus Guru Rām Dās, Gauṛī kī Vār, aṅg 305 Rising early, bathing, repeating the Name and singing the Gurus' hymns.
5. 1581–1604 (the ballad); 1539 (the succession) The Guruship passed to a disciple Majority view Sattā and Balvaṇḍ's ballad, Rāmkalī, aṅg 966 The earliest account of Guru Nānak setting the royal canopy over Lahaṇā, renamed Aṅgad; the ballad names Guru Arjan, so it belongs to his time.
6. 1581–1604 (first mention); from Guru Nānak by tradition The Guru's laṅgar Majority view Sattā and Balvaṇḍ's ballad, aṅg 967 The only mention in the scripture: the laṅgar of the Guru's Word runs, and Mātā Khīvī shares out its bounty. The rule of eating in rows before seeing the Guru is attributed to Guru Amar Dās at Goindvāl.
7. 1581–1606; the pool begun 1577 by tradition A sacred pool of the Sikhs' own Majority view Guru Arjan's hymn on the pool of Rāmdās "Bathing in the pool of Rāmdās, all the sins they committed are washed away": within two generations of Guru Nānak's hymns against pilgrimage to sacred waters.
8. 1604 (scripture installed); begun 1588 by tradition The Harmandir Sāhib Majority view Sikh tradition on the building and the Ādi Granth's installation A temple on a platform in the pool at Amritsar, with a door on each side; the story that Mīāṅ Mīr laid its foundation is first written down about 1848.
9. 1604 The Ādi Granth Consensus The Kartārpur volume; the scripture's own order Guru Arjan's compilation, with Bhāī Gurdās as scribe: the first five Gurus, fifteen bhagats and the court poets, arranged by rāg and closed with a seal (the Mundāvaṇī).
10. before 1636 (in Guru Hargobind's lifetime) The Guru as king of faith and of the world Majority view Bhāī Gurdās, Vār 39.3 and Vār 1.48 Bhāī Gurdās calls Guru Hargobind dīn dunī dā pātasāh and a warrior Guru who breaks armies: the idea that mīrī and pīrī name, in his own time.
11. c. 1645–1658 A Guru with sword, horses and musketeers Majority view Dabistān-i Mazāhib "Against the practice of his father" Guru Hargobind girded a sword; the Dabistān counts some three hundred horsemen and sixty musketeers in his service.
12. c. 1645–1658 (Dabistān); under Guru Rām Dās and Guru Arjan by tradition Masands collecting the Guru's offerings Consensus Dabistān-i Mazāhib Deputies who taught in the Guru's name and brought in the offerings, among them the dasvandh, the tenth of income; the Dabistān finds masands in many cities.
13. 1660s–1670s (manuscripts); the Damdamā recension c. 1706 by tradition The ninth Guru's hymns in the scripture Majority view Manuscripts of the scripture with Tegh Bahādur's hymns Tradition credits Guru Gobind Singh with adding them at Damdamā Sāhib; manuscripts with Guru Tegh Bahādur's hymns are older than that date.
14. 1699 (founding); first account early 18th c. The Khālsā Consensus Sainapati, Srī Gur Sobhā (1701 or 1711) The Guru makes the congregations his own khālsā and removes the masands; Sainapati does not describe the call for five heads.
15. early 18th c.; 1699 by tradition A Khālsā code: uncut hair, arms, no hookah Majority view Sainapati, Srī Gur Sobhā The core the earliest sources agree on: uncut hair, the bearing of arms, avoidance of the hookah, and separation from the masands and the rival lines.
16. 18th-c. texts; 1699 by tradition Initiation by khaṇḍe dī pāhul Majority view Eighteenth-century texts The double-edged-sword rite, given by five initiated Sikhs, replaced the older charan pāhul over the eighteenth century; the older rite survived in some groups into the nineteenth.
17. 18th-c. texts; 1699 by tradition "Singh" for initiated men Majority view Eighteenth-century texts A warrior name already common among Rajputs, given to men of every caste; the sources of the Guru's early life call him Gobind Rāi.
18. 1710–1712 Coins in the Gurus' name Majority view Banda Singh's coins and seal, as Irvine read them Struck at Lohgaṛh, giving sovereignty to Guru Nānak and Gobind, not to Banda; the seal's couplet begins with the pot (deg) and the sword (tegh).
19. 1718–1719 (Tankhāhnāmā); 1699 by tradition Written codes of conduct (rahitnāmās) Majority view Earliest manuscript of the Tankhāhnāmā Rules and penalties (tankhāh) for the Khālsā, attributed to the Guru's companions; McLeod dates the codes from 1718–19 to the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century.
20. 1718–1719 "The Khālsā shall rule" Majority view The Tankhāhnāmā, closing couplet Rāj karegā khālsā, written in the years of Banda's rising and still sung, in a slightly different wording, after the Ardās.
21. 1606 by tradition; Gurbilās Pātshāhī 6, stated 1718 (disputed) The Akāl Takht Contested Gurbilās Pātshāhī 6 Guru Hargobind's raised platform opposite the Harmandir, later the Akāl Buṅgā; Bhāī Gurdās and the Dabistān describe his court but do not name it, and the text's stated date is doubted.
22. 29 March 1748 (Sikh tradition) The Dal Khālsā and the misls Majority view Sikh tradition; the Persian witnesses name chiefs, not misls The fighting bands united under Jassā Singh Āhlūvālīā in groupings later called misls; the neat dozen is a later convention.
23. 1699 (tradition); 1751 (stated) and 1769 The call for heads and the Five Beloveds Contested Koer Singh, Gurbilās Pātshāhī 10; Kesar Singh Chhibbar The scene is first told in mid- to late eighteenth-century texts; the names, origins and castes of the five come later still.
24. 1759 The Khālsā writing as the Guru (Guru Panth) Majority view A hukamnāmā in the name of "the Khālsā of Sat Srī Akāl Purakh" The Guru's widows had written for "the house of the Guru"; by 1759 the community itself issued edicts, the doctrine of the Guru Panth become practice.
25. 1763 (outside record); Vaisākhī and Dīvālī assemblies by Bhaṅgū The Sarbat Khālsā deciding by gurmatā Consensus News reports from Delhi to the Maratha courts The reports describe Sikh chiefs preparing to meet at Amritsar "for gurmata"; Forster found the assembly "now rarely summoned" in 1783, and the last of the period met in 1805.
26. 1765 Sikh coins of Lahore Consensus Sikh rupees of Lahore Struck with the couplet of Banda's seal, deg tegh fateh, naming the Gurus, not the chiefs; Grewal treats the coin as a declaration of sovereignty.
27. 1765 Sikhs as "a distinct religion" Consensus Qāẓī Nūr Muḥammad, Jangnāma A hostile witness on Abdālī's campaign writes that the Sikhs "are not from amongst the Hindus" and have "a distinct religion of their own".
28. 1708 (tradition); stated 1769; the familiar couplet 1880 The Granth as Guru Majority view Kesar Singh Chhibbar, Baṅsāvalīnāmā; Giānī Giān Singh, Panth Prakāsh No document of 1708 names the Granth as Guru; Chhibbar says so in 1769, and "accept the Granth as Guru" is first found in its familiar form in 1880.
29. 1812 (in English); 1606 by tradition The two swords of mīrī and pīrī Contested John Malcolm, Sketch of the Sikhs; later Sikh texts Bhāī Gurdās and the Dabistān know no pair of named swords; the image is in later Sikh texts and in English by 1812. How far back it goes is not settled.
30. 1830–31 (inscription, as reported); 1803 in popular accounts The Harmandir gilded Majority view Gurmukhi inscription dated Sammat 1887; Emily Eden, 1838 Gold leaf over copper on the upper storeys under Ranjit Singh; Eden found it "covered completely with gold" in December 1838. The inscription's reading has not been checked here.
31. 1873 (Amritsar); 1879 (Lahore) The Singh Sabhā Consensus The Sabhās' founding meetings Formed to restore Sikhism to the Gurus' teaching, publish books and spread education in Punjabi; the Lahore Sabhā was the more radical.
32. 1699 by tradition; first full list 1883 The Five Ks as a list Contested Sumer Singh, as McLeod found it Uncut hair and arms are in the earliest accounts and the other items in eighteenth-century codes; the formula of five k-words is later. Others cite texts of disputed date.
33. 1898 "We are not Hindus" Consensus Kāhn Singh Nābhā, Ham Hindū Nahīṅ A dialogue arguing from the scripture and the codes that Sikh doctrine differs from Hindu on every point that mattered; the title became the Tat Khālsā's slogan.
34. 1905 The Harmandir without images Consensus The reformers' campaign and the Hindu protests The government-appointed manager, under pressure from the reformers, had the images of Hindu gods removed from the precincts.
35. 22 October 1909; the Lāvāṅ composed 1574–1581 The Anand marriage in law Consensus The Anand Marriage Act (Act VII of 1909) Marriage circling the scripture to Guru Rām Dās's Lāvāṅ, with no Brahmin and no fire, declared valid; the Act left every other Sikh marriage custom valid too.
36. 15 November 1920 The SGPC Consensus An assembly summoned in the name of the Akāl Takht A committee of 175 elected to manage the Golden Temple, after the reformers took over the Akāl Takht in October.
37. 1925; rewritten 1930 A Sikh defined in law Consensus The Sikh Gurdwaras Act, section 2(9) A Sikh is one who professes the Sikh religion, tested by a declaration of belief; the 1930 amendment added "I have no other religion".
38. 1944; 1959 Amritdhārī, sahajdhārī and patit in law Majority view Amendments to the Sikh Gurdwaras Act Separate definitions of the initiated, the uninitiated follower and the lapsed Sikh, to decide who may vote for the SGPC.
39. draft 1936; approved 1945; published 1950 The Sikh Rahit Maryādā Consensus The SGPC's code The first code agreed by a representative body for the whole community: who is a Sikh, the Ardās, the initiation, the Five Ks and the four prohibitions.
40. 1950 (prescribed); expected from the Singh Sabhā period "Kaur" for every Sikh woman Majority view The Sikh Rahit Maryādā Used by some women in the Gurus' time as a title of rank; Jakobsh argues it became the required name of all Sikh women only in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
41. 26 January 1950 Sikhs in India's Constitution Consensus Article 25, Explanations I and II The kirpān protected, and "Hindus" in one clause to include Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists; the Akālīs read the second Explanation as calling Sikhs Hindus.
42. 24 March 1983 Sikhs an ethnic group in British law Consensus Mandla v Dowell Lee, House of Lords The Lords held that Sikhs were an ethnic group under the Race Relations Act, and a school's rule against the turban unlawful.
43. 16 January 2003; amended 2010 The Nanakshahi calendar Consensus Approval by the Sikh clergy and the Akāl Takht Pal Singh Purewal's solar calendar, counting from Guru Nānak's birth in 1469; the SGPC brought it in that year, and amendments in 2010 returned more anniversaries to lunar dates.

Text stratigraphy

Which text belongs to which century, and which stream it belongs to. Bars show composition or compilation ranges, not single dates: where a chapter gives only an author's death, the bar ends there. Hover any bar for its note.

Bar opacity tracks confidence in the dating: solid for consensus, faded where contested. Two things this view makes obvious: the Gurus' hymns were in writing a century and more before the earliest lives of Guru Nānak (§0); and most accounts of Gobind Singh and the Khālsā, and the codes of conduct, were written decades or more after 1699 (§5).

Women in Sikh history, tracked

Not an assertion that things got better or worse, but a cited datapoint at each stage, from Mātā Khīvī and the laṅgar and the Gurus' hymns against satī to Māī Bhāgo, Mātā Sundarī, the name Kaur, the Singh Sabhā's schools for girls and the debates of today.

1. before 1539 ▲ "Why call her inferior?" Contested In the Āsā dī Vār Guru Nānak asks why woman should be called inferior when kings are born of her. Jakobsh notes that the salok defends women as mothers and wives. Guru Granth Sāhib, aṅg 473; Jakobsh
2. 1539–1552 ▲ Mātā Khīvī and the laṅgar Majority view The ballad of Sattā and Balvaṇḍ praises Guru Aṅgad's wife for sharing out the laṅgar's rice pudding. Jakobsh notes that the fuller picture of her as its founder is later. Sattā and Balvaṇḍ, aṅg 967; Jakobsh
3. 1552–1574 (later accounts) ▲ Women and the mañjīs Contested Some later accounts say women held some of the seats of Guru Amar Dās's deputies; the evidence for it is late and thin. Later Sikh accounts
4. 1552–1574 ▲ Guru Amar Dās on satī Majority view The true satī, he wrote, is not the woman who burns on the pyre but the one who dies of the pain of separation. Jakobsh points out that the ideal set in its place is still a wife's devotion to her husband. Guru Amar Dās, Sūhī, aṅg 787; Jakobsh
5. 1552–1574 (later tradition) ▲ The veil forbidden Contested The tradition adds that Guru Amar Dās forbade the veil among his followers; that is first told later. Later Sikh tradition
6. 1699 (later tradition) ▲ Mātā Sāhib Kaur, mother of the Khālsā Contested Sikh tradition honours the Guru's wife as the mother of the Khālsā. The story of a wife adding sweets to the first amrit is later, and told of both Mātā Jīto and Mātā Sāhib Kaur. Later tradition; Jakobsh
7. December 1704 ▲ Mātā Gujrī at Sirhind Majority view The tenth Guru's mother went with his two younger sons into the plains when Anandpur fell; the boys were executed at Sirhind and she died in the tower where she was held. Sikh sources
8. 1705 (tradition) ▲ Māī Bhāgo at Khidrāṇā Contested By the tradition's account she led back to the Guru the forty men who had deserted him at Anandpur, and fought beside them. The story is first told in later sources. Later Sikh sources
9. 1717–1730 ▲ Mātā Sundarī's letters Majority view The Guru's widow guided the community from Delhi for decades after 1708. Her hukamnāmās, and Mātā Sāhib Devī's of 1726–1734, ask for offerings in the Guru's name and claim no Guruship. Mātā Sundarī's hukamnāmās; Grewal
10. 18th c. ▼ Codes written for men Majority view The eighteenth-century rahitnāmās are written for men, and some imply that women received the older charan pāhul or no initiation at all. The rahitnāmās; Jakobsh
11. 1790s ▲ Sadā Kaur heads a misl Majority view Sadā Kaur led the Kanhaiyā misl and helped her son-in-law Ranjit Singh take Lahore in 1799. Grewal
12. 27 June 1839 ▼ Satī at Ranjit Singh's pyre Consensus Four of his wives and seven slave women died on the Maharaja's pyre, a Rajput and Hindu rite that ran against the third Guru's teaching. Honigberger
13. 1843–1846 ◆ Rānī Jind Kaur, regent Consensus Duleep Singh's mother rules as regent for her five-year-old son; the treaty of Bhairovāl in December 1846 pensions her off. Atwal
14. 1892 ▲ A Sikh college for girls Majority view Takht Singh founds the Sikh Kanyā Mahāvidyālā at Ferozepur, among the Khālsā schools that followed the Khalsa College. Jakobsh
15. 1898 ◆ The reformers' ideal woman Majority view Bhāī Vīr Singh's novel Sundarī gives the Singh Sabhā a pure Khālsā heroine. Jakobsh argues the reform gave women schools and a place in the rites, and a narrower ideal of the Sikh wife and mother. Bhāī Vīr Singh; Jakobsh
16. late 19th–20th c. ◆ Kaur for every Sikh woman Majority view Used by some women in the Gurus' time as a title of rank, Kaur became the required name of all Sikh women only in this period, Jakobsh argues. Jakobsh
17. March 1947 ▼ The well at Thoa Khālsā Majority view In the attacks on the Rawalpindi villages about ninety Sikh women drowned themselves in a well rather than be taken, by survivors' accounts. The numbers are contested. Butalia
18. 1947–1949 ▼ Abduction and recovery Contested Official estimates give 50,000 Muslim women abducted in India and 33,000 Hindu and Sikh women in Pakistan; many recovered women were returned against their will to families that did not want them. Menon and Bhasin; Butalia
19. 1950 ▲ A place in every rite Majority view The Sikh Rahit Maryādā lets a woman be one of the five who administer amrit and lead the marriage ceremony, and asks only that kīrtan be sung by a Sikh. Jakobsh calls the provision for women's initiation a modern settlement. Sikh Rahit Maryādā; Jakobsh
20. March 1999 ▲ Bibī Jagīr Kaur heads the SGPC Consensus The first woman president of the body that runs the Harmandir is elected, three centuries after the Khālsā's founding. The Tribune
21. August 2005 ◆ Kīrtan in the sanctum refused Consensus The SGPC seeks the Akāl Takht's approval for initiated women to sing kīrtan in the Harmandir's sanctum; the jathedār declines and the proposal is not taken further. The Tribune
22. 7 November 2019 ◆ The Assembly asks again Consensus The Punjab Legislative Assembly asks the Akāl Takht and the SGPC to let women sing kīrtan at the Harmandir; the practice in the sanctum has not changed. Punjab Vidhan Sabha resolution