Guru Arjan Dev

The story of the ten Gurus, or spiritual preceptors, of the Sikh faith is spread over a little more than two centuries-from Guru Nanak (1469-1539) to Guru Gobind Singh (1866-1708). These few decades constitute a long saga of struggle on the part of the Gurus, struggle in pursuit of a new ideology and struggle to create a nation of strong and self-respecting people out of a divided and etherized society. With this end in view, the Gurus first articulated a distinct metaphysical thought and then established certain institutions so as to put that precept into practice.