99 9* CATALOGUE OF MANUSCRIPTS. 89 Year of Year of '^cramaditya. Christ. Death of the Ist (nanao) ?hR^ ^M^^^ i.e. 1596, answering to 1539 „ 2nd (qurit-angad) «|$0Q. 1609 „ 1552 3rd (amab-das) q^^q 1631 „ 1574 4th (eam-das) ^^^^^ 1638 „ 1581 5th (aejtn-mal) ^^^^^ 1663 „ 1606 6th (hae govind) «|^0«| 1701 „ 1644 7th(HAEEAT) «|^«|^^ 1718 „ 1661 „ 8th (has cmshna) ^^^^ 1721 „ 1664 „ 9th (teigh BAHADUR) ^^^^ 1732 „ 1675 The death of the compiler, thus nearly contemporary with the Oonpowder Plot in England, was a tragical one, and arose from his care for the purity and perfection of his work. A Hindu of the military caste (Xetriya), named Dani-Chend, who had enrolled himself among his zealous adherents, was exasperated at the rejec- tion from a place in this Adi-Granth of a theological poem of his own, which abjuk-mal thought unworthy, on account of some polytheistic passages in it, to he associated with the writings of NANAC and other severe asserters of the Divine Unity. In conse- quence of this man's influence with the Mahometan governors of the Penjah, the pontiff abjun-hal was thrown into prison, and either died from the severity of the conflnement, or, according to other accounts, was put to death, a.d. 1606. And it was in hitter resentment at this fate of their venerated chief that the Sikhs flrst took arms against their oppressors, under his son and successor, hab Govnn). This sixth pontiff,* therefore, posterior to this Proto-hihlion, ^ These four numbers are erroneously written in the MS. with r; (8) for the cen- tenary digit, instead of If , ^^ or >0^ i.e., as if they were 1896, 1838, 1863, and 1818 respectively. The error, evidently arising from the transcriber's habit of writing the years of the current century (and therefore indicating the MS. to have been written in the 19th century of Yicramaditya, between a.d. 1743 and 1843), is sufficiently indicated by the other numbers which are all accurately written, except for the omission of the cipher in the second date, 1609. But they all admit of verification. 2 It is said that Har Govind was also the first that allowed to the Sikhs the 12
