On Vaisakhi in 1699, at Anandpur in the Punjab hills, the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, initiated the first members of the Khalsa — a community of initiated Sikhs bound by a shared discipline and identity. That the Khalsa was founded at Anandpur in 1699 is Well-established; the texture of the day reaches us through tradition, and this article marks which is which.

Lithograph of Guru Gobind Singh seated, stirring amrit with a double-edged sword before the five kneeling volunteers.
Guru Gobind Singh prepares amrit for the Panj Pyare at the first Khalsa initiation, 1699 — a later lithograph, public domain by age of the work; image via Encyclopædia Britannica. Like all images of the event, it is devotional imagining, not reportage.

The initiation

The Guru prepared amrit — water sweetened and stirred with a double-edged sword (khanda) while sacred verses were recited — and administered it to the five. Then, in a striking act of equality, he asked them to initiate him in turn. Initiated men took the name Singh (“lion”) and women Kaur (“princess”); members were to keep the Five Ks, the articles of faith worn by initiated Sikhs. The initiation rite, Amrit Sanchar, is still practised in the same form.

Why it mattered

The Khalsa dissolved older intermediary authorities — the masands, the Guru's regional deputies, whose office had grown corrupt — and reframed Sikh identity around equality, courage, and service: a community meant to unite spiritual devotion with the readiness to defend the oppressed. Its creation came amid sustained conflict with the Mughal state under Aurangzeb, following the execution in 1675 of Guru Gobind Singh's father, Guru Tegh Bahadur.

1675

Martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur

The ninth Guru is executed in Delhi under Aurangzeb; his son becomes the tenth Guru at nine years old.

Vaisakhi 1699

The Khalsa is founded

Five volunteers become the Panj Pyare; the Guru takes initiation from their hands in turn.

1699–1708

War in the hills

Anandpur endures sieges; the Guru's four sons die; the community holds.

1708

Guruship to the Granth

Before his death, Guru Gobind Singh vests the Guruship in the scripture and the community.

Modern place-names

Anandpur Sahib, in Rupnagar District, Punjab, India, is one of the five takhts (seats of authority) of Sikhism. Its Vaisakhi commemoration, Hola Mohalla, draws hundreds of thousands each spring.