Gobind Singh

(born 1666, Patna, Bihar, India—died Oct. 7, 1708, Nanded, Maharashtra) Sikh Guru. The son of Guru Tegh Bahadur (1664–75), he was trained in the martial arts in the Punjab. When he was nine his father was executed, and he became the 10th and last Guru of Sikhism, presiding over the Sikh court at Anandpur.

A scholar and poet, he is credited with putting the Ādi Granth into its final form. His other great achievement was the founding (1699) of the Khalsa, the egalitarian community that gave Sikhism its political and religious definition and galvanized its martial energies. He was continually at war with local Hindu chiefs and the Mughal authorities, who together forced the Sikhs out of Anandpur in 1704 and killed his four sons. After the death of Aurangzeb, he supported the claim of the future emperor, Bahadur Shah (1643–1712), to the throne. He was assassinated before he could persuade Bahadur Shah to allow the Sikhs' return to Anandpur.