Suthra Shahi: Difference between revisions

An order of Sikh devotees whose origin is thus described:- When Teg Shah - a faqir was alive, a boy was born of dark complexion, (or with a black mark on his forehead) and moustache, and with his teeth already cut---and his parents exposed him, - a child so born is unlucky. The sixth Guru Hargobind, happened to find the child and told his disciples to take him up but they refused, saying that he was kuthra, or dirty. The Guru replied 'he was Suthra or clean' and they then obeyed. This boy was the founder of the Suthra-Shahi sect.

The Kangra version adds -Twelve years later, in the reign of Aurangzeb, the Hindus were persecuted and the emperor removed every day one and a quarter maunds of sacred threads (janeoo), erased the tilaks from their foreheads, and compelled Hindu faqirs to show him miracles. The Guru then sent the boy Suthra to Delhi to exhibit miracles to the emperor and to convert him to the right path. On reaching Delhi the boy had a pair of shoes, l ¼ haths long, made at a cost of 1 ¼ lakhs of rupees. One night he put one of these shoes in the Delhi mosque, together with a lota (the vessel used for washing the hands and feet before prayer). Next morning the Muhammadans prostrated themselves before the lota and shoe, considering them to he sacred, and their fame spread throughout the city. One day the boy tied the other shoe to a stick and wended his way through the city, crying that he had been robbed of the other shoe. News of this event reached Aurangzeb who sent for the boy and asked him whether the shoe found in the mosque was his. He said it was, whereupon the emperor said that, if it were found not to fit him, he would be beheaded. The boy agreed and, calling on his Guru's name, put on the shoe, which he found a little, too small. At this his face lit up, so that the emperor in amaze bade him ask any boon he chose.