Guru Amar Das (Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰੂ ਅਮਰ ਦਾਸ, pronunciation: [gʊɾuː əməɾᵊ d̯aːsᵊ]; 5 May 1479 – 1 September 1574), sometimes spelled as Guru Amardas, was the third guru of Sikhism and became Sikh Guru on 25 March 1552 at age 73.
Before becoming a Sikh, on a pilgrimage after having been prompted to search for a guru, he heard his nephew's wife, Bibi Amro, reciting a hymn by Guru Nanak, and was deeply moved by it. Amro was the daughter of Guru Angad, the second Guru of the Sikhs. Amar Das persuaded Amro to introduce him to her father. In 1539, Amar Das, at the age of sixty, met Guru Angad and became a Sikh, devoting himself to the Guru. In 1552, before his death, Guru Angad appointed Amar Das as the third Guru of Sikhism.
Guru Amar Das was an important innovator in the teachings of Guru who introduced a religious organization called the Manji system by appointing trained clergy, a system that expanded and survives into the contemporary era. He also established the Peerah system for propagating the religion to women. He wrote and compiled hymns into a Pothi (book) that ultimately helped create the Adi Granth. He also enacted social reforms, such as by allowing widow remarriage, promoting intercaste alliance, encouraging monogamy, banning sati, and discouraging purdah.
Amar Das remained the Guru of the Sikhs till age 95, and named his son-in-law Bhai Jetha, who was later remembered by the name Guru Ram Das, as his successor.
Amar Das was born to mother Bakht Kaur (also known as Sullakhani, Lakhmi Devi, or Rup Kaur) and father Tej Bhan Bhalla on 5 May 1479 in Basarke village in what is now called Amritsar district of Punjab (India). His grandfather was Hari Das. His family belonged to the Bhalla gotra (clan) of the Khatri tribe. Amar Das was the eldest child out of four sons. Amar Das worked as both an agriculturalist and a trader.
Whilst the most commonly accepted and recorded date for Guru Amar Das's birth year is 1479, many sources give a much later date of 1509.
Some sources that affirm the 1479 year of birth for the guru are: Ganda Singh's Makhaz-i-Twarikh-i-Sikhan, Karam Singh's Gurpurab Nirnay, Kahn Singh Nabha's Mahan Kosh, Max Arthur MaCauliffe's The Sikh Religion, and Giani Gian Singh's Panth Prakash and Twarikh Guru Khalsa.
Sources that give a later year of 1509 as the birth year for the guru are: Joseph Davey Cunningham's History of the Sikhs and Kesar Singh Chibber's Bansavalinama.
Kavi Santokh Singh in the Suraj Prakash gives an even earlier year of birth of 1469, coinciding with Guru Nanak's.
In his early 20s, Amar Das married Mansa Devi and they had four children which they named Dani (daughter; born in 1530), Bhani (daughter; born 3 August 1533), Mohan (son; born 11 March 1536), and Mohri (son; born 2 June 1539). Bhani was his favourite child of the four.
Amar Das had followed the Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism for much of his life. He was reputed to have gone on some twenty annual pilgrimages into the Himalayas, to Haridwar on river Ganges. About 1539, on one such Hindu pilgrimage, he met a Hindu monk (sadhu) who asked him why he did not have a guru (teacher, spiritual counselor) and Amar Das decided to get one. On his return from his twentieth pilgrimage to the Ganges River, he heard Bibi Amro, the daughter of the Sikh Guru Angad, singing a hymn by Guru Nanak. Amro had been acquainted with Amar Das through her in-laws, whom Amar Das was related to (Amro was married to the son of Amar Das's brother). He learned from her about Guru Angad, and with her help met the second Guru of Sikhism and adopted him as his spiritual Guru who was much younger than his own age.
Amar Das is famous in the Sikh tradition for his relentless service to Guru Angad, with legends about waking up in the early hours and fetching water for his Guru's bath, cleaning and cooking for the volunteers with the Guru, as well devoting much time to meditation and prayers in the morning and evening.
Due to his selfless devotion to the second guru, Angad nominated Amar Das as his spiritual successor on 29 March 1552.
After eleven years most devoted service of Guru Angad and the sangats, Amar Das was nominated the third guru. Amar Das moved to Goindwal situated not far away from Khadur on the bank of river Beas on the high road to Lahore, about 8 kilometres from Kapurthala and 45 kms. from Amritsar. He did so to avoid the pending conflict with Guru Angad's sons who had not approved of their supersession. Even at Goindwal he was harassed by Angad's son Datu. He went to Goindwal and said: "Only yesterday thou wert a water-carrier in our house, and today thou sittest as a Guru. "Saying this he kicked the Guru off his seat. Amar Das humbly said: "O great king, pardon me. Thou must have hurt thy foot." Amar Das retired from Goindwal and hid himself in a house at Basarke, his home village. Datu set himself up as the Guru. Amar Das was persuaded by Baba Buddha to return, and Datu, finding no following, went back to Khadur.
Guru Amar Das taught with his own life the meaning of Guru Service, also known in Punjabi religious parlance as Guru Sewa. (also spelt Sevā). Amar Das emphasized both spiritual pursuits as well as an ethical daily life. He encouraged his followers to wake up before dawn, do their ablutions and then meditate in silent seclusion. A good devotee, taught Amar Das, should be truthful, keep his mind in control, eat only when hungry, seek the company of pious men, worship the Lord, make an honest living, serve holy men, not covet another's wealth and never slander others. He recommended holy devotion with Guru's image in his follower's hearts.
Guru Amar Das was also a reformer, and discouraged veiling of women's faces (a Muslim custom) as well as sati (a Hindu custom). He encouraged the Kshatriya people to fight in order to protect people and for the sake of justice, stating this is Dharma. He promoted inter-caste marriages, going against the traditional Punjabi social orthodoxy at the time by doing-so. He also promoted the remarriage of widows. He promulgated monogamy as the ideal romantic relationship type.
Religious organization and missionary dissemination
Guru Amar Das started the tradition of appointing manji (zones of religious administration with an appointed chief called sangatias, whom were both men and women), introduced the dasvandh ("the tenth" of income) system of revenue collection in the name of Guru and as pooled community religious resource, and the famed langar tradition of Sikhism where anyone, without discrimination of any kind, could get a free meal in a communal seating. He also started and inaugurated the 84-level step well called baoli at Goindval with a resting place, modeled along the lines of the Indian tradition of dharmsala, which then became a Sikh pilgrimage (tirath) center. Another organization analogous of the Manji was the Piri, which involved an appointed preaching official and missionary for Sikh assemblies and congregations whom were all women and instructed to spread Sikhism amongst womankind (especially women belonging to Muslim backgrounds). According to W. Owen Cole, establishment of the manji and piri systems may have been motivated by the large amounts of new converts coming into the Sikh faith, especially in the Punjab. However, many of these converts brought in beliefs and practices of their original faith, so the preachers were appointed to instruct them on proper Sikh orthodoxy and orthopraxy, essentially motivating them to choose the Sikh faith and all that comes with it, even if it involves discarding their old ways of spirituality in the process. He appointed women to become the congregation leaders of the jurisdictions of Afghanistan and Kashmir. The women appointed for leading the Piri system of disseminating Sikhism to women were Bhani (his younger daughter), Bibi Dani (his elder daughter), and Bibi Pal, all of whom were intellectual types. The Piri system also educated womenfolk in social plus religious norms and customs.