History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v3.c48.s2.38

v3.c48.s2.38

Under Arjun, the 5th guru (1581-1606), the number of Sikh converts greatly increased, and with them the guru's income. As a contemporary remarked, "The Emperor [Akbar] and kings bow before him. Wealth ever cometh to him." (Mac. iii. 28.) "The royal state and retinue" of this guru were so great that even a Chancellor (diwan) of the empire considered the guru's son a desirable match for his daughter, but the guru scornfully declined the alliance. With the business instincts of a Khatri (petty trader), guru Arjun organized a permanent source of income. A band of agents called *masands* were stationed in every city from Kabul to Dacca where there was a Sikh, to collect the tithes and offerings of the faithful; and this spiritual tribute, so far as it escaped peculation by the agents, reached the central treasury at Amritsar. The guru was treated as a temporal king and girt round by a body of courtiers and ministers called *masands*, which is the Hindi corruption of the title *masnad-i-ala* borne by nobles under the Pathan Sultans of Delhi. Like the Muslim kings, too, the gurus used to take several wives.* They also began to be called *Padishahs* or Emperors.