Gobind Singh, who has inherited his grandfather Guru Hargobind's love of the military life, is also a man of great intellectual attainments.

He is also the son of the ninth Guru, Tegh Bahadur, who suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

A linguist familiar with Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit as well as his native Punjabi, he further codifies Sikh law, writes poetry, and is the reputed author of the Sikh work called the Dasam Granth (“Tenth Volume”).

Gobind Singh proclaims that he is the last of the personal Gurus.

From this point forward, the Sikh Guru is to be the holy book, the Adi Granth (“First Volume”).

The Akali suicide squads first appear about 1690 when the execution of two predecessors and continuing persecution by the Mughals forces the Tenth Guru Gobind Singh to take up arms.

The Akalis are also known as nihangs (Persian: “crocodiles”; a name first used by the Mughals for their suicide squads) and wear a distinctive blue uniform.