"By the command of the Eternal, the great Gúrú disseminated the true knowledge. Full of strength and courage, he successfully established the Khálsa (or state). Thus, at once founding the sect of Singh, he struck the whole world with awe: overturning temples and sacred places, tombs and mosques, he levelled them all with the plain: rejecting the Védas, the Puráns, the six Sástras, and the Korán; he abolished the cry of Namáz (Muhammedan prayer), and slew the Sultans; reducing the Mírs and Pírs (the lords and priests of the Muhammedans) to silence, he overturned all their sects; the Moullahs (professors), and the Kázis (judges), were confounded, and found no benefit from their studies. The Bráhmens, the Pandits, and the Jótìshis (or astrologers), had acquired a relish for worldly things: they worshipped stones and temples, and forgot the Supreme. Thus these two sects, the Muhammedan and Hindú, remained involved in delusion and ignorance, when the third sect of the Khálsa originated in purity. When, at the order of Gúrú Góvind, the Singhs seized and displayed the scimitar, then subduing all their enemies, they meditated on the Eternal; and, as soon as the order of the Most High was manifested in the world, circumcision ceased, and the Turks trembled, when they saw the ritual of Muhammed destroyed: then the Nakára (large drum) of victory sounded throughout the world, and fear and dread were abolished. Thus the third sect was established, and increased greatly in might." These extracts, and what I have before stated, will sufficiently show the character of the religious institutions of Gúrú Góvind; which were admirably calculated to awaken, through the means of fanaticism, a spirit of courage and independence, among men who had been content, for ages, with that degraded condition in society, to which they were taught to believe themselves born. The end which Góvind sought, could not, perhaps, have been attained by the employment of other means. Exhortations respecting their civil rights, and the wrongs which they sustained, would have been wasted on minds enslaved by superstition, and who could only be persuaded to assert themselves men, by an impression that it was the will of Heaven they should do so. His success is a strong elucidation of the general character of the Hindú natives of India. That race, though in general mild and peaceable, take the most savage and ferocious turn, when roused to action by the influence of religious feeling.