# Guru Har Krishan, the Eighth Guru

> Guru Har Krishan (1656 to 1664) was the eighth Sikh Guru and the youngest, receiving the Guruship at the age of five and dying of smallpox at eight. He spent the last months of his life in Delhi, where he tended the sick during an epidemic of smallpox and cholera before contracting the disease himself. The house where he stayed is now Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, and he contributed no composition to the Guru Granth Sahib.

- **Position in the succession:** Eighth Guru of ten
- **Born:** 1656 at Kiratpur Sahib, Punjab
- **Died:** 1664 at Delhi, of smallpox contracted while tending the sick, aged eight
- **Guruship:** 1661 to 1664, taken at the age of five; the shortest tenure and the youngest Guru
- **Preceded by:** Guru Har Rai, his father
- **Succeeded by:** Guru Tegh Bahadur, his grand-uncle, indicated by the words Baba Bakala
- **In the Guru Granth Sahib:** None. Guru Har Krishan contributed no composition to the volume
- **Known for:** Tending Delhi's sick during an epidemic at the site now known as Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, and dying of the disease at eight
- **This page:** https://sevahey.com/gurus/guru-har-krishan/

## What Sevahey does not do

Sevahey sells nothing connected to Guru Har Krishan and publishes no image of him. Sevahey does not supply, ship or sell water from the Bangla Sahib sarovar, and makes no claim that it heals anything. Room booking at Bangla Sahib runs through the gurudwara's own system rather than through Sevahey.

This page carries no portrait of Guru Har Krishan. Sevahey publishes no image of any Guru: the paintings in circulation are later inventions with no claim to likeness, and much of Sikh tradition holds figurative depiction of the Gurus to be improper.

## About Guru Har Krishan

Guru Har Krishan received the Guruship in 1661, aged five, after his father Guru Har Rai struck his elder brother Ram Rai out of the succession for altering a line of scripture. His whole tenure lasted three years, and he is the only one of the ten who never reached adulthood.

Ram Rai did not accept it. He petitioned Aurangzeb, who summoned the child to Delhi, and the Guru went in 1664 accompanied by Sikhs and lodged at the bungalow of Raja Jai Singh, which is what the word bangla in Bangla Sahib preserves. Sikh tradition holds that he declined to meet the emperor directly, and the well-known story of that visit involves him being tested with a challenge to identify the real queen among her attendants.

What happened next is the substance of his memory. Delhi was in the middle of an epidemic, smallpox and cholera together, and the Guru began attending the sick where they were. The accounts describe water drawn from the well at the house being distributed and the child moving among the afflicted for weeks. He caught smallpox and died of it in 1664, aged eight. The well is still there, and the sarovar at Bangla Sahib is fed from it; the water is taken by devotees to this day for exactly the association his death created.

Before dying he is said to have spoken only the words Baba Bakala, indicating that his successor would be found in the village of Bakala. The instruction was cryptic enough to attract more than twenty impostors setting themselves up there, and the man it pointed to, his grand-uncle Tegh Bahadur, was found among them. The phrase is one of the shortest successions in Sikh history and it produced the Guru who would be executed in Delhi eleven years later, a few miles from where the boy died.

## The shortest Guruships

_Guru Har Krishan's is the shortest of the ten by some margin, and he is the only Guru who never reached adulthood._

| Guru | Guruship | Length |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Guru Har Krishan | 1661 to 1664 | Three years, from age five to age eight |
| Guru Ram Das | 1574 to 1581 | Seven years |
| Guru Tegh Bahadur | 1665 to 1675 | Ten years, ended by his execution at Delhi |

## Gurudwara Bangla Sahib

_The Delhi house where he stayed and died, and what it became._

| Detail | Value |
| --- | --- |
| What the name preserves | Bangla, the bungalow of Raja Jai Singh where the Guru was lodged in 1664 |
| The well | Water was drawn from it and distributed during the epidemic; the sarovar is fed from it still |
| Why devotees take the water | The association with his tending of the sick, formed by the manner of his own death |
| Where it stands | Near Connaught Place, central Delhi |

## Dates

- **1656** — Guru Har Krishan is born at Kiratpur Sahib
- **1661** — Guru Har Rai confers the Guruship on him at the age of five, passing over his elder brother Ram Rai
- **1664** — Summoned to Delhi after Ram Rai's petition to Aurangzeb, he is lodged at Raja Jai Singh's bungalow
- **1664** — He tends the sick during the Delhi smallpox and cholera epidemic, contracts smallpox and dies aged eight, naming his successor with the words Baba Bakala
- **1665** — Guru Tegh Bahadur is found at Bakala and takes the Guruship

## Where accounts differ

The best known stories of the Delhi visit come from Sikh tradition rather than from contemporary record: the challenge to identify the real queen among her attendants, and the Guru's refusal to meet Aurangzeb face to face. Both are told with confidence in most accounts and neither is documented outside the tradition. The epidemic, the lodging at Raja Jai Singh's bungalow, the tending of the sick and the death from smallpox at eight are not in question. The number of claimants who set themselves up at Bakala after the words Baba Bakala is usually given as twenty-two, which is again a traditional figure.

## Connected pages on Sevahey

- [Gurudwara Bangla Sahib](https://sevahey.com/gurudwaras/bangla-sahib/): New Delhi, Delhi

## What can be offered in your name

Gurudwara Bangla Sahib stands where Guru Har Krishan tended Delhi's sick, and it is a gurudwara Sevahey covers. A verified Sevak requests an ardas there in your name and gotra, the granthi speaks it aloud before the Guru Granth Sahib, and you receive the hukamnama and same-day proof. Families most often ask when someone is ill, which is the association the place has carried since 1664.

- **Seva:** Ardas — https://sevahey.com/seva/ardas/
- **Performed by:** a verified, named Sevak
- **Proof:** GPS-tagged photos, the hukamnama where it applies, timing, and a handwritten note — usually same day

## Questions

### Who was Guru Har Krishan?

Guru Har Krishan (1656 to 1664) was the eighth Sikh Guru and the youngest of the ten, receiving the Guruship at five and dying of smallpox at eight. He spent his last months in Delhi tending the sick during an epidemic before contracting the disease himself. The house where he stayed is now Gurudwara Bangla Sahib.

### How old was Guru Har Krishan when he died?

Eight. He received the Guruship in 1661 at the age of five and died in 1664, giving him the shortest tenure of the ten Gurus at three years. He is the only Sikh Guru who never reached adulthood, and he contributed no composition to the Guru Granth Sahib.

### Why is Gurudwara Bangla Sahib connected to Guru Har Krishan?

Gurudwara Bangla Sahib stands on the site of the bungalow of Raja Jai Singh, where Guru Har Krishan was lodged when summoned to Delhi in 1664. The word bangla in the name preserves that building. He tended the sick there during a smallpox and cholera epidemic, contracted smallpox himself, and died at the site.

### What does the water at Bangla Sahib have to do with Guru Har Krishan?

Water was drawn from the well at the house and distributed during the epidemic while Guru Har Krishan tended the sick, and the sarovar at Bangla Sahib is fed from that well still. Devotees take the water because of that association, formed by his own death from the disease. Sevahey makes no claim that it heals anything and does not supply it.

### What does Baba Bakala mean?

Baba Bakala were the words Guru Har Krishan is said to have spoken before dying, indicating that his successor would be found in the village of Bakala. The instruction was cryptic enough that a number of impostors, traditionally given as twenty-two, set themselves up there. The man it pointed to was his grand-uncle, Guru Tegh Bahadur.

### Why was Guru Har Krishan summoned to Delhi?

His elder brother Ram Rai, struck out of the succession by their father Guru Har Rai for altering a line of scripture, petitioned the emperor Aurangzeb against the child's Guruship. Aurangzeb summoned him to Delhi in 1664, where he was lodged at Raja Jai Singh's bungalow. Sikh tradition holds that he declined to meet the emperor directly.

### Can Sevahey send me water from Bangla Sahib?

No. Sevahey does not supply, ship or sell water from the Bangla Sahib sarovar, and makes no claim about its effects. What a verified Sevak can do is request an ardas in your name and gotra at Bangla Sahib, where the granthi speaks it aloud before the Guru Granth Sahib, and send you the hukamnama and same-day proof.

Sevahey is a service platform. It sells nothing connected to a Guru, and does not promise a spiritual, medical, financial, legal, or personal outcome from any prayer, seva, or ritual.