Over the past fifteen years, a large number of undergraduate students who took my courses on Sikhism contributed to the evolution of ideas that appear in this book. These thoughts also served as subject for discussions with a whole generation of researchers, of whom Paul Arney, Anna Bigelow, Will Glover, Edward Maldonado, Dan Michon, Farina Mir, Anne Murphy, Krishna Myrvold, Caroline Sawyer, Gibb Schreffler, Ami Shah, Gurdit Singly and Varun Soni deserve special mention. They have taught me more about the Sikhs and the Punjab than they could have imagined. My heartfelt thanks go to them all. My gratitude goes to Ainslie T. Embree, J.S. Grewal, John S.

Hawley, Mark Juergensmeyer, and W.H. McLeod for their continued support. J.S. Grewal and W.H. McLeod read an earlier version of this text and helped me refine the details of the narrative.

I am indebted to Richard Hecht for his insights, Shinder Thandi for his critique, and the anonymous reviewers for their detailed comments. My thanks to Mohan Singh for creating the maps, Chris Gregory for giving them a finished form, Melanie White for her sympathetic overseeing of the project, and Samantha Gray for her helpful editorial assistance. My warm thanks go to my family, Rita, Mana, and Raj, for their love and unstinting support. Ninian Smart, who invited me to write this book, did not live to see the finished product, but his mystic presence continues to soar above the place where it was written. It is an honor to dedicate this book to his memory. Gurinder Singh Mann June 22, 2003.