AMAR DAS

born 1479, Khadur?, India died 1574, Goindwal third Sikh Guru, appointed at the advanced age of 73, noted for his division of the Punjab into 22 Sikh dioceses and his dispatch of missionaries to spread the faith. Realizing that periodical meetings of all Sikhs would strengthen the faith, he ordered three great festivals a year. He was much revered for his wisdom and piety, and it was said that even the Mughal emperor Akbar sought his advice and ate in the Sikhs' casteless langar (free kitchen). Under Amar Das's direction, the city of Goindwal became a Sikh centre of learning. Guru Amar Das advocated a middle way of life between the extremes of asceticism and sensuous pleasure, and he praised the life of the ordinary family man. Thus a man could enjoy prosperity and please God also. Among his social reforms, he further extended the langar and made it a rule that anyone wanting to see him must first eat in the kitchen. He purified the Sikh religion of Hindu practices, encouraged intercaste marriage, and allowed widows to remarry. He also strictly enjoined his followers to refrain from the prevailing Hindu practice of suttee (self-immolation of a widow on her husband's funeral pyre).