PanjPiare

PanjPiare

Subject – Art and Culture

Context – Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat has apologised for comparing Punjab Congress chief Navjot Sidhu and his four advisers to the PanjPiare.

Concept –

• ‘PanjPiare’ is not just a group of five baptised people but a concept and tradition founded by 10th Sikh Guru Gobind Singh.
• Guru Gobind Singh established the institution of PanjPiare while founding the Khalsa on the day of Baisakhi in 1699. Addressing a large gathering, he asked for five heads for sacrifice. Five men responded to his call and the Guru baptised them and called them PanjPiare.
• Since then, every group of five baptised Sikhs is called PanjPiare and accorded the respect enjoyed by the first five Sikhs.
• Apart from defining the religious and social protocol for the Khalsa by dictating it to the PanjPiare, Guru Gobind Singh himself got baptised from them at the same stage to tell the Sikhs that PanjPiaras have higher authority and decision making power than anyone in the community.
• The PanjPiare are also seen as a manifestation of the Guru himself.
• Any baptised Sikh can become a PanjPiare. The unanimous decision taken by PanjPiare has to be followed by everyone in the community.