The last days and Baba Bakale
Baba Bakale
Too weak to say more, Guru Ji named a successor with two words: Baba Bakale, the elder at Bakala.
As Macauliffe tells it, the Sikhs gathered at the sickbed and voiced their fear. Ram Rai was close to the emperor, Dhir Mall and other Sodhis were waiting in the Punjab, and every one of them would claim the seat. Sri Guru Har Krishan Ji answered that the tree planted by Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji would not wither.
Guru Ji then asked for five paise and a coconut. Unable to move, Guru Ji waved a hand three times in the air, as if walking around the next Guru in respect, and said Baba Bakale.
The word baba meant an elder, here the brother of a grandfather. It pointed to Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, living at Bakala. But the phrase named no one, and within months, the sources say, twenty-two men of the family had set up there as Gurus.
How do we know?
Several traditional accounts tell this story, without close independent support.
The earliest evidence read is well after the event, and the ambiguity of the words is built into the story of what followed at Bakala. The speech about the Granth given in Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth is a later composition in its present form.
- Later traditionSays the marks of succession were asked for and that all Guru Ji could utter was the two words.[EoS]
- Later traditionExplains the phrase as pointing to the brother of Guru Ji's grandfather, who lived at Bakala, and says the town took its present name from it.[EoS]
- Later traditionDescribes Guru Ji calling for five paise and a coconut, waving a hand three times as a token of circling the successor, then speaking the words. (pp. 328-329)[Macauliffe]
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