An oriental painting of Guru Gobind Singh, the last of the ten Sikh Gurus or teacher of Sikhs, flourished between 1650 and 1708 A.D. He finally abolished caste, established the sikh religion on a political and military basis, stimulated the worship of the Granth or holy book, and definitely constituted the Khalsa as the Sikh brotherhood id styled.

He refused to name a successor, saying " He who wishes to behold the guru, let him search the Granth" : but as the matter of fact he was succeeded by Banda, who was tortured to death by the Mogul Emperor Bahadur Shah in 1716.