rahit-nama

rahit-nama, in Sikhism, sets of guidelines that govern the behaviour of Sikhs. The rahit-namas provide systematic statements of the principles of the Khalsa (the community of initiated Sikhs) and the way of life lived in accordance with these principles.

Nanak (1469–1539), the first Guru and the founder of the Sikh tradition, used the term rahit to designate a distinctive way of living, but it was not until the turn of the 17th century that statements of what Sikhs should and should not do began to appear. With the declaration of the establishment of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699, the earlier rahit expanded to include new obligations, such as keeping the hair uncut and abjuring the use of tobacco. This comprehensive rahit came to be recorded in texts called rahit-namas. The earliest extant rahit-nama is attributed to Chaupa Singh (d. 1723); others followed during the 18th and 19th centuries. This literature was codified into the authoritative text the Sikh Rahit Maryada (“The Sikh Code of Conduct”) in the mid-20th century by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, the most important Sikh governing body.