The Sikh religion has developed over the centuries from the efforts of its founder, Guru Nanak Dev (1469-1538 AD). Guru Nanak managed to articulate a set of beliefs that already existed in North India. Sikhism is sometimes represented as a "blend" of Hinduism and Islam, but that is an extreme oversimplification. But Nanak did draw from Hindu yoga and the mysticism of Islam's Sufi movements.

Guru Nanak's tenets were basically as follows:

• He accepted the idea of a single supreme being.
• He rejected the idea of incarnation and taught that god did not appear in the form of a physical being.
• He accepted the transmigration of the soul (reincarnation).
• He taught a life of disciplined devotion, but made clear that it should not be confused with bakhti (the devotion of Hindus to the god Shiva).
• He promoted the concepts of an egalitarian brotherhood.

Guru Nanak was the first of 10 Sikh Guru's. The last guru, Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708 AD), introduced the Amrit ceremony in 1699 AD to initiate Sikh men into the Khalsa Panth - the Sikh Commonwealth. In effect, Gobind Singh established a Sikh state which lasted until the British conquerored it.

Temporal authority after Guru Gobind Singh was vested in ths Khalsa Panth. Spiritual authority rested in the Sikh Holy Scriptures, the Granth Sahib, compiled and edited by the Fifth Guru, Guru Arjan Dev in 1604 AD. The Golden Temple in Amritsar was opened a few years before this time and remains today the center of Sikh worship.

A few links for those interested in further study of the Sikh religion:

• A summary of the basic message of the Sikh religion. "A Sikh regards the world not as a place of suffering, but as a meaningful creation of God wherein noble, truthful, and selfless actions can bring a person closer to realizing Him."
• Rehat Maryada is the Official Sikh Code of Conduct.
• Articles on the Sikh religion