Makhan Shah and the Twenty-Two Claimants

Guru Har Krishan, dying, is reported to have named his successor only as “Baba Bakale,” which means the Baba at Bakala. In tradition, some twenty-two men took up the claim there, each with a seat and a following.

Makhan Shah Lubana, a trader, had vowed five hundred gold mohars to the Guru if his ship reached port. At Bakala he offered each claimant two. Each accepted the two and the vow went unspoken. Then he found Tegh Bahadur, who is said to have named the shortfall of his vow. Makhan Shah climbed to a rooftop and shouted that he had found the Guru.

What is firm and what is not

That a succession was contested and that Guru Tegh Bahadur was acknowledged is the established core. The number of claimants, the sum, and the date vary by source. The story is told as a tradition of discernment, and it should be read that way.

Counsel

The counterfeit always claims the title. The test is what only the real thing could know. Before you pay the guru, give him the small coin and watch what he does with it. The minister’s question is never “does he sound like the master?” It is “what would the master know that an impostor would not?”

Verification

Tradition is firm; the sources are late and the details conflict. Accounts date the discovery to April 1664, October 1664 and March 1665. The oldest source we read for the number of claimants (22) and the sum vowed (500 gold mohars) is the 19th-century Gur Pratap Suraj Granth, quoted in the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism entry on Makhan Shah. We did not find that the Bhatt Vahis or Gur Sobha carry the episode. Treat the figures as the tradition's, not as a record.