The Khalsa revealed at Sri Anandpur Sahib

Who: Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru; the five Sikhs he called the Panj Piare, the Five Beloved, who became Bhai Daya Singh, Bhai Dharam Singh, Bhai Himmat Singh, Bhai Muhkam Singh and Bhai Sahib Singh; Mata Jito, who brought the sugar crystals; and a very large gathering of Sikhs.

What: In 1698 the Guru told the sangats to stop recognising the masands, the local agents of the Gurus, and to come to Anandpur directly for the next Baisakhi. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism dates Baisakhi day that year to 30 March 1699. In the early chronicles, such as Kuir Singh's Gurbilas Patshahi 10, he appeared before the assembly with a drawn sword and asked for a Sikh willing to give his head. The first to stand was Daya Ram, a Khatri of Lahore, followed by Dharam Das, a Jat of Hastinapur, and men from Dwarka, Jagannath Puri and Bidar. He took each into a tent and came back to ask for the next. After the fifth he led all five out dressed alike, and introduced them as the Panj Piare. He stirred water in an iron bowl with a khanda, a double-edged sword, while hymns were recited, and Mata Jito added sugar crystals. He gave each of the five amrit, and then received amrit from them in turn, changing his name from Gobind Rai to Gobind Singh. The Khalsa was to wear the five Ks, kes, kangha, kachh, kara and kirpan, take the name Singh, serve the helpless, resist oppression and recognise no distinction of caste, creed or status. Thousands took amrit in the following days.

Where: The fort of Kesgarh at Anandpur, in the Shivalik foothills. Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib stands on the site, and Anandpur is called Khalse di Vasi, the home of the Khalsa.

Why it mattered: The word khalsa was already in use in letters of Guru Hargobind and Guru Tegh Bahadur for a sangat as the Guru's own, as the Encyclopaedia notes. From 1699 it became the name of the baptised community. Khanda di pahul replaced the older charan pahul, and the salutation Vahiguru Ji ka Khalsa, Vahiguru Ji ki Fateh became part of Sikh greeting. The Encyclopaedia says the Khalsa's rise alarmed the hill chiefs, who set out to dislodge the Guru, and that at the end of his life the Guru passed the Guruship to the Guru Granth Sahib and the Khalsa together. It notes that three of the five came from castes then counted low, and that initiation cancelled their earlier ties of family, occupation and ritual.