The Mughal Empire founded in the early 16th  century began to disintegrate towards the later years of the 17th century. Two people who hastened its end were shivaji along with his Marathas in the Deccan and Guru Gobind Singh and the Sikhs in northern India.

Guru Gobind Singh's short career was not marked by any spectacular achievement on the battlefield. His chief contribution was to convert a pacifist, passive and fatalist community of Punjabi Sikhs into a militant, aggressive and determined brotherhood of the Khalsa. He gave sikhism its five sacred symbols, including the unshorn hair and beard, which made the Sikh members of the one casteless family - the Singhs. He was the chief proponent of the Dharmayuddha philosophy - war for the sake of righteousness - to which he committed his four sons and his following. Guru Gobind Singh was the last of the ten Gurus and one of the greatest poets of the Punjabi language. The Qualities that distinguish the Sikhs of today can be traced back to the tradition started by Guru Gobind Singh