When Sparrows Became Hawks

"Built on a close reading of Punjabi and Farsi sources, Purnima Dhavan's narrative of eighteenth-century Sikh history begins with Guru Gobind Singh and the inauguration of the Khalsa and goes on to examine three important but relatively little studied Sikh leaders of the period. This timely and readable book will be immensely helpful to anyone interested in this fascinating period of Sikh history."---Gurinder Singh Mann, Professor of Sikh Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara "Purnima Dhavan's When Sparrows Became Hawks is a wonderful tour de force which answers some of the most nagging questions of eighteenth-century Sikh history. Breathing new life into oft-used Punjabi and Persian textual sources, Dhavan advances our knowledge of the evolution of the Sikh tradition and in the process weaves together a most plausible narrative of the development of the now-normative Sikh Khalsa."--Louis E. Fenech, author of Darbar of the Sikh Gurus: The Court of God in the World of Men "This book is an important study of the social and cultural roots of the Sikh community and the states that they created in Northwestern India during the eighteenth century."---Sumit Guha, Professor of History, Rutgers University