Guru Ram Das (Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰੂ ਰਾਮ ਦਾਸ, pronunciation: ; 24 September 1534 – 1 September 1581) was the fourth of the ten Sikh gurus. He was born in a family based in Lahore. His birth name was Jetha, and he was orphaned at age seven; he thereafter grew up with his maternal grandmother in a village.
At age 12, Bhai Jetha and his grandmother moved to Goindval, where they met Guru Amar Das. The boy thereafter accepted Guru Amar Das as his mentor and served him. The daughter of Guru Amar Das married Bhai Jetha, and he thus became part of Guru Amar Das's family. As with the first two Gurus of Sikhism, Guru Amar Das instead of choosing his own sons, chose Bhai Jetha, owing to Bhai Jetha's exemplary service, selfless devotion and unquestioning obedience to the commands of the Guru, as his successor and renamed him as Ram Das or "servant of God."
Guru Ram Das became the Guru of Sikhism in 1574 and served as the 4th guru until he gave up his body to transcend the material world in 1581. He faced hostility from the sons of Guru Amar Das, and shifted his official base to lands identified by Guru Amar Das as Guru-ka-Chak. This newly founded town was eponymous Ramdaspur, later to evolve and be renamed as Amritsar – the holiest city of Sikhism. He is also remembered in the Sikh tradition for expanding the manji organization for clerical appointments and donation collections to theologically and economically support the Sikh movement. He appointed his own son as his successor, and unlike the first four Gurus who were not related through descent, the fifth through tenth Sikh Gurus were the direct descendants of Guru Ram Das.
Early life
Family background and life in Lahore
Bhai Jetha was born in the morning of 24 September 1534 in a family belonging to the Sodhi gotra (clan) of the Khatri caste in Chuna Mandi, Lahore. His father was Hari Das and his mother was Mata Anup Devi (also known later-on as Anup Kaur or Daya Kaur), both of whom were highly religious. His paternal grandfather was Thakur Das, who was well-known and worked as a shopkeeper in Chuna Mandi, his paternal grandmother was named Jaswanti, and his great-grandfather was Gurdial Sodhi. His father, Hari Das, had inherited the shopkeeper occupation from his own father. His parents had been married for a period of around twelve years before they gave birth to Ram Das. He was named "Jetha" because he was the eldest child of his siblings. Some sources state his actual birthname was still 'Ram Das' and that 'Jetha' was just a nickname he acquired. He had a brother named Hardyal and a sister named Ram Dasi. Both of Jetha's parents died when he was aged around seven. After his parents' deaths, he went into the care of his maternal grandmother.
Life as an orphan in Basarke
His grandmother took him to her village, Basarke, Jetha lived there for five years. Basarke also happened to coincidentally be the ancestral village of Guru Amar Das. Jetha's grandmother was a destitute lady who faced troubles raising the three orphaned siblings. Jetha sold boiled grams, boiled black chickpeas (known as ghugaian), and boiled wheat in the local market square of Basarke to earn a living at the age of around nine. Jetha would sometimes encounter holy-men whilst he was out-and-about working who he would share his provisions of food produce with free-of-cost, being reprimanded by his grandmother for doing so. It is said that when Amar Das just so happened to be visiting Basarke, he came across the young Jetha. Traits that Amar Das saw in the young Jetha that made him take a liking to him was that he was supporting his elderly grandmother at a young age and he lived a deeply spiritual life. Amar Das would meet with Jetha many times in this manner. However, one time when Amar Das visiting Basarke, he would leave next for Khadur, where his guru, Angad, was based out of. Jetha decided to also make the journey to Khadur.