Which Sikh Guru became Guru at age five?

Guru Harkrishan became Guru at age five. The eighth Sikh Guru, he succeeded his father, Guru Har Rai, in 1661 after Guru Har Rai rejected his elder son Ram Rai for altering a verse of Sikh scripture to please the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.

Because of his youth, Guru Harkrishan is remembered as the Bal Guru, or Child Guru. He was summoned to Delhi, where he became associated in Sikh tradition with compassion toward people suffering during a smallpox epidemic. He himself contracted smallpox and died in 1664, before reaching his eighth birthday.

A frequent mix-up is with Guru Gobind Singh, who also became Guru as a child, at age nine. Guru Harkrishan had the shortest life and one of the shortest periods of leadership among the Sikh Gurus. Tradition records that his final words, “Baba Bakale,” pointed to his successor, Guru Tegh Bahadur.