Guru Ram Das (pictured) became the fourth of the Sikh gurus, the spiritual masters of Sikhism.

Guru Ram Das, sometimes spelled as Guru Ramdas, was the fourth of the ten Sikh gurus. He was born to a family based in Lahore, who named him Bhai Jetha. He was orphaned at age seven; and thereafter grew up with his maternal grandmother in a village.

The Sikh gurus are the spiritual masters of Sikhism, who established the religion over the course of about two and a half centuries, beginning in 1469. The year 1469 marks the birth of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. Nine other human gurus succeeded him until, in 1708, the Guruship was finally passed on by the tenth guru to the holy Sikh scripture, Guru Granth Sahib, which is now considered the living Guru by the followers of the Sikh faith. The guruship was also passed onto the Guru Panth, consisting of the Khalsa; however, this form of guruship went into decline following to rise of Ranjit Singh.

Sikhism is an Indian religion and philosophy that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the 15th century CE. It is one of the most recently founded major religions and among the largest in the world with about 25–30 million adherents, known as Sikhs.