Harbans Singh Noor

After leaving Anandpur on the night of December 5/6, 1705, crossing the flooded Sarsa rivulet, and resting at Kot Nihang Khan, for a few hours, Guru Gobind Singh reached Chamkaur. He was accompanied by not more than 40 Singhs, including two of his older sons, and the five panj piyare, the original "Beloved Five". Their arms were mostly swords and spears, as their ammunition had exhausted during the eight-month defence of the besieged Anandpur.

Halting in a small garden, they approached the local chief for permission to use his haveli for shelter during the night. The place belonged to two brothers. The elder brother Rai Jagat Singh refused, for fear of Imperial wrath. But, his younger brother, Rup Chand, at his own risk, permitted them to stay in the small fortress like two-storey house, which had a moderate quantity of arms and ammunition inside.

Despite promise of safe conduct given to Guru Gobind Singh, the Mughal and Rajput commanders were in search of him, to catch him in person or get his head as a trophy. After crossing the Sarsa, the whole party of the Sikhs had scattered hither and thither. The Mughals did not know, where the Guru had gone. When they got information of his halt at Chamkaur, they came and laid siege to the haveli, which was like a small garhi, or a fortress.

Early in the morning, alerted by the sound of galloping horses, the Sikhs took up defensive positions. The two Sahibzadas -- Ajit Singh and Jujhar Singh -- and three other archers took up positions, along with Guru Gobind Singh, in the upper portion of the house. Eight persons each were deputed to guard each of the four sides. Two expert swordsmen -Bhai Madan Singh and Bhai Kotha Singh - stood to guard the only entrance to the haveli.

During the previous two decades, the Singhs had established a reputation of their invincibility in battles. Therefore, the enemy's mainstay had to be in numerical strength. Hordes of Rajput and Mughal warriors rushed to join the manhunt.

Arrows from upper storey of the haveli kept many a soldier at bay. Those who came forward to storm the garhi, met piercing arrows. They either perished or preferred to pull back; or faced hand-to-hand fights with Singhs guarding the four sides. Faujdar Nahar Khan was one of those who fell to the arrows of Guru Gobind Singh himself.

Gurdwara Katalgarh Sahib marks the place where Ajit Singh and Jujhar Singh, the older sons of Guru Gobind Singh, and other Sikhs died in the Battle of Chamkaur (1705).

The battle lasted all day. When the ammunition and arrows in the garhi almost ran out, the Singhs came out in batches of five, with swords and spears in their hands, to face the enemy that far outnumbered them. Their determination and fighting skill helped them kill many of the enemy, but odds were so heavy against them that they all fell in the field, one by one. They were followed by the next batch of five, charged with emotions of fighting a treacherous enemy. Determined to fight with all their vigour, they too wer to lay their lives the same way.

With over thirty Singhs, including three of the panj piyare lying dead or dying out in the field, Guru Gobind Singh's eldest son, 18-year old Sahibzada Ajit Singh sought permission from his father. Getting a farewell hug and a blessing from him, he went out to join the battle. After heroic confrontations with several of the enemy at a time, he fell in the field. After watching his brother being slaughtered, the younger Sahibzada, 15-year old Jujhar Singh, touched the feet of his father, gave him a hug, and bidding farewell sallied forth with the next and the last batch. With the setting of the sun, that day, he too became a martyr like his elder brother, and other select warriors of Guru Gobind Singh's bodyguard. Included in them were also three of the "Beloved Five" - Bhai Mohkam Singh, Bhai Himmat Singh and Bhai Sahib Singh.

DBy the nightfall, only six persons - Guru Gobind Singh, two of the " Beloved Five" (Bhai Daya Singh and Bhai Dharam Singh), Bhai Sant Singh, Bhai Man Singh and Sangat Singh remained alive in the garhi. The Singhs decided that Guru Gobind Singh must quit the haveli, so that he could rally his followers again. If he perished, loss to the community would be irreparable. It was proposed that the Guru should change his attire with Sangat Singh, who somewhat resembled him in stature. By his being visible, the others might get enough time to reach a somewhat safe distance. Reluctantly, the Guru agreed, to the propsal, which the Singhs presented as the matta of five, which was bindinding. . Bhai Sant Singh decided to stay back to guard the entrance, and thus gain some additional time, when the enemy barges in.

In the middle of the night Guru Gobind Singh and three remaining Sikhs - Bhai Daya Singh, Bhai Mohkam Singh and Bhai Man Singh -- left the haveli, with a plan to go in different directions but meet in a garden outside Machhivara.

Fate of the remaining two sentinels, Bhai Sant Singh and Bhai Sangat Singh, has just to be imagined.

Sahibzadas Zorawar Singh (b. 1696) and Fateh Singh (b. 1699), sons of Guru Gobind Singh, were personally looked after by their grandmother, Mata Gujari, since the death of their mother, Mata Jeeto ji, on December 5, 1700.

Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib commemorates the martyrdom of younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh.

On the fateful night of evacuation from Anandpur, December 5/6, 1705, the three of them were together, and were successful in crossing the inundated Sarsa naddi (rivulet) on a horseback. Separated from rest of the family, they happened to meet their former cook, Gangu, a Brahmin of village Kheri (now called Saheri). He took them to his house for shelter.

During the night, on discovering that there was some jewelry in Mata Gujari’s bundle, that had become wet, while crossing the rivulet, he managed to hide it. In the morning on being questioned, he pretended annoyance that instead of showing gratitude, Mataji doubted and accused him of theft. He offered to get the house searched by her or by the thanedar (police officer). With that excuse, he informed the officials at Morinda, of their presence in his house, in hope of being rewarded by the government.

Jaani Khan and Maani Khan took the three in custody, and on December 9 sent them to the district headquarters at Sirhind, where they were locked up in the Thanda Burj/cold-tower, built for summer days.

The faujdar, Nawab Wazir Khan, had just returned from Chamkaur, and was delighted at the prospect of converting Guru Gobind Singh’s own children to Islam.

When the children were produced before the faujdar, he welcomed them with sweet little talk, and then offered them riches and good positions when they grew up. All they were required to do was to become Musalman. The kids knew the difference between Islam and Sikhism, and like other Sikh children knew the history of their ancestors, who had sacrificed their lives, sticking to their own faith. They stubbornly refused, not bowing even under threats of death.

Failing to persuade or frighten them, irritated and infuriated Wazir Khan ordered that they be put to death.

Nawab Sher Muhammad Khan of Malerkotla, who had accompanied Wazir Khan from Chamkaur, interceded that the children were innocent, their lives be spared. Wazir Khan, slightly mellowed, agreed to give them one more day to think over, and talk to their grandmother.

Instead of asking, they must have told their grandmother what answer they had given to the options placed before them. Even if asked, despite all the love for her grandsons whom she had brought up, since the death of their mother five years back, she, whose husband Guru Tegh Bahadur had voluntarily given his head, for sake of freedom to follow one’s own faith, could give no other advice except that they stay steadfast and not give up the true faith of their forefathers.

After a night in the company of their grandmother in the Cold Tower, they were again produced before the Nawab.

The kids, who were only 6 and 9 years old, remained adamant. Neither fresh offers of riches, nor threats of tortures or death, could deviate them from their earlier decision. The Nawab again ruled that they be put to death. On fresh pleas from Sher Muhammad Khan, to consider innocence of the children and be merciful, Wazir Khan’s Hindu Diwan/minister Suchcha Nand remarked, “Offsprings of snakes are also snakes. Their heads have to be crushed.”

Wazir Khan accepted Suchcha Nand’s tip and ordered that the children be bricked alive – giving them chances to change their minds, as the wall steadily rose brick by brick up to their necks.

Two executioners, Bashal Khan and Shashal Khan were brought in for masonry. The children remained unmoved by the prospect of approaching death. However, the wall crumbled before it could intern them fully. The Wazir ordered that they be beheaded on the following day.

On December 12, 1705 Wazir Khan's order was carried out.

Six and nine year old children were executed because they did not consent to give up their own religion for another.

Death of Mata Gujari

The remains of Guru Gobind Singh's mother Mata Gujri ji and his two yonger sons Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh were cremated at Gurdwara Jyoti Sarup.

On 12^th December, four days after confinement in the Thanda Burj, on hearing the news that her darling grandsons had been slaughtered in cold blood, she collapsed, and thereby fell from the tower to her death below.

A kindly rich banker of Sirhind, Seth Todar Mal, pleaded, bribed and purchasing a small piece of land at an exorbitant price, cremated the three dead bodies.

Beautiful gurdwaras now stand, in memory of these martyrs, on the spots of execution and cremation near Sirhind.

NOTE

The haveli of Todar Mal is being maintained by Punjab Virasaat Trust to mark the 300th year of martyrdom of younger Sahibzadas.

Sikhs neither forgot this horrendous act, nor forgave the perpetrators of this despicable crime. Not only Wazir Khan and Suchcha Nand paid for it with their lives, when Banda Bahadur visited Sirhind in 1710, but it also kicked the Mughal rule from its pinnacle, down the slide, never to recover again.

In gratitude to Sher Mohammad Khan for his advice to Wazir Khan to not to harm the innocent children, Sikhs during their ascendance to power never cast an evil eye on his family’s estate of Malerkotla. Even, during the bloody and maddening disturbances of 1947, Muslim refugees, running from nearby areas, found Malerkotla a safe haven, being sure of Sikh protection.

Rev. W.D. Barr, a Presbyterian missionary at Khanna, wrote on September 11, 1963:

“I too have been interested in the effect of Guru Gobind Singh’s reactions to the concern expressed by the Nawab in his day. I talked with the present Nawab on two occasions about this very question. He told me some facts that verify influence of Guru Gobind Singh’s declarations during the Partition [of India in 1947]. I suggested that the presence of Nawab’s army lessened the attacks by Sikhs on Muslims. He stated that he can document evidence to show that the Sikhs actually responded to protect us Muslims by belief in what Gobind Singh had commanded.

“The Muslims en route to Malerkotla via train were attacked, but when the Sikhs knew they were going to Malerkotla, they spared them and personally escorted them to Malerkotla. Many Muslims fleeing for their lives were being pursued by Sikhs, trying to kill them, but when they crossed the border of Malerkotla State, they stopped and granted them their lives. There is no question in Nawab’s mind but that the Muslims were spared in Malerkotla State directly because of Gobind Singh’s declaration that the Muslims of that state were to be protected (Dr. C.H. Loehlin, Guru Gobind Singh and Islam', in Punjab History Conference: Proceedings, October 1966, p.95.).”

Sirhind became such a hated place, that in December 1763, when Dal Khalsa attacked Sirhind, its Governor Zain Khan was slain on January 1764, and his territory possessed, but while dividing the occupied area, none of the Sardars wanted to take the cursed city, although it was the centre of rich bankers – the Sud Hindus.


Photo Credit

Gurdwara photos and Todar Mal Haveli: National Informatics Centre, Punjab State Unit

Gurdwara Katalgarh Sahib: allaboutsikhs.com

Copyright ©2004 Harbans Singh Noor. About the author