The Guru no longer travelled with the imperial army, but proceeded to Kanech in the eastern part of what is now the Ludhiana district… There one Fatah came to pay him his respects and ask if he could do him any service. The Guru asked for his best mare to aid him in his escape. Fatah, who had not been sincere in his protestations of friendship, put him off with excuses. It is said that when he left the Guru and went home, he found the mare had died of snake-bite. This was understood to be the result of his hypocrisy and churlishness to the Guru.
The Guru thence proceeded to Hehar, also in the Ludhiana district, where lived Kripal, the Udasi Mahant who had so distinguished himself in the battle of Bhangani. The Guru on meeting him dismissed Ghani Khan and Nabi Khan, after giving them presents and a letter recommending them to the consideration of the faithful. Though Kripal had been previously so devoted to the Guru, he now feared to entertain him lest the Muhammadans should be informed that he was sheltering an outlaw. He accordingly advised the Guru to move on towards the villages of amma and Jatpura.
On the way thither the Guru met a Muhammadan called Kalha, a rich and important person who was Chaudhri of Jagraon and Raikot, two considerable towns of the Ludhiana district. Kalha entertained him at Jatpura. The Guru requested him to send a messenger to Sarhind to inquire the fate of his mother and his two youngest sons. The Guru [ p. 194 ] remained at Jatpura until the messenger’s return. Jatpura is about fifty miles distant from Sarhind. This distance the messenger is said to have traversed in an incredibly short space of time.
The following is the messenger’s story, one of the most painful in history. It has been already stated that the Guru’s mother entrusted herself and the two grandsons, who accompanied her, to a Brahman. He with sweet words took them to his house and induced them to put faith in him. When the Guru’s mother went to sleep, he stole her money, which she carried in a saddle-bag and buried it. He then went to her and told her there were several thieves prowling about the neighbourhood, and she must be careful of her valuables. He said he gave her this information so that she might not afterwards blame him. She called her servant and told him what she had heard. He almost immediately afterwards informed her that her saddle-bag was missing. As no one had entered the house but the lady’s party and the Brahman, she interrogated the latter on the subject. He pretended to be furious at suspicion having been directed against him, and said that that was the result of doing good and of entertaining homeless wayfarers and outlaws. He had saved the Guru’s mother and children from death, and the return they made him for his trouble and hospitality was to charge him with theft as if he were a vulgar malefactor. Then saying that he could not trust her and her children, he ordered them to leave his house.
The Brahman with loud cries proceeded to the Chaudhri, or chief civil official of Kheri, and informed him that the Guru’s mother and sons had just come to his house, and both he and the Chaudhri would obtain a large reward for delivering them to the imperial authorities. The Brahman and the Chaudhri then went to the next highest official, a Ranghar, the governor of Murinda. He proceeded [ p. 195 ] with them to the Brahman’s house, and thence they took the Guru’s mother and her two grandsons to Wazir Khan, Viceroy of Sarhind. He ordered them to. be confined in a tower. People thronged next day to see them, and cursed and abused the treacherous Brahman to their hearts’ content. Wazir Khan ordered the children to be brought before him. When the Guru’s mother heard the order, it stung her like a sharp arrow.
One Suchanand Khatri, who had vainly sued for one of the Guru’s sons as a husband for his daughter, now came forward and said the children were certainly the progeny of the serpent, that is, sons of the Guru, and that when they grew up they would be as destructive as their father. The governor of Murinda told Mata Gujari, in order to pacify her, that he would send the children back after showing them to Wazir Khan. Not believing him, she put one of them at each side of her, and tried to conceal them with her dress. The Guru’s son Jujhar Singh on hearing the Ranghar’s voice stood up and said to his grandmother, ‘ The Turks have ever been our enemies. How can we escape from them? Therefore let us go to the viceroy.’ Saying this he took his younger brother Fatah Singh and went with the Ranghar. When they reached the viceroy’s court, the Ranghar, in order to add to their sufferings, told them that their father, their two eldest brothers, and their companions had all been killed in Chamkaur. He added, ‘ Your only hope of escape now is to bow before the Viceroy and accept Islam ; and perhaps he will spare your lives.’
Jujhar Singh when confronted with the viceroy thus addressed him: ‘ My father, the holy Guru Gobind Singh is not dead. Who can kill him? He is protected by the immortal God. If any one say that he can tear down heaven, how is that possible ? Were a storm to attempt to drive a mountain before it, could it ever do so? Were any one to try to [ p. 196 ] grasp the sun and moon, it would be a feat impossible to accomplish. Were the Guru to desire it, he could destroy every trace of you, but he deemeth it his first duty to obey the laws of heaven. When we have dedicated our heads to our father who is such a Guru, why should we bow them before a false and deceitful sinner?’ On hearing this the. people all cried out that the children ought to be allowed to go unharmed. The misnamed Suchanand now interposed, and repeated that these were the offspring of a cobra, and from their heads to their feet filled with venom. ‘See my friends,’ he said, ‘they have not the least fear, and are so proud that they even insult and defy the Viceroy’.
Wazir Khan then reflected that if the children became Muhammadans, it would be a gain and glory to his faith. He told them that, if they would accept his faith, he would grant them an estate, marry them to the daughters of chiefs, and they would become happy and be honoured by the Emperor. Jujhar Singh then looking at his younger brother said, ‘ My brother, the time to sacrifice our lives, as our grandfather Guru Teg Bahadur did, hath now arrived. What thinkest thou?’ Fatah Singh replied, ‘ Brother dear, our grandfather parted with his head but not with his religion, and he ordered us to follow his example. Now. that we have received the baptism of the spirit and the sword, what care we for death ? Wherefore it is best that we should give our lives, thus save the Sikh religion, and bring down God’s vengeance on the Turks.’
Jujhar Singh again spoke on the same subject : ‘My brother, our grandfather Guru Teg Bahadur spurned the Muhammadan religion. Here is this noble family of ours—a man like Guru Gobind Singh our father, a man like Guru Teg Bahadur our grandfather, a man like Guru Har Gobind our greatgrandfather. We, who are their descendants, cannot attach a stigma to their memories.’ The young [ p. 197 ] boy waxing still more angry, continued, ‘ Hear, O viceroy, I spurn thy religion and will not part with mine own. It hath become the custom of our family to forfeit life rather than faith. O fool, why seekest thou to tempt us with worldly ambition ? We will never be led astray by the false advantages thou offerest. The indignities inflicted by the Turks on our grandfather shall be the fire to consume them, and our deaths the wind to fan the flame. In this way we shall destroy the Turks without forfeiting our holy faith.’
The Muhammadan viceroy could not endure outspokenness of this description, and, in the words of the chronicler, began to burn like sand in a fiery furnace. He said he must put the children to death.: - They had no fear of any one, and their words were liable to cause disaffection and religious apathy in others. Suchanand was ready to support the viceroy, and suggested additional reasons for putting the children to death. He said they had spoken insolently before the Viceroy, and when they grew up they would follow their father’s example and destroy armies. What good could be expected from them ? They would be always exciting revolts. They were prisoners with no right of pardon; and, if they were released, no one knew what they would do. There were no means for their repression but death.
Then out spoke the Nawab of Maler Kotla, ‘O Viceroy, these children are still drinking milk in the nursery, and are too young to commit an offence. They know not good from evil. Wherefore be pleased to allow them to depart.’ This representation the Viceroy heeded not, but cast about for some one to kill the children. His servants who were present said they were willing to sacrifice their lives for him, but they were not executioners. ‘ He turned to right and left, but all his staff hung down their heads in token of refusal and pity for the children. At last looking behind him he espied a Ghilzai who, [ p. 198 ] with the cruelty of his race, offered to do the sanguinary deed. It is a general belief among the Sikhs that the children were bricked into a wall and suffered to die in that position, but the authors of the Suraj Parkash and of the Gur Bilas both state that the children were put to death in the order of their ages by the sword of the Ghilzai executioner. They vied with each other as to who should first have the honour of martyrdom. The two children Jujhar Singh and Fatah Singh, aged nine and seven years respectively, perished on the 13th of Poh, Sambat 1762 (A. D. 1705):
A rich Sikh called Todar Mal, as soon as he heard of the imprisonment of the Guru’s children, hastened to the viceroy with the intention of ransoming them, but arrived too late. The children had been already . put to death. He then proceeded to the Guru’s mother Mata Gujari, who had not yet heard of the execution of her grandchildren, but was at the same time suffering extreme mental agony. She every now and again would pray to the Gurus to protect her little ones: ‘O Guru Nanak, may no hair of my grandchildren’s heads be touched! O my son, Guru Gobind Singh, pardon my sins and protect me now! Woeisme! I know not what may happen to my grandchildren to-day.’ Todar Mal sought to break the sad intelligence to her, but his voice was stifled in his throat. On seeing this, Mata Gujarl became extremely alarmed, and standing up at once said, ‘Tell me the truth. Why art thou sorrowful ? When will they allow my grandsons to return, and what questions have they put them ?’ Todar Mal then strengthening his resolve, addressed her: ‘I have made my heart harder than a stone, and come to tell thee of the death of thy grandchildren. O mother, the light of thine eyes, the support of the world, the life of the Sikhs, the darlings of the Guru have been to-day massacred by the Turks.’ On receiving this news Mata Gujari [ p. 199 ] was struck down as if a mountain had fallen on her. Todar Mal began to fan her in her swoon with the skirt of his dress.
On recovering consciousness to some extent she began to call upon her grandsons, ‘O Jujhar Singh, O Fatah Singh, after such love for me whither have you gone? Take me with you. Who will call now me mother or grandmother ? Who will come and sit cn my lap ? How shall I now behold you ? O youthful warriors, light of my courtyard, sun of my family, I know not what your sufferings must have been to-day. O my grandchildren, on whom I have never turned my back even when asleep. To-day, alas! alas! the Muhammadan tyrants have killed you, the darlings of mine eyes, my beautiful ones. I concealed my grandsons from the gaze of others, and behold what hath happened to-day! What have I done to you, O children, that you should have abandoned me to misery ?’ Saying this, she fell heavily to the ground, and gave up her spirit. Todar Mal cremated the bodies of the Guru’s mother and her grandchildren, and buried their ashes.[1] A Sikh temple, now called Fatahgarh, was subsequently erected on the spot.
When. the Turks heard that the Brahman who had betrayed the Guru’s mother and children possessed much wealth, they arrested him and all his family, and forced him by torture to tell where he had concealed his treasure. He pointed out the spot where he had buried Mata Gujari’s money, but it was not found there. The Turks believing that he was only deceiving them continued to torture him until his soul took flight to the infernal regions.
While the Guru was listening to the narrative, he was digging up a shrub with his knife. He said, ‘As I dig up this shrub by the roots, so shall the Turks be extirpated.’ He inquired if any one [ p. 200 ] except the Nawab of Maler Kotla had spoken on behalf of the children. The messenger replied in the negative. The Guru then said that after the roots of the oppressive Turks were all dug up, the roots of the Nawab should still remain. His Sikhs should one day come and lay Sarhind waste.
Before the Guru had set out from Jatpura he presented his host Kalha with a sword to preserve in memory of him. He was to honour it with incense and flowers. As long as he did so, he and his family should flourish, but, if ever he wore it, he should lose his possessions. Kalha during his lifetime treated the sword according to the Guru’s injunctions, and so did his son after him. But his grandson put on the weapon, and employed it in the chase. In endeavouring to kill a deer with it he struck his own thigh and died of the wound. The author of the Suraj Parkash wrote that this incident actually occurred when he was a boy, and he still remembered it.
In the Suraj Parkash it is stated that it was Tilok Singh and Ram Singh who cremated the bodies of the Guru’s mother and sons. ↩︎