We now proceed to continue the history of Banda. Having set out for the Panjab in accordance with the Guru’s instructions, and in due time taken up his post on an eminence near Buria, he found there the reinforcements promised by the Guru. They came in numbers and clamoured for food. To supply themselves they were obliged to resort to forcible measures. Upon this there arose a violent altercation between the Sikhs and the villagers, in which the latter were [ p. 247 ] put to the sword. The inhabitants of two or three other villages were similarly treated.
On seeing the licence granted to Banda’s troops all the robbers of the country flocked to his standard. An outcry everywhere arose, and the people went in large numbers to complain to the governor of Mustafabad—a city five or six miles to the west of Buria—where were two thousand imperial troops under arms and ready for any emergency. These were dispatched with two large guns against Banda, whereupon many of his mercenary recruits deserted him. He encouraged all who remained, and promised them protection and pecuniary assistance. He then pulled forth one of the Guru’s arrows, drew a line on the ground with it, and said that no bullet or arrow should cross the demarcation thus made. Upon this his troops rallied and made such a successful defence that the Muhammadans all fled, leaving their cannon behind them. After this victory several of the deserters returned, and rejoined Banda’s army. His forces then proceeded to Mustafabad and laid it waste.
Banda’s next expedition was against Sadhaura. The imperial troops stationed there came forth to oppose him, but were easily defeated. They fled and took shelter behind their city walls. Banda’s forces with great bravery captured the fort, and levelled it with the ground. Then ensued a general massacre of the inhabitants. Banda next marched and laid siege to Samana, a considerable town in the state of Patiala. Here there was a sanguinary battle. The city was sacked, and the male inhabitants put to the sword.
He then proceeded to Sarhind. On the march his troops took supplies forcibly from villagers. Wazir Khan on hearing that Banda was marching against him sent to the viceroy of Lahore for assistance. Banda plundered Ambala on the way. He then marched to Banur where he was encountered [ p. 248 ] by Wazir Khan’s army, which had marched from Sarhind to oppose him. The battle began on the following day. When several of the Muhammadans were slain, Wazir Khan and Banda engaged in single combat. .Banda thus addressed him, ‘O sinner, thou art the enemy of Guru Gobind Singh. Thou hast shown him no respect, but on the contrary hast put to death his innocent children, and thereby committed a grievous and unpardonable crime, the punishment for which I am now going to deal thee. Thine army and thy country shall be destroyed at my hands.’ Upon this Banda struck off his head with one blow of his sword. Then the whole of the Muhammadan army fled followed by the Sikhs, who possessed themselves of their horses, arms, tents, cannon, and other munitions of war, and then advanced in triumph to Sarhind. There they effected a general massacre. The Sikhs captured Suchanand who had instigated the murder of Guru Gobind Singh’s children. They put an iron ring in his nose, and passing a rope through it, led him round the streets to beg. At every shop he was shoe-beaten until he died. Such of the inhabitants as were not killed prostrated themselves before the conqueror. He was not disposed to mercy, but gave an order. to raze the city to the ground and plough up its site. In the process large treasure was found which materially assisted him in his further career of rapine, bloodshed, and devastation.
Banda then went on an expedition to the east and plundered most of the hill rajas’ states. After this he made a pilgrimage to Anandpur, and performed reverent worship at the shrine of Guru Teg Bahadur. He then made pilgrimages to the places hallowed by the visits of Guru Gobind Singh. The Raja of Chamba, in order to conciliate him, sent him a supremely beautiful girl. She had large eyes, her limbs were graceful and delicate, and she is described by the enthusiastic chronicler as the very image of [ p. 249 ] the goddess of love. Banda on seeing her, parted with his caution, and completely forgot the Guru’s injunctions. He dived into the ocean of sensuality, and thought not of the fate that awaited him on the forfeiture of his continence.
Having subjected all the hill chiefs, Banda planned a tour in the Bist Doab, and proceeded to Jalandhar where he killed the Muhammadan male inhabitants. The Muhammadan women were converted to Sikhism, and became wives of the Sikh soldiers by the ceremony of Anand.[1] He thence went into the Manjha and plundered Batala. Thence he marched to Lahore and put its viceroy Aslam Khan and all his principal officers to the sword. He there heard that troops sent by the Emperor Bahadur Shah were marching against him. He proceeded to meet them as far as Ludhiana and defeated them. He thence went on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Guru Nanak in the Gurdaspur district, where he met Bhai Ram Kaur, sixth in descent from Bhai Budha. Banda induced him to remain with him, probably with the object of persuading him, in imitation of his pious ancestor, to invest him with the dignity of Guru.
Banda had by this time obtained supreme power from the neighbourhood of Dihli on the south to Lahore on the north. He appointed his own police, levied revenue, and ruled the country. Baba Binod Singh, whom the Guru had sent with him, gave him great assistance in administration. He endeavoured to dissuade him from the Chamba liaison and another of a disreputable character which Banda had also contracted. On one occasion when Baba Binod Singh remonstrated in open darbar with him for his departure from ascetic principles and the injunctions of the Guru, an altercation arose of such a violent character that Binod Singh drew his sword and would have cut off his head had not Kahn Singh interposed. Kahn Singh then foretold the [ p. 250 ] departure of Banda’s glory and his ignominious death.
Banda next paid a visit to the great temple at Amritsar. He gave out that he had been empowered by the Guru to claim succession to the Guruship. The Sikhs then reflected that he did not live according to the rules prescribed for the Khalsa. In ‘order to make trial of him, they put meat before him, at which he, as the result of early prejudice, became horrified. He fell into a passion with the Sikhs who had thus made trial of him, and they — in turn grew enraged with him for refusing meat © allowed by their religion and for his manifold irregularities. The result was that the Sikhs divided into two factions. Those who rejected Banda were called the Tat Khalsa, or real Sikhs, and those who accepted him, the Bandai Khalsa or followers of Banda. For the Sikh salutation, Wahguru ji ka Khalsa! Wahguru ji ki fatah! he substituted Fatah Darshan ‘ Victory to the sect’, an alteration which was deemed apostasy from the orthodox faith.
Another cause of the dissatisfaction of the Sikhs with Banda was that he disregarded a letter of Mata Sundari to the effect that he had now accomplished the mission imposed on him by the Guru, namely, to bring the Governor of Sarhind to justice, and it was time for him to arrest his career of carnage and spoliation. Banda said that as Mata Sundari was only a woman she was not competent to give him advice or orders. Many Sikhs thinking that this was a slight to the Guru’s wife, deserted Banda, and from that time his power began rapidly to decline.
When the defeat of the army sent by the Emperor against Banda was heard of in Nander it was attributed to the Emperor’s failure to keep his promise to the Guru.
Banda continued to pursue his violent career until Bahadur Shah, himself at the head of a powerful [ p. 251 ] avenging army, proceeded against him. Banda not deeming his troops sufficient to cope with the imperial host fled to the mountains and took refuge in a fort called Lohgarh. The imperial army besieged him but the wily chief escaped in a desperate sally. A Hindu who remained behind to personate him was sent by the Subadar’s orders to be executed in Dihli. Very soon after this the Emperor died in Lahore, and then ensued the usual Oriental scramble for the throne. His eldest son Jahandar Shah, who has been described as a drunken profligate, succeeded, but was murdered by his nephew Farrukh Siyar, son of Bahadur Shah’s second son Azim-ul‘Shan. While this struggle was in progress, Banda came forth from his hiding-place and again commenced his depredations.
Bayazid Khan, the new viceroy of Sarhind, went forth with his troops to oppose Banda, but was killed while at his prayers by a follower of the outlaw. On this the Emperor Farrukh Siyar sent Abd-ul-Samad Khan, also known as Diler Jang, to arrest Banda’s progress. When Diler Jang thought his troops had surrounded Banda, there was no Banda to be seen. He and his followers had again fled and disappeared in the mountains. Diler Jang took up his quarters at Lahore to await the outlaw’s reappearance. After a year Banda again emerged from his fastnesses and took possession of Kalanuar and Santokhgarh. He sent letters in all directions inviting the Sikhs to join his standard. In two months he received considerable reinforcements and defeated Sher Muhammad Daim, the general commanding at Ambala. The latter then went to Diler Jang at Lahore to complain of Banda’s lawlessness and tyranny and concert more stringent measures for hisrepression. Diler Jang sent the Ambala general’s complaint to the Emperor. Upon this the Emperor ordered Mir Ahmad Khan, the general commanding at Aurangabad, to join his forces with those of Diler Jang and the other [ p. 252 ] generals in the Panjab and all proceed against Banda. The latter took refuge in Gurdaspur, and strongly entrenched himself. The Muhammadan army besieged him. The Sikhs were reduced to such extremities that they killed for food all animals in their possession. Baba Binod Singh, who had hitherto accompanied Banda, now abandoned him. Banda, when rendered totally helpless, sent a letter under flag of truce to Diler Jang offering to surrender if his life were spared, and his troops treated with consideration. Diler Jang promised to intercede with the Emperor for him, and held out hopes of his pardon. When Banda gave up his arms, he was not allowed an interview with Diler Jang, but placed at once with all his followers under restraint. They were all sent to Dihl with many circumstances of disgrace—Banda himself being put into an iron cage—to be disposed of by the Emperor.
Here English testimony is available. The members of an English mission who went from Calcutta to Dihli in 1715 to petition the Emperor for certain privileges, have left on record that they saw a procession of eight hundred Sikh prisoners marched through Dihli with two thousand bleeding heads borne aloft on poles. The Sikhs vied with one another for precedence in death.
While the executions were in progress, the mother of one of the prisoners, a young man just arrived at manhood, having obtained some influential support, pleaded the cause of her son with great feeling and earnestness before the Emperor. She represented that her son had suffered imprisonment and hardship at the hands of the sect. His property was plundered, and he was made prisoner. While in captivity, he was, without any fault of his own, introduced into the sect, and now stood innocent among those sentenced to death. Farrukh Siyar pitied the woman, and mercifully sent an officer with orders to release the youth. She arrived [ p. 253 ] with the order of release just as the executioner was standing with his bloody sword upheld over the young man’s head. When she showed the imperial order the youth broke out into complaints, saying, ‘My mother speaketh falsely : I with heart and soul join my fellow-believers in devotion to the Guru: send me quickly after my companions.’ Needless to say his request was cheerfully granted.
Here Baba Kahn Singh and Baba Baz Singh, whom the Guru had sent with Banda, succeeded in effecting their escape. Ghulam Husain Khan, author of the Siyar ul Mutaakharin, states that Banda’s son was put on his lap, and Banda was obliged to cut his throat in the manner of Muhammadan sacrifice. He did so, not unwillingly, lest the child should afterwards be circumcised and made a Muhammadan.
Muhammad Amin Khan, when he had an interview with Banda, said to him, ‘The marks of sense and intelligence are visible on thy countenance: how is it thou hast never thought about the recompense of thy deeds, and that in a short span of life with a dreadful futurity thou hast been guilty of such cruelty and of such detestable actions to Hindus and Musulmans?’ He replied, ‘In all religions and sects, whenever disobedience and rebellion among mortal men passeth all bounds, the Great Avenger raiseth up a severe man like me for the punishment of their sins and the due reward of their deeds.
When He wisheth to desolate the world,
He placeth dominion in the hands of a tyrant.
‘When He desireth to give the tyrant the recompense of his works, He sendeth a powerful man like thee to prevail over him, and to give him his due reward in this world: as thou and I can see.’ On this Banda’s flesh was torn from his body by red-hot pincers, and he expired under the horrible torture.
[ p. 254 ]
During his execution he uttered the following warning to his fellow creatures :—
Who hath not suffered for his acts?
Who hath not reaped what he hath sown ?
Forget not that you shall obtain retribution for your deeds.
Wheat springeth from wheat, and barley from barley.[2]
Though such was the fate of Banda, yet Guru Gobind Singh had infused such martial spirit into his Sikhs, that they not long after obtained possession of the Panjab, and put an end to Muhammadan supremacy.