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Sirhind is the older name of Fatehgarh Sahib, a city and Sikh pilgrimage site in Punjab, India. It is situated on the Delhi to Lahore Highway. It has a population of about 60,851 . It is now a district headquarters in the state of Punjab; the name of the district is Fatehgarh Sahib.
It derives its name probably from Sairindhas, a tribe that according to Varahamihira (AD 505-87), Brihat Samhita, once inhabited this part of the country. According to Hsuen Tsang, the Chinese traveller who visited India during the seventh century, Sirhind was the capital of the district of Shitotulo, or Shatadru (the River Sutlej), which was about 2000 H or 533 km in circuit. The Shatadru principality subsequently became part of the vast kingdom called Trigarta of which Jalandhar was the capital.
At the time of the struggle between the Hindu Shahis and the Ghaznavids, Sirhind was an important outpost on the eastern frontier of the Hindu Shahi Empire. With the contraction of their territory under the Ghaznavid onslaught, the Hindu Shahi capital was shifted in 1012 to Sirhind, where it remained till the death of Trilochanpala, the last ruling king of the dynasty. After the Hindu Shahi dynasty fell, the outpost of Sirhind was captured by the Ghaznavids, but it was later abandoned due to its distance from the Ghaznavid capital, Lahore. At the close of the 12th century, the town was occupied by the Chauhans. During the invasions of Muhammad Ghori, Sirhind, along with Bathinda, constituted the most important military outpost of Prithviraj Chauhan, the last Rajput ruler of Delhi. Muhammad Ghori captured the outpost of Bathinda and he then captured Sirhind and finally Delhi. Under the Mamluk dynasty, Sirhind constituted one of the six territorial divisions of the Punjab. In the time of Mughal Emperor Akbar, the rival towns of Sunam and Samana were subordinated to it and included in what was called Sirhind sarkar of the Subah of Delhi. It was refounded by Sultan Firuz Shah Tughlaq in 1361 AD at the behest of Sayyid Jalaluddin Bukhari, the spiritual guide of that king. The duty of building the town was given to Khwaja Fathallah, the brother of the ancestor of Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi. [1] He made it a new pargana by dividing the old fief of Samana Firuz Shah dug a canal from the Sutlej.[ incomprehensible ] It was an important stronghold of the Delhi Sultanate. In 1415 Khizr Khan, the first Sayyid ruler of Delhi, nominated his son Mubarak Khan as a governor of Sirhind. In 1420, Khizr Khan defeated the insurgent Sarang Khan at Sirhind. In 1431, the city was invaded by the Khokhar tribe under their leader Mustafa Jasrath Khokhar. The town was however recaptured by Mubarak Shah in September 1432. In 1451 here, Bahlul Khan Lodi assumed the title of Sultan under the governorship of Malik Sultan Shah Lodi.
Under the Mughals, Sirhind was the second largest city of the Punjab and the strongest fortified town between Delhi and Lahore. The town also enjoyed considerable commercial importance. According to Nasir Ali Sirhindi, Tankhi Nasin, Sirhind at that time possessed buildings which had no parallel in the whole of India. Spread over a distance of 3 kos (10 km approximately) on the banks of the River Hansala (now known as Sirhind Nala), it had many beautiful gardens and several canals. Mughal Emperor Jahangir, who made several visits to Sirhind, refers in his memoirs to the captivating beauty of its gardens. The jurisdiction of Sirhind sarkar extended to Anandpur which was the seat of Guru Gobind Singh in the closing decades of the seventeenth century. At the instance of one of the hill rulers, Raja Ajmer Chand, Wazir Khan, the faujdar of Sirhind, despatched some troops along with a couple of artillery pieces to reinforce the hill army attacking Anandpur. An inconclusive encounter took place on 13–14 October 1700.
On 22 June 1555, Humayun decisively defeated Sikandar Shah Suri at the Battle of Sirhind and reestablished the Mughal Empire. The city reached the zenith of its glory under the Mughal Empire in the 17th century. This city was a home of sixteenth-century saint Ahmad Sirhindi, popularly known as Mujadid Alif Sani which means 'Revivor of the Faith in the Second Millennium'. The mausoleum of this saint is still there. Under Mughal Emperor Akbar, it had turned the highest yielding sarkar. Under Sirhind sarkar there were 28 parganas. Due to its prosperity during the Mughal Empire it was known as Sirhind Bāvani which means Sirhind Fifty-two because it yielded a revenue of 52 lakh Rs, i.e. 5 million 200 thousand Rs per year. Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan built a famous garden known as Aam Khas Bagh.
Guru Gobind Singh after a brief interval returned to Anandpur but had to quit it again on 5–6 December 1705 under pressure of a prolonged siege by the hill chief supported by Sirhind troops. Under the orders of the faujdar, Nawab Wazir Khan, Guru Gobind Singh's two younger sons, aged nine and seven, were cruelly bricked to death. They were enclosed alive in a wall in Sirhind and executed as the masonry rose up to their necks. Upon hearing the news of his sons' deaths, Guru Gobind Singh is reported to have prophesied the city of Sirhind being plundered, looted and devastated by his followers. [2] [3]
Mobilized under the leadership of Banda Singh Bahadur after the death of Guru Gobind Singh in November 1708, the Sikhs made a fierce attack upon Sirhind. The Mughal Army was routed and Wazir Khan killed in the Battle of Chappar Chiri fought on 12 May 1710. Sirhind was occupied by the Sikhs two days later, and Baj Singh was appointed governor. The city was plundered, razed and an immense loss of life and property occurred during Banda's siege. [4] [5] The town was, however, taken again by the Mughal imperial forces. The Mughal Army recaptured Sirhind and they also captured Banda Singh Bahadur alive at Gurdas Nangal near Gurdaspur where they took him to Delhi and executed him for his rebellion.
In March 1748, Sirhind was seized, but only temporarily, by Ahmad Shah Durrani, the Afghan general of Nadir Shah who succeeded his master in the possession of the eastern part of his dominions. But Ahmad Shah Durrani was defeated by the Mughal rulers of Delhi who reoccupied the town, although the invader reconquered it during his fourth invasion during 1756-57. Early in 1758, the Sikhs, in collaboration with the Marathas, sacked Sirhind, and drove Prince Taimur, son of Ahmad Shah and his viceroy at Lahore, out of the Punjab.
Ahmad Shah defeated the Marathas at Panipat in January 1761. and struck the Sikhs a severe blow in what is known as Vadda Ghallughara, the 'Great Massacre', that took place on 5 February 1762. Sikhs rallied and attacked Sirhind on 17 May 1762. defeating its faujdar, Zain Khan Sirhindi, who purchased peace by paying Rs 50,000 as a tribute to the Dal Khalsa. A more decisive battle took place on 14 January 1764 when Dal Khalsa. under Jassa Singh Ahluvalia, made another assault upon Sirhind. Zain Khan Sirhindi was killed in action and Sirhind was occupied and subjected to plunder and destruction. The booty was donated for the repair and reconstruction of the sacred shrines at Amritsar demolished by Ahmad Shah.
The booty was donated for the repair and reconstruction of the sacred shrines at Amritsar demolished by Ahmad Shah. The territories of the Sirhind sarkar were divided among the leaders of the Dal Khalsa, but no one was willing to take the town of Sirhind where Guru Gobind Singh's younger sons were subjected to a cruel fate. By a unanimous will it was made over to Buddha Singh, descendant of Bhai Bhagatu.
It was soon after (2 August 1764) transferred possession to Sardar Ala Singh, founder of the Patiala family. Sirhind thereafter remained part of the Patiala territory until the state lapsed in 1948. Maharaja Karam Singh of Patiala (1813–45) had gurdwaras constructed in Sirhind in memory of the young martyrs and their grandmother, Mata Gujari. He changed the name of the nizamat or district from Sirhind to Fatehgarh Sahib, after the name of the principal gurdwara. Besides the Sikh shrines, Sirhind has an important Muslim monument Rauza Sharif Mujjadid Alf Sani, the mausoleum of Shaikh Ahmad Sirhindi (1569-1624), the fundamentalist leader of the orthodox; Naqshbandi school of Sufism. There are a number of other tombs in the compound mostly of the members of Shaikh Ahmad's house.
Mirza Muhammad Mu'azzam, commonly known as Bahadur Shah I and Shah Alam I, was the eighth Mughal Emperor from 1707 to 1712. He was the second son of the sixth Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, who he conspired to overthrow in his youth. He was also governor of the imperial provinces of Agra, Kabul and Lahore and had to face revolts of Rajputs and Sikhs.
Dal Khalsa was the name of the combined military forces of 11 Sikh misls that operated in the 18th century (1748–1799) in the Punjab region. It was established by Nawab Kapur Singh in late 1740s.
Anandpur Sahib, also referred simply as Anandpur, is a city in Rupnagar district (Ropar), on the edge of Shivalik Hills, in the Indian state of Punjab. Located near the Sutlej River, the city is one of the most sacred religious places in Sikhism, being the place where the last two Sikh Gurus, Guru Tegh Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh, lived. It is also the place where Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa Panth in 1699. The city is home to Takhat Sri Kesgarh Sahib, the third of the five Takhts in Sikhism.
The Takht Sri Darbar Sahib Damdama Sahib, is one of the five takhts or Seat of Temporal Authority of Sikhism, located in Talwandi Sabo, near the city of Bathinda in Bathinda district of Punjab, India. At this place Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, prepared the full version of the Sikh scriptures called Sri Guru Granth Sahib in 1705. The other four Takhts are the Akal Takht, Takht Sri Keshgarh Sahib, Takht Sri Patna Sahib and Takht Sri Hazur Sahib.
Fatehgarh Sahib is a city and a sacred pilgrimage site of Sikhism in the north west Indian state of Punjab. It is the headquarters of Fatehgarh Sahib district, located about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) north of Sirhind. Fatehgarh Sahib is named after Fateh Singh, the 7-year-old son of Guru Gobind Singh, who was seized and buried alive, along with his 9-year-old brother Zoravar Singh, by the Mughals under the orders of governor Wazir Khan during the ongoing Mughal-Sikh wars of the early 18th century. The town experienced major historical events after the martyrdom of the sons in 1705, with frequent changes of control between the Sikhs and Mughals.
Guru Nanak founded the Sikh religion in the Punjab region of the northern part of the Indian subcontinent in the 15th century and opposed many traditional practices like fasting, Upanayana, idolatry, caste system, ascetism, azan, economic materialism, and gender discrimination.
Ajit Singh, also referred to with honorifics as Sahibzada Ajit Singh or Baba Ajit Singh, was the eldest son of Guru Gobind Singh and the son of Mata Sundari. His younger brothers were Jujhar Singh, Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh, but they had been born to Mata Jito. He was killed in the Second Battle of Chamkaur along with his brother Jujhar Singh. His other two brothers, Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh, nine and seven years old, respectively, were bricked alive at Fatehgarh Sahib on order of Wazir Khan, governor of Sirhind-Fategarh.
Sirhind-Fategarh is a town and a municipal council in the Fatehgarh Sahib district in the Indian state of Punjab.
The second siege of Anandpur, also known as the second battle of Anandpur (1704), was a siege at Anandpur, between Sikhs and the Mughal governors, dispatched by Aurangzeb, Wazir Khan, Dilwaar Kahn and Zaberdast Khan, and aided by the vassal Rajas of the Sivalik Hills which lasted from May 1704 to 19 December 1704.
The Saka Sirhindor the Chhotte Sahibzada Saka refers to the killing and martyrdom (Shaheedi) of the two sons of Guru Gobind Singh, named Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh. The two Sikh children are remembered as the Chhotte Sahibzade. They are believed to have attained martyrdom on 26 December 1704 at the ages of 5(or 6) and 9 respectively. In remembrance of this occasion, the Shaheedi Jor Mela is organised annually at Fatehgarh Sahib Punjab, India, to commemorate the supreme sacrifice at the place of their martyrdom on the 24th to 26 December.
The Haveli Todar Mal popularly known as Jahaz Haveli or Jahaz Mahal is the 17th century residence (haveli) of Todar Mal, who became the diwan in the court of Nawab Wazir Khan, the Governor of Sirhind, under Mughal Empire. Today, it is remembered for the cremation of young martyred sons of Guru Gobind Singh and his mother.
Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib is a Sikh gurdwara or place of worship in the city of Fatehgarh Sahib in the Indian state of Punjab. The gurdwara marks the 1710 conquest of the city by the Sikhs under the leadership of Banda Singh Bahadur. Sikhs captured the area and razed the fort built by Ferozshah Tughlaq to the ground.
The Sikh Rule in Lahore initiated from the conquest and rule of the Sikh Misls and extended till the Sikh Empire of Ranjit Singh which ended in 1849. The Sikhs began gaining power following the decline of the Mughal Empire in Punjab and consisted of a collection of autonomous Punjabi Misls, which were governed by Misldars, mainly in the Punjab region.
Zain-ud-Din Khan known as Zain Khan Sirhindi was the Mughal Faujdar of Sirhind, a serviceman of Shah Alam II, and an ally of Najib-ud-Daula and Ahmad Shah Durrani. Zain Khan Sirhindi fought during the Third Battle of Panipat and strengthened Mughal rule in the region.
Mirza Askari, better known by his title Wazir Khan, He was the Moghul Faujdar of Sirhind region and (Deputy-Governor) Sarkar of Sirhind under Delhi Subah in the present-day state of Punjab, and administered the territory that lay between the Sutlej and Yamuna rivers, he official notable for his conflicts with the Sikhs, he was the descendent of of Persian descent who was the Courtrian to the third Moghol Emperor Akbar I court's.
Banda Singh Bahadur; born Lachman Dev;, was a Sikh warrior and a general of the Khalsa Army. At age 15, he left home to become an ascetic, and was given the name Madho Das Bairagi. He established a monastery at Nānded, on the bank of the river Godāvarī. In 1707, Guru Gobind Singh accepted an invitation to meet Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah I in southern India, he visited Banda Singh Bahadur in 1708. Banda became disciple of Guru Gobind Singh and was given a new name, Gurbaksh Singh(as written in Mahan Kosh), after the baptism ceremony. He is popularly known as Banda Singh Bahadur. He was given five arrows by the Guru as a blessing for the battles ahead. He came to Khanda, Sonipat and assembled a fighting force and led the struggle against the Mughal Empire.
The siege of Sirhind was fought between the Mughal Empire and Sikh forces in 1710. The Sikhs besieged, stormed, captured, plundered and razed the city of Sirhind after defeating and beheading Wazir Khan in the Battle of Chappar Chiri.
Ahmad Shah Durrani, the founder of the Durrani Empire, invaded Indian subcontinent a total of eight times between 1748 and 1767, following the collapse of Mughal Empire in the mid-18th century. His objectives were met through the raids and deepened the political crisis in India.
Fateh Singh was a warrior in Sikh history. He is known for beheading Wazir Khan who was the Mughal Deputy Governor of Sirhind, administering a territory of the Mughal Empire between the Sutlej and Yamuna rivers. Wazir Khan was infamous for ordering the execution of the two young sons of Guru Gobind Singh, Sahibzada Fateh Singh and Sahibzada Zorawar Singh in 1704.
Isa Khan Manj, was a Punjabi Muslim warlord from the Manj tribe of the cis-Sutlej territory in the Mughal Empire. He is credited with the killing of the Mughal prince Azam Shah during the Battle of Jajau, and for establishing an independent territory that defied Mughal authority.
And the alleged prophecy of Guru Gobind Singh, has, of late, been recently fulfilled, as a railway contractor 'appeared on the scene and carried the mass of old Sirhind as blast on which to lay the iron track'. And even to this day a pious Sikh, when travelling to the north or south of that city, may be seen pulling out a brick or two from its ruins and conveying them to the waters of the Sutlej or the Jamuna.
