Lohgarh - Khalsa Rajdhani, Lohgarh fort - Lohgarh Trust, S. Daljeet Singh Bajwa [early reader books .txt] 📗

According to Muhammed Qasim Aurangabadi2 two thousand Sikhs were killed and a few hundred were captured too; two thousands heads of the dead Sikhs were severed and dispatched for exhibition before the Emperor. About one thousand Sikhs, who had been arrested there or elsewhere, were handcuffed and chained. They too were taken to Delhi to be paraded before the Emperor.3

Now, as Banda Singh had shut himself in the Fortress of Gurdas Nangal; and thousands of troops, led by Abdus Samad Khan, had surrounded the Fortress from all sides. On the 30th of March 1715, the Emperor sent his messenger to Azz Khan, the deputy Governor of Sarhind, asking him to march towards Gurdas Nangal to help Abdus Samad Khan. In the meanwhile, the Emperor got the news that Daulat Khan Muin (of Sultanpur) too had already reached Goindwal on the 20th of March, along with his 500 soldiers and had taken control of the shores of the river Beas; the Emperor assigned his duty to stop and arrest/kill the Sikhs if they tried to escape through that side.4

On the 10th of April 1715, the Emperor got (wrong) news from Jammu that Banda Singh and his wife and son had been arrested; in fact, the truth was that they were among those who had been surrounded by the Mughal army at Gurdas Nangal.5

By this time, Abdus Samad Khan too had returned to Lahore. When he came to know that the Muslim armies had surrounded Banda Singh at Gurdas Nangal, he did not rest and reached Gurdaspur with twelve thousand cavalry, and the same number of foot-soldiers and a very large number of cannons. He covered this distance of 40 kos (about 125 kilometres) within three days. In between, he attacked Batala and Kalanaur and freed these towns from the Sikhs. On all these fronts, he had to face tough fighting by the Sikhs. The Sikhs fought with arrows and matchlocks.6

By this time, the number of the Mughal army surrounding Gurdas Nangal had grown to more than fifty thousand. Abdus Samad Khan himself was commanding this huge Mughal army. Saif-ud-Din Ahmed Khan (Faujdar of Gujrat), Iradatmand Khan (Faujdar of Eimanabad), Nur Mohammed Khan (Faujdar of Aurangabad and Pasrur), Sheikh

 

 

Mohammed Dayam (Faujdar of Batala), Sohrab Khan (Faujdar of Kalanaur), Hamir Chand Katoch (Raja of Kangra), Hari Dev (son of Raja Dharuv Dev Jasrotia) and Arif Begh (deputy chief of Lahore) too had joined Abdus Samad Khan. The Mughals had dug trenches all around the Fortress of Gurdas Nangal.7

On the north side of the Fortress Zakaria Khan (then Governor Jammu) and Zain-ud-Din Ahmed Khan (Governor Sarhind) were leading operations, and, on the south side the command was with the Faujdars of Patti, Eimanabad, Batala, Kalanaur, Aurangabad-Pasrur, Gujrat as well as the Rajput rulers of Kangra and Jasrota. 8

The number of the Mughal and Hindu hill soldiers was more than fifty times than that of the Sikhs in the Fortress; the Sikhs were fighting the battle for survival; they did not have any food inside the Fortress. For a few days, some of them would come out of the Fortress and fall upon the nearby villages in order to plunder food and cattle. In the second week of April 1715, some Mughal units proceeded forward to stop the Sikhs from coming out of the Fortress so that they (Sikhs) should not be able to get food; this resulted in losses on both the sides. Several Sikhs and Mughal soldiers were killed in these skirmishes. One day, when a Sikh group came out of the Fortress to fetch wood for fuel, the army of Dharuv Dev Jasrotia attacked them; as a result, most of the Sikhs were killed and the rest ran to the Fortress to save their lives. Now, this side too was blocked; the Mughal gun and arrow-shooting experts were stationed all around the Fortress and if any Sikh tried to come out of the Fortress to fetch food or anything else, he would become a victim of these arrows and the gun shots. Several attempts were made by the Sikhs and hundreds of them were killed.

But, in spite of being a mammoth force, the Mughal army did not try to enter the Fortress. In fact they were afraid that the Sikhs had several guns and cannons, and, in the early days of the siege of the Fortress, they had also collected a lot of iron from the nearby villages (for making guns). The Mughals got the news that the Sikhs had made three new cannons with this iron and also had a large amount of gun- powder. Abdus Samad Khan reported all this to the Emperor; the

 

 

Emperor got this news on 23 April 1715. On 28 April, the Emperor received a request from Abdus Samad Khan asking for a big cannon to blow up the walls of Gurdas Nangal; the Emperor immediately ordered despatch of a very powerful cannon.9

More than one month and a half had passed but the Sikhs did not surrender nor did they make any attempt to flee from the Fortress. On the 14th of May, the Emperor asked Issa Khan Manjh (chief of Lakkhi Jungle) also to lead his army to Gurdas Nangal. On the 21st of May the Emperor asked Safvi Khan to issue orders to all the mansabdars and jagirdars of the Lahore province to join Abdus Samad Khan along with their soldiers; and that properties of those who do not abide would be confiscated.10 There was not even a single person whom the Emperor did not issue orders to join the campaign against the Sikhs; by the end of May, 24 thousand soldiers of Abdus Samad Khan, 5 thousand soldiers from Sarhind, 10 thousand soldiers from Lahore, 5 thousand soldiers from Jammu and about 20 thousand soldiers of the Faujdars of different areas of the Punjab as well several mansabdars and jagirdars had put a siege to Gurdas Nangal. On the other hand, thousands of soldiers, led by Qamar-ud-Din, were also ready to leave Delhi for Gurdas Nangal within a few days.

Now, the Mughal army engaged one thousand wood cutters and an equal number of carpenters to clear the jungle around the Fortress. A very large number of trees were cut down. Two thousand carts pulled by camels were brought to remove the wood. When all the area around the Fortress was cleared of all the vegetation etc, the Mughal army dug trenches all around the Fortress so that the Sikhs should not escape.11 It was now the middle of June and the Sikhs had been inside the Fortress for the past two months and a half. Mohammed Qasim, the writer of Ibratnama, who was present in the camp of Arif Begh Khan (the deputy Governor of Lahore), writes: “The Sikhs in groups of 40s and 50s would come out of the Fortress with the purpose of getting food and water for themselves as well as for their horses. The Mughal soldiers would try to stop them, but the firing of guns as well as arrows shot from inside the Fortress would kill a large number of Mughal soldiers.

 

 

Those Mughal soldiers who succeeded in reaching near the Sikhs were cut by their swords.” Mohammed Qasim further writes that the Mughal soldiers used to make prayer saying: “O Allah! Let Banda Singh somehow escape from here, so that we may be able to save our lives.” 12

Khafi Khan refers to the awe and fear among the Mughal soldiers, writes: “When some cat or dog would come out of the Fortress, the royal persons would kill it with an arrow or gun fearing that this might be some act of magic.” (The Mughals feared that, as Banda Singh knew magic, he might have disguised himself as a cat or dog).

When the news of the prolonged siege reached Delhi, the Emperor wrote an angry letter to Abdus Samad Khan for not being able to capture Banda Singh even after a siege of more than two months; he ordered Qamar-ud-Din to immediately lead his forces to Gurdas Nangal. Within a few days he (Qamar-ud-Din) reached there and established his camp on the eastern side of the Fortress.

Now, the Sikhs were in a major crisis; due to such a big force surrounding them, they became helpless and hopeless too; they were not able to come out of the Fortress even to get food or water for themselves and fodder for their horses; and, whenever they tried to come out, they would come under the attack of the guns and arrows; most of them would die and the rest had to run into the Fortress for their safety. A couple of hundred Sikhs died during these attempts too. Now, their number inside the Fortress was not more than five hundred. In the first week of June 1715, Abdus Samad Khan announced that whosoever brought the head of a Sikh would get ten rupees (it was two month’s and a half salary of a soldier); this encouraged some Mughal soldiers to try their luck; they began taking risks and a few of them

succeeded too while others lost their lives.

On 3 July, the Emperor was told that most of the Vanjaras, 13who were Nanak-worshipper (i.e. Sikhs), were staying in the territory of Raja Daya Dhamma14 and Raja Heer Chand15 (i.e. Kangra and Nurpur areas. They acted as spies of Banda Singh. They provided the rebels with food- grain, arrows and rifles. The Emperor was requested to issue orders to the hill rulers asking them not to allow Vanjaras in their territories. If

 

 

captured, they should be punished. In this way the movement of the rebels and the food-grain for them would be restricted.16

During this expedition against Banda Singh, Hamir Chand Kamboj (Katoch), the Daya Dhamma (Nurpur), Ram Singh Jamwal, Deb Chand Dehnuval had come to Abdus Samad Khan along with their armies, and participated in expeditions against Banda Singh. Similarly, Udey Singh (Sibia) and Dalip Singh (Loka) had sent their armies, led by their army chiefs. But, Madha Sen (Mandi), Man Singh (Kullu) and Heeraj Pal17 (Malabar) neither joined the expedition against Banda Singh, nor did they send their armies. These three were friendly to Banda Singh. The Emperor asked Itmad-Ul-Daula (Bakhshi ul Mulk) to write to the Governor of Lahore to take action against them.18

Banda Singh and the Sikhs Inside the Fortress: In July 1715, the monsoon stopped major action by the Mughals, but they did not lift their siege. On the other hand, the Sikhs too did not try to avail of the rainy season for trying to make any attempt to escape by breaking the siege. Though the number of the Mughal soldiers was very high there was the possibility of escape by some Sikhs; the Sikhs did nothing but and remained inactive during the whole Chumasa (four months), i.e. first extreme heat and then the rains, whereas they knew that they wouldn’t be able to get food and even water, and, there was no possibility of the lifting of the siege.

Inside the Fortress, as the Sikhs did not have food, they ate all the grass and even dry leaves of the trees. Several of them became victims of loose motions and other diseases. Some Sikhs crushed the stems of the trees into powder and cooked it for food; some had cut the flesh from their thighs and cooked it in order to save themselves from starvation.

The Sikhs did not try to break the siege even when winter began. They had two options: 1. Try to break the siege and embrace martyrdom and possibly escape of a few of them; or 2. Remain inside the Fortress, die of hunger or get captured and then face death. Thus, Banda Singh simply waited for eight full months and finally the day came when the calamity was to happen.

 

 

Capture of Banda Singh and