Mata Sahib Kaur Ji: the Mother of the Khalsa

This day celebrates the birth of Mata Sahib Kaur Ji, whom Sikhs honour as the Mother of the Khalsa. Every Sikh who takes Amrit is told that their spiritual father is Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji, their mother Mata Sahib Kaur Ji, and their home Anandpur Sahib.

Sahib Devan of Rohtas

She was born Sahib Devan in 1681 at Rohtas, in the Jhelum district of today's Pakistan, to a devout Sikh family. Her parents offered her in marriage to Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji, and she came to Anandpur Sahib and lived in the Guru's household. Tradition holds that she had no children of her own and that the Guru told her the Khalsa would be her children.

The sweetness in the Amrit

Sikh tradition remembers that on Vaisakhi in 1699, as the Guru prepared the first Amrit, stirring water in an iron bowl with a double-edged sword, Mata Sahib Kaur Ji came forward and added patashas, sugar crystals, to the water, so that the strength of the steel would be joined by sweetness. It is for this that she is honoured as the Mother of the Khalsa.

Leading the Panth

She stayed beside the Guru through the hardest years and travelled with him to the Deccan. After his passing she lived in Delhi with Mata Sundari Ji, and the two Matas guided the Panth for decades, issuing hukamnamas to the sangats under their seals and keeping the community together in years of persecution. She passed away in Delhi in 1747, and Gurdwara Bala Sahib holds her memorial.

How the day is observed

Sangats remember her with kirtan and Ardas, and many gurdwaras hold programmes led by women of the sangat, honouring her place in the Panth.