Parivar Vichhora: the separation of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji's family at the Sirsa

Parivar Vichhora, the separation of the family, remembers what happened on the bank of the Sirsa river in December 1704, a few hours after Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji left Anandpur Sahib. In the dark and the flood, the Guru's family was scattered, and most of them never saw each other again.

The attack at the river

The oaths of safe passage were broken almost at once. As the Guru's party reached the Sirsa, a stream swollen into a torrent by winter rain, the besieging armies attacked. Many Sikhs held back the attackers so that the others could cross, and many were swept away in the current. Precious manuscripts, among them much of the Guru's own writing, were lost in the water. Tradition remembers that the Guru held the morning Asa di Vaar kirtan on the bank even as the battle went on.

Three ways

In the confusion the family was split into three. The Guru, his two elder sons, Baba Ajit Singh Ji and Baba Jujhar Singh Ji, and about forty Singhs crossed and rode towards Chamkaur. Mata Gujri Ji and the two youngest, Baba Zorawar Singh Ji and Baba Fateh Singh Ji, were carried downstream and taken in by their former cook, Gangu, who betrayed them at Sirhind. Mata Sundari Ji and Mata Sahib Kaur Ji were escorted to Delhi by Bhai Mani Singh Ji. Within a week the elder sons fell at Chamkaur and the younger were martyred at Sirhind.

How the day is observed

Gurdwara Parivar Vichhora stands on the bank of the Sirsa, near Ropar, and sangats gather there for kirtan and Ardas. Read on: the Saka of Chamkaur Sahib and the Saka of Sirhind.