Saka Chamkaur Sahib: the shaheedi of the Vadde Sahibzade, Baba Ajit Singh and Baba Jujhar Singh

Saka Chamkaur Sahib remembers the battle at Chamkaur in December 1704, in which the two elder sons of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji, Baba Ajit Singh Ji, aged about eighteen, and Baba Jujhar Singh Ji, aged about fourteen, gave their lives with a small band of Singhs against a vast Mughal army.

The flight from Anandpur

After a long siege, the Guru left Anandpur Sahib on promises of safe passage sworn on the Quran and on a cow. The promises were broken and the Sikhs were attacked as they crossed the flooded Sirsa river, where the Guru's family was scattered. The Guru, his two elder sons and about forty Singhs reached Chamkaur and took shelter in a mud fortress, a garhi, belonging to a local landowner. By morning they were surrounded.

Five at a time

With only a few arrows and swords left, the Singhs went out of the garhi in groups of five to meet the besiegers. Baba Ajit Singh Ji asked his father's permission to go, and the Guru armed him himself. He fought until he fell. Seeing this, Baba Jujhar Singh Ji, still a boy, asked to follow his brother; tradition remembers the Guru embracing him and sending him out, and watching from the garhi as he too fell. Through the day the Singhs held the army back, among them three of the Panj Pyare, Bhai Mohkam Singh Ji, Bhai Himmat Singh Ji and Bhai Sahib Singh Ji.

How the saka is remembered

Gurdwara Qatalgarh Sahib marks the place where the Sahibzade and the Singhs fell, and Gurdwara Garhi Sahib the fortress. The Shaheedi Jorh Mela at Chamkaur Sahib draws great sangats for kirtan, katha and Ardas, and many Sikh families spend these December days in simple living, sleeping on the floor and keeping from celebrations.