Baba Gurbakhsh Singh Ji: thirty Singhs against Abdali at Sri Harmandir Sahib

This day remembers Baba Gurbakhsh Singh Ji and about thirty Singhs who stayed at Amritsar in December 1764 to defend Sri Harmandir Sahib against the army of Ahmad Shah Abdali, knowing they could not win, and fell to the last man.

A Nihang of the Shaheedan Misl

Baba Gurbakhsh Singh Ji was born in 1688 at Lil, near Khem Karan, and is remembered as having taken Amrit as a young man, by many accounts from Bhai Mani Singh Ji. He spent his life in the service of the Panth and of Sri Harmandir Sahib, and was a Nihang of the Shaheedan Misl, the band once led by Baba Deep Singh Ji.

The seventh invasion

In the winter of 1764 Ahmad Shah Abdali crossed into Punjab on his seventh invasion and marched on Amritsar. Most of the Khalsa forces were away, and the Sikhs in the city were few. Baba Gurbakhsh Singh Ji, then in his seventies, chose to stay and defend the Guru's house. He and about thirty companions prepared themselves, did Ardas, and waited at the complex as the invading army approached.

The last stand

When the army of thousands reached the precincts, the Singhs came out to meet it at the gates and fought until every one of them fell. The Persian chronicler Qazi Nur Muhammad, who travelled with Abdali's army, wrote of the few Sikhs who came out to face it, with no fear of death. Abdali's forces then demolished Sri Harmandir Sahib, which the Khalsa rebuilt soon after.

How the day is remembered

Gurdwara Shaheed Ganj Baba Gurbakhsh Singh Ji, behind Sri Akal Takht Sahib, marks the place where they were cremated, and sangats remember them there with kirtan and Ardas.