Shaheedi Purab of Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji: the first Sikh martyr and the chhabeel

The Shaheedi Purab of Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji remembers the martyrdom of the fifth Sikh Guru in Lahore in 1606. He was the first of the Gurus to give his life, and his shaheedi shaped everything that followed in Sikh history.

Why the Guru was arrested

By 1606 the Sikh community had grown into a strong and organised body around Sri Harmandir Sahib and the Adi Granth, and the Guru's teaching drew people of every faith. The emperor Jahangir, newly on the throne, wrote in his own memoirs that he had long wished to put an end to the Guru's influence. When his rebel son Khusrau passed through Punjab and was received at the Guru's court, Jahangir had the pretext he needed. The Guru was summoned to Lahore, fined heavily and asked to remove passages from the Granth; he refused both.

The torture in Lahore

Over several days in the summer heat, the Guru was made to sit on a red-hot iron plate while burning sand was poured over him, and was boiled in a cauldron. Tradition remembers that the Muslim saint Mian Mir, who had laid the foundation stone of Sri Harmandir Sahib, offered to intervene, and the Guru asked him not to, accepting the Divine Will as sweet. He was then taken to the river Ravi, where his body disappeared into the water. Gurdwara Dera Sahib now stands at the place, beside the Lahore Fort.

The chhabeel

Because the Guru was tortured in the burning heat of summer, Sikhs mark the day by setting up chhabeels along roads and outside gurdwaras, serving cold sweetened water and milk to every passer-by, whatever their faith. Gurdwaras hold Akhand Paath and kirtan, and many sangats recite Sukhmani Sahib, the Guru's own bani of peace.