Fatehgarh Sahib, Fatehgarh Sahib

History

The city is a historically important settlement 40 kilometres (25 mi) north of the city of Patiala. It is a major pilgrimage center in Sikhism. The Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib is the major landmark in the town. It marks the location where two youngest sons of Guru Gobind Singh Ji – 7 year old Fateh Singh and 9 year old Zorawar Singh – were betrayed by their cook and servant Gangu to the Mughal army, seized, asked to convert to Islam and when they refused they were buried alive under the orders of Wazir Khan. Their martyrdom on 9 December 1705 has been remembered by the Sikhs by naming the site as Fatehgarh after the youngest boy killed, and by building a large Gurdwara in 1843. The town is also the location where the Sikhs took revenge by capturing it from Wazir Khan in 1710 and killing him. However, the Sikh militia was defeated again few years later and the town remained in the control of Muslim rulers, including later an appointee of Ahmed Shah Durrani till 1764, when Khalsa recaptured it by defeating and killing the appointee Zain Khan. The town is home to major Sikh Gurdwaras: Bhora Sahib: the underground location within Fatehgarh Sahib Gurdwara where the two sons were buried alive. This monument was built by Karam Singh of Patiala in early 19th-century. Fatehgarh Sahib Gurdwara: the main Sikh temple in the town, in whose basement is Bhora Sahib. The Gurdwara stands on a high point of the town, has an Indo-Islamic architecture with a square plan, a ribbed lotus dome and cusped arches. The floor is made of marble and is decorated with a mosaic. It is three storeyed consisting of a basement, a central pavilion and dome level above. The basement has a copy of the Sikh scripture, Khalsa swords, dagger and other holy historic relics. It is marked with silence, usually with visitors as well as pilgrims seated and praying. The upper level with the central pavilion also houses the Guru Granth Sahib and features kirtan singing. The upper levels and domes were added by Yadavinder Singh in 1955, after India gained its independence from the colonial British Empire. Gurdwara Jyoti Sarup lies about 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) southeast from Fatehgarh Sahib on the Sirhind-Chandigarh road. At this place, Mata Gujri – the mother of Guru Gobind Singh, and her two youngest grandchildren, Fateh Singh and Zorawar Singh were cremated. Gurdwara Bimangarh is close to the Fatehgarh Sahib Gurdwara. It is a location where the dead bodies of the two children and their grandmother was kept for the night before the cremation. Banda Bahadur platform is believed in the Sikh tradition as the place where 6,000 Sikhs died fighting the Muslim army in the Battle of Chapparchiri.