Led the forty at Muktsar in 1705; later a bodyguard of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji
Mai Bhago
A Jat woman from Jhabal near Amritsar who shamed forty Sikhs of the Majha who had deserted the besieged Guru at Anandpur into returning, led them into the fight at Khidrana in December 1705, and was the only one of the party to survive. She stayed with Guru Ji as a guard until his passing and lived out her life in the Deccan.
Life
Bhag Bhari was born at Jhabal in the Majha into a family of Sikhs since the time of Sri Guru Arjun Dev Ji; her grandfather had been a follower of the fifth Guru. She married Nidhan Singh of Patti. Her dates of birth and death are not recorded.
When forty men of the Majha, worn down by the siege of Anandpur in 1705, signed a disclaimer renouncing Guru Ji and went home, the women of their villages, Bhago among them, refused to let the matter rest. She rode out with the men to find Guru Ji, now hunted across the Malwa, and the party met the pursuing Mughal force at the pool of Khidrana on 29 December 1705. The forty attained martyrdom holding the ground; Guru Ji, arriving, tore up their disclaimer and named the place Muktsar.
Bhago was found wounded among the dead. She recovered, stayed with Guru Ji's party in men's dress as one of his armed attendants, went south with him to Nanded in 1708, and after his passing settled at Janvada near Bidar, where a gurdwara preserves her memory. A spear said to be hers is kept at Hazur Sahib.[EoS][EoS]
What the sources disagree on
- Dates
No date of birth or death is recorded in the Encyclopaedia, so this page gives none.[EoS]
Images
Mai Bhago in the battle of Muktsar, a detail from a late 1800s painting. An artist's imagining, made long after the event.
Unknown, Late 19th century. Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh (as credited on Commons). Public domain. Source
