Wife of Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, mother of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji

Mata Gujri

ਮਾਤਾ ਗੁਜਰੀMātā Gujrīalso Gujari

Married to Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji on 4 February 1633, she shared his twenty years of retirement at Bakala, raised their son alone at Patna for five years, managed the household at Anandpur through the sieges, and passed away in the governor's custody at Sirhind on the day her two young grandsons were martyred.

Wikidata Q67858741624–1705

Born

1624[EoS]

Kartarpur (Jalandhar)

Passed away

12 December 1705[EoS][EoS]

Sirhind

Sources disagree

13 December 1705: The Encyclopaedia's entry on Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji gives this date; its entries on the two boys and on Mata Gujri give 12 December.[EoS]
Late December: Sikhs commemorate these events in the last week of December, on 11-13 Poh in the Bikrami calendar.[EoS]

Life

Gujri was born at Kartarpur in the Jalandhar Doab around 1624, the daughter of Lal Chand, a Subhikkhi Khatri. She married Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji on 4 February 1633, when both were children by modern reckoning, and moved with him and his mother to Bakala after Sri Guru Hargobind Ji's passing in 1644. The couple were childless for over thirty years.

In 1665 she accompanied Guru Ji on his eastern tour and was left at Patna, where her son Gobind was born in December 1666. She raised him there with her brother Kirpal until the family reunited at Anandpur in 1672. After her husband's martyrdom in 1675 she was the senior figure of a household headed by a nine-year-old.

In the evacuation of Anandpur in December 1705 she was separated from Guru Ji at the Sarsa crossing with her two youngest grandsons, Zorawar aged nine and Fateh aged six. Betrayed, by the tradition, by a former servant, they were taken to Sirhind and held in a cold tower. The boys were martyred in December 1705 after refusing conversion, and she passed away the same day. A Sikh merchant, Todar Mal, bought the ground for the cremation at a price in gold coins laid edge to edge. Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib marks the site.[EoS][EoS][EoS][EoS]

Images

A letter issued in the name of Mata Gujri, reproduced in a 1967 book by Trilochan Singh. Mann (2008) also notes a hukamnama under her name. Its date is not given exactly.
Mata Gujri and her officiated scribe, 17th or early 18th century. Public domain. Source

Family

See the full Sodhi family tree →

6Sri Guru Hargobind Ji1595–1644[EoS]

Married Mata Damodari 1597–1631[EoS]

Married Mata Maha Devi d. 1645. Also called Marvahi.[EoS]

Married Mata Nanaki d. 1678[EoS]

Baba Gurditta1613–1638[EoS][EoS]
Mother: Mata Damodari
Married Ananti. Also called Natti. Daughter of Bhai Rama of Batala.[EoS]
Eldest son and founder of Kiratpur. Baba Sri Chand named him head of the Udasi order. He passed away before his father.
2 children in the full tree
Bibi Virob. 1615[EoS]
Mother: Mata Damodari
Married Bhai Sadhu in 1629. All five of her sons fought at Bhangani in 1688, and two of them, Sango Shah and Jit Mall, attained martyrdom there.
Ani Rai[EoS]
Mother: Mata Damodari
Suraj Mallb. 1617[EoS]
Mother: Mata Maha Devi
1 child in the full tree
Baba Atal Rai1619–1628[EoS][EoS]
Mother: sources disagree
Died aged nine. The Encyclopaedia contradicts itself on his mother: its entry on him names Mata Nanaki, and its entry on Sri Guru Hargobind Ji names Mata Marvahi.
9Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji1621–1675[EoS]
Mother: Mata Nanaki
Married Mata Gujri 1624–1705. Daughter of Lal Chand Subhikkhi and Bishan Kaur. Married 4 February 1633. Her brother Kirpal Chand looked after the family at Patna.[EoS][EoS]
1 child in the full tree