Son of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji; martyred at Sirhind
Sahibzada Zorawar Singh
Sahibzada Zorawar Singh was a son of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji and Mata Jito. Captured with his younger brother and grandmother after the Sarsa crossing, he refused conversion at Sirhind and was martyred there in December 1705, aged about nine. Sources differ on his age and on the date.
Sources disagree
- Chet, Sambat 1747: Macauliffe's date, following the Suraj Prakash and a Gurbilas.[Macauliffe]
Early life
Separated at the Sarsa
Mata Gujri took charge of the two boys when Anandpur was evacuated in the night of 5-6 December 1705. At the flooded Sarsa the three were separated from Guru Ji. Their cook Gangu took them to his village of Kheri, now Saheri, near Morinda. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says he was tempted by money in the saddlebag, and he betrayed them to the officials at Morinda. They were sent to Sirhind and held in the Cold Tower of the fort.[EoS][EoS][Gupta]
Before Wazir Khan
On 9 December 1705, the Encyclopaedia says, the boys were brought before Wazir Khan, the faujdar of Sirhind. He offered them riches and honours if they accepted Islam, then threatened their lives, and they refused both. Sher Muhammad Khan of Malerkotla, who had fought against Guru Ji, spoke up for the children, and they were given more time. The order to wall them up alive came on 11 December. Tradition holds that the masonry collapsed when it reached their chests. On 12 December they refused again and were martyred by the sword.
Mata Gujri, held nearby, passed away on hearing the news. Seth Todar Mall, a rich Sirhind merchant, cremated the three the following day. Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib now marks the place, and a fair is held there every December.[EoS][EoS][EoS]
Two names, two stories
Macauliffe tells a different story of him. He makes Zorawar Singh the second son, born in Chet, Sambat 1747, and has him fall at Chamkaur, while Jujhar Singh and Fateh Singh go to Sirhind. Sainapati has a Zorawar Singh escape through the enemy at Chamkaur. The translator of Sri Gur Sobha takes that man to be another youth of the same name, raised in Guru Ji's household, and says the mix-up passed into later writers. Sainapati also gives Jujhar Singh's name in his two brief lines about Sirhind.[Macauliffe][Src]
What the sources disagree on
- His age
The Encyclopaedia makes him nine, from its birth date of November 1696. Gupta says eight. Macauliffe's boys at Sirhind are nine and seven, but his elder boy is Jujhar Singh.[EoS][EoS][Gupta][Macauliffe]
- Date of the martyrdom
Most of the Encyclopaedia's entries give 12 December 1705, and its entry on Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji gives 13 December. Macauliffe gives 13 Poh, Sambat 1762, and Gupta gives 27 December 1704. Commemoration follows the Bikrami month of Poh and falls in late December.[EoS][EoS][Macauliffe][Gupta][EoS]
- How they were martyred
Macauliffe reports a general Sikh belief that the children were walled up and left to die, against the Suraj Prakash and a Gurbilas, which both say the sword. The Encyclopaedia and Gupta describe the wall being raised and then the sword. Macauliffe has the brothers contending for who should go first.[Macauliffe][EoS][EoS][Gupta]
- How many were captured
The letter in the Ahkam-i-Alamgiri speaks of the capture of Guru Ji's mother and one son. Sikh sources speak of two boys.[EoS]