Khusrau, Jahangir and the martyrdom
Chandu Shah in the Sikh accounts
Sikh chronicles blame a slighted Khatri official whose offer of his daughter for marriage had been refused.
The chronicles, as the Encyclopaedia and Macauliffe tell it, say that Chandu Shah, a wealthy Lahore banker and revenue official, was looking for a husband for his daughter. A family priest proposed young Sri Guru Hargobind Ji. Chandu agreed, but said Guru Ji's house was beneath his own. Macauliffe's version has him compare his own house to an upper storey and Guru Ji's to a gutter.
Word of this reached the sangat in Delhi. They asked Guru Ji to refuse the match, and he did. Chandu became his enemy, and when Jahangir arrived in Lahore he used his chance. In this account Chandu takes over the sentence from Murtaza Khan and oversees the tortures personally. Macauliffe has him still pressing for the marriage at the end.
How do we know?
The sources conflict on this story, or scholars doubt it.
No outside source read for this page names Chandu. The Encyclopaedia's own entries differ in weight: the Chandu Shah entry follows the chronicles, while the life of Guru Ji plays down his role.
- ScholarshipGives the marriage insult, the refusal and his alleged role in the torture, attributing the last to Sikh chronicles.[EoS]
- Later traditionTells the marriage negotiations at length and has Chandu as Guru Ji's keeper.[Macauliffe]
- ScholarshipCalls him a Hindu Khatri official but judges that he hardly had the influence to cause the death, and puts the cause on the emperor.[EoS]
- From the timeDoes not name Chandu; hands the houses and children to Murtaza Khan. (pp. 72-73)[Src]
