The battles of the 1630s
The battle at Lahira, near Mehraj
In the Malwa, a Mughal force under Lalla Beg is defeated, and the fallen are given Muslim and Sikh rites.
The Encyclopaedia says Guru Ji had sent the family and the Granth to Kartarpur from Daroli and was travelling in the Malwa when a Mughal force led by Lalla Beg came against him. He took up a position around a pool south of Mehraj. The Sikhs, heavily outnumbered, won the fight and Lalla Beg was killed.
Guru Ji had the Mughal dead buried in Muslim fashion and cremated the fallen Sikhs, and a tower marks the place. Bhai Jetha, one of the five who had gone with Sri Guru Arjun Dev Ji to Lahore, fell here, a grey-bearded veteran. The yogi Kalu Nath of Nathana is said to have fed the Sikhs during the fighting.
How do we know?
Several traditional accounts tell this story, without close independent support.
This battle is not named in the passage read from the Dabistan, though it speaks of several large armies. It says generally that Guru Ji escaped them with the loss of what he owned, which is a more modest picture than the chronicles' string of victories.
- ScholarshipGives the date, Lalla Beg, the pool and the rites for the fallen.[EoS]
- ScholarshipSays Bhai Jetha fell at Mehraj on this date, as an old man in the Suraj Prakash.[EoS]
- ScholarshipSays Kalu Nath of Nathana supplied food and milk to the Sikhs during the battle.[EoS]
- Later traditionHas Guru Ji and Lala Beg fight in single combat.[Macauliffe]
