The martyrdom
Saving the head and the body
Bhai Jaita carried the head to Anandpur, and Lakkhi Shah burned his own house to cremate the body.
The sources say the body was left lying in Chandni Chowk, and no one dared claim it. Then a dust storm blew up. Bhai Jaita, who had come to Delhi for news of a family friend, seized the moment, lifted the head and escaped, walking as fast as he could to Anandpur. There the young Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji performed the rites on 16 November and honoured him with words still remembered: the Ranghreta is Guru Ji's own son.
At nightfall, or under cover of the same storm by another telling, Lakkhi Shah passed by with his carts, a trader's convoy, and with his son and Bhai Dhuma lifted the body into one. An open cremation would have drawn attention, so at his home in Raisina he set fire to the house with the body inside. Gurdwara Rakab Ganj stands there now.
How do we know?
Several traditional accounts tell this story, without close independent support.
The Encyclopaedia's Chamkaur entry says Bhai Jaita reached Kiratpur, while other entries say Anandpur. Its Jiwan Singh and Chamkaur entries also describe his later death differently. Gurdwara Sis Ganj at Delhi and Sis Ganj at Anandpur mark the beheading and the cremation of the head.
- Later traditionSays Bhai Jaita, of the scavenger caste, slipped past the guards with the head and was greeted as Guru Ji's own son.[EoS]
- Later traditionSays Lakkhi Shah, his son Nagahia and Bhai Dhuma took the trunk in a cart to Raisina under cover of a dust storm.[EoS]
- Later traditionGives the rites for the head at Anandpur on 16 November 1675, and notes the cremation site is now Gurdwara Rakab Ganj.[EoS]
- Later traditionTells of the storm that filled every eye with dust so that the Sikh could leave unseen. (p. 387)[Macauliffe]
