Banda Singh Bahadur

Banda Singh Bahadur, commonly called Banda Bahadur
Birth: October 1670 A.D. at Rajauri, in Kashmir
Father: Baba Namdev (Not Bhagat Namdev)

Original name of Banda Bahadur was Lachhman Das. He did not get much of education, but was an expert horse rider and hunter. He was a Rajput cultivator.

He killed a female dear and when dying, she gave birth to a doe. Deeply hurt, Lachhman Das gave up hunting, and became a Bairagi Sadhu, detached saint with a new name of Madho Das. After some time, he went to Nander in Maharashtra, India and settled there. Hazoor Sahib is at that place.

Guru Gobind Singh visited Madho Das and subdued him by making him powerless to harm him with his supernatural capabilities. Madho Das took Amrit and became Banda Singh Bahadur. Guru ji assigned to Banda Singh Bahadur the duty to lead and organize Sikhs to eradicate injustice, slavery and cruelty. He became very powerful and after winning fights continuously, brought a large area of the Punjab under his control. In one of the bloody fights he destroyed Sarhind, where Nawab Wazir Khan had murdered two younger Sahibzade of Guru Gobind Singh. Banda Singh Bahadur made Sikhs very well organized and powerful. He stamped his own coins, his followers and fans are called Bande Sikhs – the followers of Banda Singh Bahadur.

Fearing the spreading power of Sikhs, Bahadur Shah, the king of the time issued very strong orders to destroy Sikhs. After his death Farakhsear, grandson of Bahadur Shah, became a King.
On the order of Farakhsear, Banda Singh Bahadur was chased and surrounded in the village of Sandhaura. He escaped to the mountains. After some time, he started attacking towns in the Punjab. Banda Singh Bahadur and his fighters, bravely fighting the collective forces of Abdulsamad Khan, Nawab of Lahore, and of Arif Khan, supplemented by others, retreated to Gurdas Nangal near Batala, in District Gurdaspur, Punjab.

Gurdas Nangal was sieged by the force of 24,000 soldiers. Sikhs continued Guerrilla warfare from inside the village. In eight months, the surrounded Sikhs became skeletons due to lack of food. Banda Singh Bahadur and his companions were inside a fortress in the village. Abdulsamad Khan promised not to harm any Sikh if the door of the fortress was opened. On December 7, 1715 A.D. on opening the door, the enemy forces killed 300 debilitated Sikhs, arrested Banda Singh Bahadur, and took him to Lahore with his two hundred companions.

Zakria Khan took Banda Singh Bahadur with 500 Sikhs and heads of 2000 more to Delhi. All of them were gradually put to death. By June 19, 1716 A.D. all of them were killed. Banda Singh Bahadur, was done to pieces in a very severe and inhuman torture.