Evacuation of Sri Anandpur Sahib

Who: Guru Gobind Singh, his family and the Sikhs inside Anandpur. The Rajas of the Shivalik hill states, led by the Raja of Bilaspur (Kahlur). Mughal forces sent by the governor of Lahore and the faujdar of Sirhind on the orders of Emperor Aurangzeb. With the Guru were his mother, Mata Gujri, his elder sons Ajit Singh and Jujhar Singh and his younger sons Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh.

What: After the Khalsa was created in 1699 the hill chiefs tried again and again to drive the Guru from Anandpur and failed. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says they then petitioned Aurangzeb, who ordered his officers to act with them. A combined force besieged the town from May. The Sikhs held out for months although food ran short. The besiegers were also worn down, and offered the Guru and his Sikhs safe exit on solemn oath if they left. The Guru left in the night of 5-6 December. Once the Sikhs were outside, the hill chiefs and their Mughal allies attacked. In the confusion many Sikhs were killed and all the baggage, including most of the precious manuscripts, was lost. According to Wikipedia's account, the attack came as the column crossed the Sarsa river. The Guru reached Chamkaur with about 40 Sikhs and his two elder sons. Mata Gujri and the younger sons were separated from him. Bhai Mani Singh took Mata Sundari and Mata Sahib Devan to Delhi, and Gurbakhsh, an Udasi Sikh, stayed behind to look after the sangat and the shrines.

Where: Anandpur, in the Shivalik foothills of Punjab, a town ringed by forts, among them Kesgarh, Anandgarh and Lohgarh, which the Guru had built.

The year: Sources disagree. The Encyclopaedia dates the siege to May 1705 and the night of departure to 5-6 December 1705, and this entry follows it, as do the entries on Chamkaur, Sirhind and Muktsar. Other modern works, as summarised on Wikipedia (citing H. S. Singha and Hari Ram Gupta), give 1704.

Why it mattered: The Guru's later letter to Aurangzeb, the Zafarnamah, charges the emperor and his commanders with breaking their oath and attacking treacherously after he left the fort. Within days his two elder sons fell at Chamkaur and his two younger sons and his mother were taken at Sirhind, events told in their own entries.