Battle of Muktsar and the Forty Muktas

Who: Forty Sikhs from the Majha who had left Guru Gobind Singh during the siege of Anandpur Sahib, Mai Bhago of Jhabal, who led them back, Guru Gobind Singh, and the imperial force pursuing him.

What: Worn down by the long siege, the Forty had signed a written disclaimer renouncing their allegiance, and gone home. In 1705 Mai Bhago learned that Sikhs from her area had left the Guru and set off with them to find him; the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says she persuaded them to repent. At Khidrana the Forty took positions in a thicket of van trees and kanr bushes beside the pool, then the only reservoir for miles. They covered the bushes with sheets so that they looked like tents, fired a volley and charged. They fell to the last man, but they forced the Mughal force to retreat. The Guru, with Malwa Sikhs, shot arrows from a sandy mound about 1.5 km away, then came down to the field, blessed the fallen and praised the Majha contingent. The one wounded Sikh found alive on the field, called Mahari Singh in the Encyclopaedia's Muktsar entry and Mahan Singh in its Mai Bhago entry, was dying; the Muktsar entry says he asked that the disclaimer be cancelled. The Guru tore it up and called the dead the Forty Muktas, the Forty Liberated Ones, and the pool came to be called Muktsar, the Pool of Liberation. Mai Bhago, badly wounded, was the only survivor of the battle. She stayed with the Guru as a bodyguard in male dress and, after 1708, settled at Jinwara near Bidar in Karnataka. The Bhatt Vahis, the genealogists' registers, date the battle to 29 December 1705.

Where: Khidrana, now Muktsar, Punjab. Five gurdwaras mark the battle, among them Tibbi Sahib on the mound and Shahidganj, where the Forty were cremated.

Why it mattered: The Forty are remembered as Sikhs who came back, were forgiven and gave their lives for the Guru. Each year the Maghi fair is held at Muktsar in mid-January, and large numbers bathe in the pool. The shrines passed to the SGPC in February 1923. After the battle the Guru went on to Talwandi Sabo, now Damdama Sahib, where he arrived on 20 January 1706.

Dating: The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, citing the Bhatt Vahis, gives 29 December 1705, three weeks after Chamkaur in its chronology. This entry follows it, as do the entries on the evacuation of Anandpur, Chamkaur and Sirhind.