Shaheedi of Bhai Mani Singh at Lahore

Who: Bhai Mani Singh, scholar and custodian of the Harimandar at Amritsar; Zakariya Khan, Mughal governor of Lahore; and his minister, Diwan Lakhpat Rai.

What: Mani Singh grew up beside Guru Gobind Singh, took the vows of the Khalsa on 30 March 1699, and was sent by the Guru to take charge of the Harimandar at Amritsar. At Talwandi Sabo (Damdama Sahib) he prepared, under the Guru's guidance, the final recension of the Guru Granth Sahib, and he is credited with compiling the Dasam Granth. After Banda Singh's death he used his influence to bring peace between the Bandai Sikhs and the Tat Khalsa.

In 1737 he asked Zakariya Khan for permission to hold the Diwali festival at Amritsar. It was granted on payment of a tax of Rs 5,000 (Rs 10,000 according to Ratan Singh Bhangu). It was a ruse: the governor sent a strong force under Lakhpat Rai to destroy the Sikhs who gathered. Mani Singh got wind of it and forbade the Sikhs, scattered in forests and deserts, to assemble. No tax could be collected, and he was prosecuted for not paying it. Asked to accept Islam or die, he chose death and was executed with his body cut apart bone by bone.

The year is disputed. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism gives 1737 in its main entry. Its entry on Seva Singh's Shahid Bilas gives 24 June 1734, but notes that this work has not won firm acceptance. Wikipedia's page gives 14 June 1738 in its summary box and 1737 elsewhere.

Where: Amritsar, where he served, and Lahore, where he was killed, in the horse market (Nakhas) that Sikhs renamed Shahid Ganj. A gurdwara stood there until Partition.

Why it mattered: Mani Singh stands for the scholarly strand of the Panth's Shaheed tradition. The Damdami Taksal's own account says the Guru told him to serve as granthi of Harmandir Sahib and to teach the meaning of gurbani, and that his state would not waver even if his body were cut joint from joint. Under Zakariya Khan the state paid ten rupees for news of a Sikh and fifty for a scalp. With Mani Singh gone, Amritsar was occupied and Masse Khan Ranghar befouled the sarovar.