Baba Banda Singh Bahadur

Banda Singh Bahadur was born Lachhman Dev on 27 October 1670 at Rajauri, in the Poonch district of Kashmir, the son of a ploughman. At about fifteen he left home as an ascetic and became known as Madho Das. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says he later learnt yoga and set up a monastery at Nanded, on the Godavari.

On 3 September 1708 Guru Gobind Singh came to that monastery. Madho Das called himself the Guru's banda, his slave, took the vows of the Khalsa and was named Banda Singh. The Guru gave him a drum, a banner and five arrows as emblems of authority. SikhNet says the Guru sent him to Punjab to punish cruel rulers, with five advisers and weapons. Sikhs rallied to him as he entered Punjab.

Key moments

• 26 November 1709: Banda Singh attacks Samana, the home town of Jalal-ud-Din, who had executed Guru Tegh Bahadur.
• 12 May 1710: at the battle of Chappar Chiri, Wazir Khan, the governor of Sirhind, is killed. SikhNet names him as the man blamed for the deaths of Guru Gobind Singh's younger sons.
• 14 May 1710: Sirhind is captured and given over to plunder.
• 10 December 1710: he escapes from an imperial siege at Lohgarh.
• 1715: at Gurdas Nangal, near Gurdaspur, his garrison endures famine through an eight-month siege. The royal armies break through and capture him and his companions on 7 December 1715.
• 27 February 1716: the prisoners reach Delhi.
• 9 June 1716: Banda Singh is offered the choice between Islam and death, and refuses.

The state he led. The Encyclopaedia says he was now the virtual master of the territories between the Yamuna and the Sutlej, yielding an annual revenue of thirty-six lakh rupees, and that he assumed the style of royalty. He made the old fort of Mukhlisgarh, in the hills, his headquarters and renamed it Lohgarh. He had coins struck in the names of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, and a seal bearing the words deg (the kettle of the Guru's kitchen) and tegh (the sword). He began a new calendar counted from the capture of Sirhind. The Encyclopaedia says he abolished the zamindari system and gave the tillers proprietary rights over the land, and that he treated Hindus and Muslims liberally, many of whom joined his forces.

His Shaheedi. His four-year-old son, Ajai Singh, was hacked to pieces before his eyes when he refused to give up his faith. SikhNet adds that the Sikhs paraded through Delhi were offered amnesty if they converted, and that none did. Banda Singh was put to death on 9 June 1716, after about three months in Delhi.

Remembered for. In Sikh memory he is the commander who carried out Guru Gobind Singh's charge, the man who, in the Encyclopaedia's words, for the first time seized territory for the Khalsa, and a Shaheed who held to his faith to the end. Historians differ on some details. Wikipedia notes that sources from his lifetime are silent on his caste, and that accounts differ on who killed Wazir Khan.