Bhai Bidhi Chand

Bhai Bidhi Chand was a Sikh warrior and preacher in the time of Guru Arjan and Guru Hargobind Sahib. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says he was a Chhina Jat, the son of Vassan, from the village of Sursingh, 34 km south of Amritsar.

Key moments

• As a young man he fell into bad company and took to banditry. Bhai Adali of Chohla brought him to Guru Arjan, and he chose to devote his life to the Guru's service.
• 1606: he was one of five Sikhs who went with Guru Arjan to Lahore, where the Guru attained Shaheedi.
• Under Guru Hargobind Sahib he was made a commander in the armed force the Guru raised and fought with distinction against imperial troops.
• The horses: two horses, Dilbagh and Gulbagh, were being brought from Kabul as an offering to the Guru when a Mughal governor seized them at Lahore. Bidhi Chand recovered the first disguised as a hay seller and the second disguised as an astrologer.
• Later he was sent by the Guru from Kiratpur on a preaching mission to the eastern provinces, where he won the attachment of a Muslim saint of Devnagar, Sundar Shah, who asked him to return and spend his last days with him.
• 14 August 1640: according to the Gurbilas Chhevin Patshahi, the two men spent three days on Guru Nanak's teaching and died together. Sundar Shah's disciples buried one body by Muslim rites and cremated the other by Sikh rites, and raised shrines to both. His nephew Lal Chand later took earth from the shrine and built a memorial at Sursingh.

Also told of him: in a modern account by Dr Dalvinder Singh Grewal on SikhNet, the Guru sent Bhai Jetha and Bhai Bidhi Chand to look for artisans, and Bhai Kehar Singh Rajput was the first to offer his services. This is the Sikligar community's tradition of its origin, and the Encyclopaedia entry does not mention it.

Remembered for: the recovery of Dilbagh and Gulbagh, one of the best known stories of the sixth Guru's time, and for a life that moved from banditry to the Guru's army and mission.