Person
Chandu Shah
Lahore banker and Mughal revenue official whom Sikh chronicles name as the Guru's chief tormentor in 1606; Jahangir's own memoir takes the decision on himself.
Chandu Shah was a wealthy Hindu Khatri banker and revenue official at the Mughal court in Lahore. Sikh chronicles name him as the man who turned a personal slight into the persecution that ended in the Shaheedi of Guru Arjan Dev Ji on 30 May 1606. Another entry in the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says the real cause was the Emperor, not Chandu. The two accounts can both be true: the emperor decided, and the chronicles say Chandu carried it out and made it worse.
Key moments
- The broken match: Chandu's family priest proposed Guru Arjan's son, Hargobind, as a husband for Chandu's daughter. Chandu first agreed reluctantly, then said the Guru's house was beneath his wealth and status. Local Sikhs were offended and asked the Guru to refuse, and he broke off the match. Chandu became a bitter enemy.
- April 1606: Jahangir comes to Lahore chasing his rebel son Khusrau. The Guru is accused of blessing the prince. By the chronicles, Chandu and others slander him, and Chandu takes charge of the Guru and has him killed with extreme cruelty.
- 30 May 1606: the Guru attains Shaheedi at Lahore after days of torture.
- Afterwards: Jahangir reconciles with Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji and has Chandu handed over to the Guru's custody. Sikhs who had witnessed the atrocities drag him through the streets of Lahore and he dies. The Encyclopaedia says the last blow came from a man Chandu had himself employed to pour hot sand on the Guru's blistered body.
What the emperor wrote
In his own memoir, the Tuzuk, Jahangir says he "fully knew of his heresies" and had long thought of ending "this false traffic" or bringing the Guru into Islam, and that he ordered the Guru put to death with torture. The Encyclopaedia doubts that Chandu had the influence to bring this about; it says he took the chance to add to the Guru's suffering.
The Chandu account rests on Sikh chronicles such as the Gurbilas Chhevin Patshahi and the Mahima Prakash, not on Mughal records, and its details vary between tellings.
He is remembered in Sikh memory as the man behind the Guru's torture, and for the end he met after Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji's return to favour.
Sources
- Chandu Shah, The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism (ed. Harbans Singh), Punjabi University, Patiala. eos.learnpunjabi.org
- Arjan Dev, Guru (1563-1606), The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism (ed. Harbans Singh), Punjabi University, Patiala. eos.learnpunjabi.org
- Jahangir, Nur ud-Din Muhammad (1569-1627), The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism (ed. Harbans Singh), Punjabi University, Patiala. eos.learnpunjabi.org