Mirza Raja Jai Singh I of Amber

Mirza Raja Jai Singh I was the Kachhwaha ruler of Amber, later Jaipur, in Rajasthan, and one of the senior generals of the Mughal empire. He was born on 15 July 1611 and became ruler in 1621. Shah Jahan gave him the title Mirza Raja in 1638. He died at Burhanpur on 28 August 1667, on his way back to court.

He fought in the Deccan against Bijapur and the Gonds and in the Kandahar campaigns. In the succession war of 1658 he backed Dara Shikoh before submitting to Aurangzeb. In 1665 he led an army of about 14,000 against Shivaji and forced him to sign the Treaty of Purandar. His invasion of Bijapur in 1665 and 1666 failed, and he fell out of favour (Wikipedia).

Where he meets Sikh history

The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says Aurangzeb summoned the eighth Guru, Guru Har Krishan Ji, to Delhi through Raja Jai Singh. ThePrint adds that the king of Amber sent his minister Paras Ram with a letter inviting the Guru, and that Jai Singh received him as a guest of honour at his Delhi residence, known as Jaisinghpura. Smallpox and cholera were then raging in the city. The Guru nursed the sick, fell ill himself, and was taken from Raja Jai Singh's bungalow to a camp on the bank of the Yamuna, where he died on 30 March 1664.

The bungalow's site is Gurdwara Bangla Sahib. ThePrint records that Baghel Singh built it in 1783 among his gurdwaras in Delhi, and that its tank is believed to have been blessed by the Guru and to have cured thousands in the epidemic. That is the community's belief, as ThePrint states it, not a documented event.

Accounts differ on who the host was. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism's entry on Raja Ram Singh says Jai Singh's son stayed in Delhi at court while his father campaigned in the Deccan from 1664 to 1667, and that the Guru stayed with Ram Singh. Other accounts name Jai Singh himself.

The Amber family's ties to the Gurus continued after Jai Singh's death. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji reached Delhi on 8 November 1665 and had Rani Pushpa Devi of Amber as his host. It also says Ram Singh was named on 27 December 1667 to lead the Mughal expedition to Assam, that his mother advised him to seek the Guru's blessing, and that the Guru went with him, reaching Rangamati on the Brahmaputra in the second half of February 1669.

Key moments

• 1621: becomes ruler of Amber.
• 1638: given the title Mirza Raja.
• March 1664: Guru Har Krishan Ji stays at his Delhi bungalow; taken ill, he is moved to a camp on the Yamuna bank and dies there on 30 March.
• 1665: the Treaty of Purandar with Shivaji.
• 28 August 1667: dies at Burhanpur.

What he is remembered for. In Mughal history, for the Treaty of Purandar. In Sikh memory, as the Rajput noble whose Delhi house became Gurdwara Bangla Sahib.