Lohgarh (Iron Fort)

Lohgarh means Iron or Steel Fort. In Sikh history the name belongs to three forts, built or taken over at three different times, and it is easy to run them together.

Amritsar. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says Guru Hargobind built a fortress called Lohgarh on the western outskirts of Amritsar to defend the town. The main battle of Amritsar between the Guru and an imperial force under Mukhlis Khan was fought here in May 1629. The fort was razed by Ahmad Shah Durrani during one of his invasions in the mid-eighteenth century. Gurdwara Lohgarh Sahib stands on the mound, about a kilometre northwest of Sri Harmandir Sahib.

Anandpur Sahib. Qila Lohgarh stands about 1.5 km southwest of Takht Sri Keshgarh Sahib. Guru Gobind Singh built it to protect the riverside flank of the town, one of the forts ringing Kesgarh. During the hill chiefs' siege of 1700 they sent a drunken elephant to batter down its gate, and Bhai Bachittar Singh faced the elephant and turned it back. The Guru and the Sikhs left Anandpur on the night of 5 to 6 December 1705, after a siege of several months; Wikipedia gives December 1704, with 1705 as an alternative. The present gurdwara, an octagonal three-storey building under a dome, was built in the late 1980s.

Mukhlisgarh, renamed Lohgarh. The fort was founded by Mukhlis Khan, a minor chief under Emperor Shah Jahan, on the lower slopes of the Shivaliks. After his conquests of 1710, Sirhind among them, Banda Singh Bahadur made it his headquarters and renamed it Lohgarh. The Encyclopaedia describes the old fort as lying "in the safety of the Himalayas". The Encyclopaedia says he had coins struck in the names of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, with a seal carrying the Gurus' names and the words deg (charity) and tegh (the sword, victory), and that he abolished the zamindari system and made the tillers masters of the land.

Emperor Bahadur Shah went north to oversee the campaign. A large imperial force besieged the fort for months; the Encyclopaedia gives its size as sixteen thousand in its entry on the fort and sixty thousand in its entry on Banda. Short of supplies, the Sikhs suffered badly, and on the night of 10 December 1710 Banda broke through the cordon and escaped toward the higher Shivaliks. By 1713, when Farrukhsiyar came to the throne, Banda's forces had retaken Sadhaura and Lohgarh before the Sikhs were driven out of the plains again.

What it means to the Panth. Lohgarh stands for the Khalsa's readiness to defend itself: Guru Hargobind's answer to imperial attack, Guru Gobind Singh's fort at Anandpur, and the capital where Banda issued the first Sikh seal and coins.