Chaar Sahibzaade: Rise — Of Banda Singh Bahadur

The Nawab fell. The Mughal army collapsed like a house of cards.

But empires do not die easily. The Mughals gathered a massive force. In 1715, after a brutal siege at Gurdas Nangal, Banda Singh was captured. They brought him to Delhi in an iron cage. His men were lined up and executed one by one.

And so, the story of Banda Singh Bahadur is not an end. It is the beginning of the long, bloody, glorious dawn of the Sikh Empire—a dawn paid for by the blood of the four princes and the hermit who became their thunderbolt. chaar sahibzaade: rise of banda singh bahadur

The air over Anandpur Sahib was thick with smoke and the wails of widows. The year was 1705. Young Banda Singh, then known as Lachhman Dev, a humble Bairagi recluse, felt the chill of betrayal seep into his bones. He had come to seek the blessings of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, only to witness the aftermath of the terrible siege. The Guru’s mother, Mata Gujri, and his two younger Sahibzaade —Zorawar Singh, just nine, and Fateh Singh, only six—had been martyred. Their bodies, bricked alive by the tyrannical Nawab of Sirhind, Wazir Khan, had become a testament to a cruelty that defied comprehension.

Lachhman Dev fell at his feet. “I sought moksha , Master. But I have seen what Wazir Khan did to your children. What use is liberation when tyranny dances on the graves of innocence?” The Nawab fell

Banda Singh grabbed the boy’s arm. “Look at the Guru’s sword!” he roared, pointing to Pothi Mai strapped to his back. “It does not retreat. It cuts. It cuts until justice is served!”

He gathered an army of 30,000—cavalry, elephants, and matchlock men. Banda Singh had barely 8,000, mostly on foot, armed with spears and rusty swords. The Mughals gathered a massive force

His first target was not Sirhind. It was the smaller, corrupt chieftains who fed the Mughal beast. Village after village rose. The peasants who had bent their backs for centuries began to straighten them. They whispered his name: Banda Singh Bahadur . The hermit who fought like a lion.