Because the Fatehgarh Sahib district of Punjab gears up for the annual Shaheedi Jor Mela from December 25 to 27, Punjab Meeting Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan has pledged the Aam Aadmi Get together authorities’s full help for the preservation and restoration of Jahaz Haveli, as soon as the residence of Diwan Todar Mal in Sirhind. However who was Diwan Todar Mal, and the way is he related to the 2 youthful sons of Guru Gobind Singh, the founding father of the Khalsa?
Who was Diwan Todar Mal?
Diwan Todar Mal was a rich service provider from Sirhind. Historic accounts counsel that he served as a income official (Diwan) beneath Mughal emperor Shah Jahan however was later eliminated by Aurangzeb. Todar Mal was in Sirhind when the 2 youthful sons of Guru Gobind Singh—Sahibzada Fateh Singh (9) and Sahibzada Zorawar Singh (7)—have been bricked alive on the orders of Wazir Khan, the Mughal governor of Sirhind, on December 13, 1704. Their grandmother, Mata Gujri, 81, died of shock after studying of their horrific deaths.
The execution of the 2 kids despatched shockwaves via the area. Worry of Wazir Khan’s wrath prevented anybody from performing their final rites till Todar Mal stepped ahead to say the our bodies. Wazir Khan imposed stringent situations, demanding that Todar Mal buy the cremation land by overlaying it with gold cash. Furthermore, the cash needed to be positioned vertically. Undeterred, Todar Mal fulfilled the calls for, spending a fortune on what is taken into account probably the most costly land transactions of that period.
Todar Mal cremated the our bodies of the Sahibzadas and Mata Gujri with full honours and buried their ashes in an urn on the bought land. A lot later, Maharaja Karam Singh of Patiala (1813–45) constructed a gurdwara on the web site in Sirhind and at different places the place they’d stayed. He additionally renamed the district from Sirhind to Fatehgarh Sahib, after the principal gurdwara, Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib, close to Sirhind.
Why have been the 2 younger Sahibzadas executed?
In keeping with Koer Singh’s Gurbilas Patshahi Dasveen, Mata Gujri was within the Chamkaur Garhi (fortress) after Guru Gobind Singh had left. She went out seeking the 2 youthful Sahibzadas however was recognized by a “Turk.” Together with others, he entered the garhi and located a Sikh with a kalgi (plume). Mistaking him for Guru Gobind Singh, they killed him and took Mata Gujri and the 2 Sahibzadas to Sirhind. The boys have been provided tempting rewards and requested to embrace Islam, however they refused, and have been bricked alive.
In his historic textual content Panth Prakash, accomplished in 1810, Rattan Singh Bhangu supplies a barely completely different account. He writes that Mata Gujri and her grandsons have been separated from Guru Gobind Singh close to Ropar. A cook dinner from Saheri village close to Ropar took them to his dwelling however, grasping for a reward, knowledgeable Jani and Mani, two Ranghar brothers from Morinda. They handed the three over to Wazir Khan, the Iranian-origin governor of Sirhind who requested them to transform to Islam. The boys and their grandmother have been detained in a chilly tower for 2 days however didn’t relent. Bhangu notes that Sher Muhammad of Malerkotla strongly opposed their execution however Wazir Khan paid no heed to him and executed the boys.
Six years later, in Might 1710, Baba Banda Singh Bahadur avenged their martyrdom by attacking Sirhind and killing Wazir Khan within the Battle of Chappar Chiri on Might 12, 1710.
What’s Jahaz Haveli?
Jahaz Haveli was the residence of Diwan Todar Mal in Sirhind, Fatehgarh Sahib district. This Seventeenth-century construction, resembling a ship, is constructed with Nanakshahi bricks. Regardless of its historic significance, the haveli has suffered from neglect, with a number of half-hearted makes an attempt at preservation. In 2009, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) took possession of the haveli.
Not too long ago, the Diwan Todar Mal Heritage Basis Punjab has been working to spotlight its restoration. Basis president Lakhwinder Singh Kahneke introduced plans to revive the haveli to its authentic grandeur utilizing a 1911 {photograph} from the British Library as a information.
Kultar Singh Sandhwan has assured that the Punjab authorities will collaborate with the SGPC and the Tourism and Archaeology Division to help the venture. In 2021, the Congress authorities renamed the highway connecting Jahaz Haveli to the principle highway as “Diwan Todar Mal Marg.”
How has the Centre commemorated the martyrdom of the 2 youthful Sahibzadas?
In 2022, the Authorities of India declared December 26 as “Veer Baal Diwas” to honour the bravery and supreme sacrifice of Sahibzada Fateh Singh and Sahibzada Zorawar Singh, the youthful sons of Guru Gobind Singh.
What’s the confusion concerning the dates of the execution?
Prof Amarjit Singh, director of the Centre on Research in Sri Guru Granth Sahib at Guru Nanak Dev College, explains that historians of the time used the lunar calendar, which is 11 days shorter than the Gregorian calendar. The British adopted the Gregorian calendar in September 1752, by which period the distinction between the 2 techniques had grown to 11 days.
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