Gurudwara Shri Baba Banda Bahadur is situated near post office in Mehrauli in South Dilli near the Qutub Minar. It is a place where Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Ji along with his four year old son Ajai Singh and forty Sikhs were tortured to death by the Mughals. This place marks the martyrdom of Baba Banda Bahadur Singh Ji. After his son Ajai Singh was killed, Baba Banda’s heart was cut out and dripping with blood it was forcibly pushed into Baba Ji’s mouth, then Baba Ji’s eyes were gouged out. Baba Ji’s body was then hung on a Gate where he was skinned alive. Then his body was pierced with red hot rods; finally he was mutilated limb by limb.
Mughal King Farrukh Siyar, gave him an unusual choice of either accepting death or to convert his religion to Islam, but Baba Banda Singh Bahadur choose death. Farrukh Siyar then ordered Banda Singh to kill his own son Ajai Singh, but Baba Banda Singh Bahadur refused to do so. Upon Baba Ji’s refusal the king’s men butchered the innocent child and forty other Sikhs in front of Baba Ji’s eyes.
Baba Banda Bahadur was earlier known as Madho Das and he had been a yogi, who used his magical powers to impress people. But when he met Guru Gobind Singh Ji, his life changed, he became great disciple of Guru Ji. Guru Sahib asked him his name, Madhu replied, “I am Banda your slave”. The Guru added the name Bahadur to the name Singh that all members of the Khalsa don after taking Amrit.
Thus it was Baba Banda Singh Bahadur who was sent to Punjab to fight to free the people of Punjab, no matter their faith, from foreign rule. Baba Banda Bahadur and his army of Sikhs soon freed many areas of Punjab. Finally, after an exhaustive siege the almost starved Banda Bahadur was defeated and captured in 1715. He and his fellow nearly dead Sikhs were brought to Dilli and, on the orders of Ruler Farrukh Siyar, brutally tortured and killed.
Baba Banda Bahadur established the first independent sovereign state with its own coins and seal. Although it was short-lived but it put the Sikhs on the path to set up their own rule later. Sri Gokal Chand Narang writes in his book entitled. “Transformation of Sikhism” that personal magnetism of Banda Bahadur was too great and his undaunted courage and extraordinary valor knit his followers closely to him. The fact that not a single Sikh out of thousands captured and executed by the Mughal Government renounced his faith to save his life was no less due to the exemplary piety and lofty character of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur.
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