Battle of Chamkaur - Sikh History in The Fight Against the Mughals

Mughal Sikh Wars.The Battle of Chamkaur, also known as the Battle of Chamkaur Sahib, was a battle fought between Khalsa, led by Guru Gobind Singh, and the coalition forces of the Mughals led by Wazir Khan. Guru Gobind Singh refers to this battle in his letter Zafarnama.

After Guru Gobind Singh left Anandpur Sahib on the night between December 5 and 6, 1704, he crossed the Sarsa River with his disciples. As they passed over, the Mughals and the mountain chiefs attacked. Guru Gobind Singh and his followers asked the mayor for permission to rest overnight in their garhi or haveli. 

He refused, but his younger brother allowed the Sikhs to stay in haveli.The history of the Sikhs has been an evolutionary one. It all started when Guru Nanak (from a Bedi Hindu clan of Khatri caste, that is merchants) who preached universal harmony and peace. He thus had followers amongst different religions and castes. 

The Guru is often referred to as an Avatar of Vishnu. This Guru treated all religions and castes equally but never interfered in the caste system when it came to marriage. All his progeny to this day only has married in the Khatri caste. Soon the Sikhs underwent a transition from a peaceful sect to a formidable warrior sect. 

It so happened that when Emperor Akbar conquered Kashmir via deceit (he had been defeated soundly by a small army of ferocious Daradic Chaks who were neo-converts from Hindus to Semitic-Islam mainly of the Shia form) and also by creating a Shia-Sunni divide. Akbar was extremely kind to the Kashmiri Brahmans and presented them among others with cows. 

Nevertheless, according to Abu Fazl the Mughals never got peace in Kashmir. Soon by the period of Shahjahan the Kashmir Brahmans were slowly, mainly by persuasion and taxes converted to Islam. It is due to this a Kashmiri Brahman liquidated the top most commander of Shahjahan namely Khwaja Sabir, Nasiri Khan or Khan-i-Dauran. 

By the period of Aurangzeb the Kashmir Valley might have had about 30,000 unconverted Brahmans. Now interestingly one Pandit Kripa Ram of Kashmir (Sarasvat Brahman) happened to be the Sanskrit teacher of Guru Gobind Singh. Soon Aurangzeb wanted to convert all these unconverted Brahmans to Islam by force and persuasion. 

Aurangzeb was of the opinion that if he could convert the Kashmiri Brahmans and Varanasi Brahmans the conversion of India in totality would be an easy task. So proud were these Kashmiri Brahmans of their pure ethnicity that they never touched the food of a Brahman who had converted to Islam. 

Besides since Kashmiris are extremely good looking (as is described in her classic Rajatarangini and later by Bernier as well) some Mughal governors had an evil eye on not only the Hindu Brahman ladies but even Muslim ones. The result was the Brahmans hid their ladies and even cut their noses and hair to prevent them from losing their ethnic and religious purity. 

Many Muslims did the same. Soon Pandit Kripa Ram met Guru Tegbahadur who then challenged Aurangzeb to convert him first. This led to the martyrdom of Guru Tegbahadur, along with two Sarasvat Brahmans of Punjab, namely Bhai Mati Das and his brother Sati Das, also Bhai Dayal Das. 

Now Guru Govind Singh organized the Sikhs into a fighting machine and they eventually took on a huge Mughal army on 7 December 1705 at Chamkaur. Guru Govind Singh’s two sons and Pandit Kroipa Ram along with other brave Sikhs were martyred in this battle after slaughtering a large number of Mughals. This initiated the warlike tradition of the Sikhs.

Later Banda Bahadur from Rajauri (a Rajapuri Brahman) decimated the Mughals before he was captured and murdered along with his son. Being from Punjab I know the history of Punjab and being posted in Kashmir I fell in love with her, her people and history. Who would not?