Banda Singh Bahadur : A journey from a saint to a warrior

Yesterday whole India paid tribute to great Sikh warrior Baba Banda Singh Bahadur who established the 1^st Khalsa Empire he was the disciplined of Guru Gobind Singh (10^th Sikh Guru) when he established the Khalsa Empire Mughals on the orders of Bahadur Shah (7^th Mughal Emperor) raged war against him but never succeeded  and Later became Mughal King Fukhsiyar who was Grandson of Bahadur Shah managed to take control on him under his leadership Mughal army attacked and won lohgarh fort which was the capital of khalsa empire but Banda singh got the chance to flee and then he went in Gurdas Nangal Fort where he fought against the Mughals for 6 months but he was arrested by Mughals because he was having lack of food and ammunition to fight for the 700 soldiers of his army when he was captured his wife and his son ajay singh was with him and then along with his son and 740 Sikhs Mughal army took him to Delhi for where he and his son was imprisoned for 6 months and in the meantime on the orders of fukhsiyar his 700 soldiers were executed in 7 days means execution of 100 soldiers in a day because they refused to embraced Islam and when Mughal failed to convert Banda Singh as well they ordered the execution of Him and his son along with his 5 generals first his son Baba Ajay Singh was executed and then on the orders of officers the executers first burnt Banda Singh eyes and they cut baba banda singh in many pieces for 3 days they were cutting each and every part of the body of banda singh and that is how he gain martyrdom and it is also a truth that during this torture baba banda singh was not was feeling any pain and that is what makes all of us think how can it be possible.

How a saint became an Warrior

Before talking on this fact it is Important for all of us to know that how he became a saint and the story is that he was born in Rajput Family of Rajouri of J&K State to a wealthiest man Ram Dev and the original name of Banda Singh was Laxman Dev when he was a teenager he was very fond of Hunting one day when he was on the Hunt he shot a deer who was pregnant at that and just delivered the babies of her and  they also died along with that Deer when Laxman Dev saw this he thought that he committed a sin which is unforgivable and just because of that he started hated himself and he gave up hunting and his social life and adopted Salvation and became madho das and many years later when he was living in Maharashtra at his ashram one day he came to know that a man along with his people came to his ashram and killed some animals and then he was also cooking them on stove and this act was a sin because ashram was very pure which has now became impure and by listening this he became angry and went to confront that stranger and when he met that stranger and told him about his sin then that stranger asked him “ I didn’t get it that Oustide Mughals are murdering n number of innocent people and why is that so that you are not thin king about why are you not doing anything” and later that stranger narrated the whole life of Banda singh which no one knew  a confused and shocked madho das asked him that who are you and later he came to know that stranger was none other than Guru Gobind Singh and then Madho Das promised him that he will fought against Mughals and that how he embraced Sikhism and now his name was Banda Singh Bahadur

His war campaign against Wazir Khan and Mughals

From his fellow colleagues he came to know about the atrocities of Wazir Khan and also martyrdom of 4 sons of Guru Gonbind singh ji and later an assaination attempt by Wazir Khan to kill Gobind Singh ji made him angry and then Guru Gobind singh ji send him to Punjab to rage war against the Mughals and in that campaign one day he came to know about the death of Guru Gobind Singh which was the result of that assassination attempt of wazir khan in which guru ji got major injuries and those Injuries took his life but Banda singh decided not to go back and to start war and slowly slowly people came in the support of Banda singh and for the Income issues he smuggled the black money of the Rich peoples in sonipat and karnal and then he attacked all the places of Punjab where Mughals were active that includes Sonipat , Karnal, Sadhaura, Kapuri, Samana and many places where people were facing atrocities of the heads of the city (Faujdars)  and rich people when banda singh attacked these places he eliminated the soldiers and heads (Faujdars)  of these cities and seized the wealth’s of  rich people and distributed it in poor people and he also abolished the Zamidari System and he also allotted farms to the poor farmers and when he attacked Sadhura he eliminated the Usman Khan Faujdar of Sadhaura who killed Peer Buddhu Shah who helped Guru Gobind Singh in Battle of Banghani some people say that Usman Khan was so cruel that he never allowed Hindus and Sikhs to cremate the bodies of their dead people by their rituals. He also eliminated the Baig Brothers who executed Sahabzada Zorawar Singh and Sahabzada Fateh Singh in sirhind  on the orders of Wazir Khan.

Final War against Wazir Khan

After winning all the cities of Punjab he headed towards the Chappanchiri which was 40 Kms far from Sirhind (Now in Mohali, Punjab) where wazir khan was having more than 30,000 soldiers, more than 5000 gazi warriors, hundreds of the artilleries   when war started Singh fought with the great valor and they managed to block the food and ammunition supplies of Mughal Army by blocking the ways of cities like Manimajara and Kharur.

When he attacked wazir khan he thrashed him by the brick of that same wall in which Sahabzada Zorawar Singh and Sahabzada Fateh Singh were executed and when he was killing him one soldier attacked Banda singh and then Wazir Khan tried to kill him by attacking him on his back but Unfortunately Fateh Singh (One of the Generals of Khalsa Army) Saw him and he attacked wazir khan and killed him and then Mughals lost the war and suchand , Diwan of  Wazir Khan fleed from there and came to sirhind and when sikhs captured sirhind he with qazi dina khan (who was also involved the execution of 2 sahibzada’s along with Wazir Khan and Suchanand) tried to escape but Suchand was caught and Dina Khan managed to escape and then Banda Singh Beheaded Suchanad and killed him and the he went to the martyrdom place of 2 sahibzadas and paid tribute to them and he also spared the life of wife and children of wazir khan because of their innocence which a real warrior do and that is how he established the Khalsa Empire and then he attacked and Killed Hill Kings to helped Mughals in the Battle of Anatpur in 1705 and he also executed Gangu who helped Mughals in the Arrest of Mata Gujri ji, Sahabzada Zorawar Singh and Sahabzada Fateh Singh ji. 

Rest all is history but this is a story of valor and courage and that is why everyone should learn from this story that faith is everything and we should stick to our faith.