Baba Ajit Singh Jiਬਾਬਾ ਅਜੀਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀ

Baba Ajit Singh Ji (11 February 1687 to 7 December 1704) was the eldest son of Guru Gobind Singh Ji and Mata Sundari Ji, and the first of the four Sahibzade. At seventeen he led six Sikhs out of the fort at Chamkaur against the Mughal army and died fighting, hours before his brother Jujhar Singh Ji fell beside him.

Who was Baba Ajit Singh Ji?

Baba Ajit Singh Ji was born at Paonta Sahib on 11 February 1687, the eldest son of Guru Gobind Singh Ji and Mata Sundari Ji. His name, Ajit, means unconquerable, and his life lived up to it. He was brought up at Anandpur Sahib, his father's home, and from his earliest years he was trained for the life of a saint-soldier: scripture and history in the morning, horsemanship, archery and the sword in the afternoon. His younger brothers were Jujhar Singh Ji, Zorawar Singh Ji and Fateh Singh Ji, born to Mata Jito Ji. Together the four brothers are remembered as the Char Sahibzade, the four princes.

Sources differ on the exact day of his birth. Most modern accounts give 11 February 1687 at Paonta Sahib, and this entry follows that date. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism gives 26 January 1687, and a few older accounts give 7 January at Anandpur Sahib. The year, 1687, and the place, Paonta Sahib, are agreed on.

How was he trained as a saint-soldier?

His education followed the pattern his father had set for the Khalsa: a saint in prayer and a soldier in battle. He studied the sacred texts, history and philosophy, and he learned warfare from Bhai Jaita Ji, also known as Jiwan Singh Ji, the Sikh who had carried the head of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji from Delhi to Anandpur after the ninth Guru's martyrdom. Under such a teacher he learned not only how to ride and fight but what a Sikh fights for.

He was twelve years old when his father created the Khalsa through Amrit Sanchar at Anandpur on Baisakhi 1699. The boy who had grown up watching his father build a community of saint-soldiers was now old enough to join, and his father gave him command at once.

What did he do before Chamkaur?

His first command came within weeks of the Khalsa's birth. A band of Ranghars from Nuh had attacked and looted a Sikh sangat travelling from the Pothohar region. Guru Gobind Singh Ji sent him with a hundred men to the village across the river Satluj. He reached it on 23 May 1699, recovered the looted property and punished the offenders.

The next year Anandpur itself was attacked by the hill chiefs with troops from the Mughal faujdar of Sirhind. Guru Gobind Singh Ji had built five forts around the city, and Ajit Singh Ji, assisted by the seasoned Bhai Udai Singh Ji, was put in charge of Qila Taragarh Sahib's defence. On 29 August 1700 the hill chiefs made the fort their first target, and for four days they attacked the forts around the city in vain.

On 15 March 1701 he led an expedition against Gujjars who had waylaid a sangat coming from Darap near Sialkot. In 1702 he fought with the Sikh army at Nirmohgarh and then at Basoli, defeating the Mughal forces. In March 1703 a Brahmin named Dewki Das came to Anandpur and begged the Guru to help recover his wife, whom Jabar Khan, the chief of Dera Bassi, had taken by force. The Guru sent Ajit Singh Ji and Bhai Udai Singh Ji with about a hundred Sikhs to Bassi Kalan. On 7 March 1703 they laid siege to the village, Jabar Khan was killed in the battle that followed, and the Brahmin's wife was restored to him.

How did the Sikhs reach Chamkaur?

By the winter of 1704 Anandpur had been under siege for months. The Mughal armies of Sirhind and Lahore, joined by the hill chiefs, had cut off all supplies, and food and ammunition were exhausted. The besiegers promised safe passage if the Guru would leave, swearing oaths on the Quran and on the cow. The Guru knew the oaths were false, but he was prevailed upon, chiefly by his mother Mata Gujri Ji, to leave. On the night of 5 and 6 December 1704 the Sikhs slipped out of Anandpur.

The promise was broken at once. As the column crossed the rain-swollen river Sarsa, the pursuing army fell on it. Baba Ajit Singh Ji, with a party of Sikhs, held the enemy back while the rest crossed, and then plunged his horse into the flooded river after them. In the confusion of that cold night, Mata Gujri Ji and the two younger Sahibzade, Zorawar Singh Ji and Fateh Singh Ji, were separated from the column. When the survivors regrouped, Guru Gobind Singh Ji had only forty Sikhs with him, besides his two elder sons. They pushed on to Chamkaur and, as evening fell, took shelter in a mud house on a small rise, the home of two brothers, Chaudhari Roop Chand and Jagat Singh.

How did Baba Ajit Singh Ji die at Chamkaur?

By morning the Mughal army had surrounded the house, and a messenger demanded that the Guru surrender, submit to the Emperor Aurangzeb and accept Islam. Baba Ajit Singh Ji was standing near his father when the words were spoken. He drew his sword and warned the messenger that another such word would cost him his head. The messenger went back with that answer, and the battle began.

The Sikhs fought from behind the walls, the windows and the roof, and the Mughal soldiers fell. But the little band could not hold the fort forever, and the Guru's men began to go out in batches of five to meet the enemy in the open. Then Baba Ajit Singh Ji came before his father and asked for leave to go. His name meant unconquerable, he said, and he would not be conquered, and if he fell he would not come back alive. The Guru hugged his son, gave him a weapon, and bade him go.

He went out with five Sikhs, among them Bhai Mohkam Singh Ji, one of the original Panj Pyare. They poured a rain of arrows on the enemy, and then Baba Ajit Singh Ji took up his lance and sprang upon them. He thrust it into an armoured soldier's chest, and the lance stuck fast and broke in two as he tried to pull it free. He drew his sword and fought on until he was overpowered and fell. His father had watched him from the roof of the mud house, and when he saw his son fall he roared the jaikara, Sat Sri Akal, in pride and in grief.

Jujhar Singh Ji had watched his elder brother fight and fall. He too asked his father for leave, saying he would prove worthy of him and die fighting with his face to the enemy. The Guru gave him a sword and a shield and blessed him, and the boy of fourteen went out with five Sikhs and died as his brother had died. The five Sikhs who remained then formed the council of the Panj Pyare and ordered the Guru to leave the fort so the Khalsa might live. He obeyed them and slipped away at midnight with three Sikhs, while Bhai Sangat Singh Ji, who resembled him, stayed behind in the Guru's clothes and was killed in his place.

Most histories date Baba Ajit Singh Ji's death to 7 December 1704. Some sources give 22 December 1704 instead, the date reached by converting the old Bikrami calendar date, though the scholar Pal Singh Purewal has argued that the conversion was mistaken. The Sikh calendar remembers the day as 8 Poh, in the cold month of Poh when the martyrdom of the Sahibzade is observed every year.

Why is Baba Ajit Singh Ji remembered today?

He is remembered first as the eldest of the Char Sahibzade, the four sons who gave their lives in a single December week in 1704: the two elder brothers at Chamkaur, the two younger ones bricked alive at Fatehgarh Sahib on the orders of Wazir Khan of Sirhind. His father wrote of the battle in the Zafarnama, his letter to the Emperor Aurangzeb, telling how forty hungry men had stood against an army of thousands. Gurdwara Katalgarh Sahib at Chamkaur marks the place where Baba Ajit Singh Ji fell.

His name lives on in the land itself. Mohali, one of Punjab's largest cities, is officially named Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, and the district around it carries the same name. Every year on 26 December, Veer Bal Diwas honours the four Sahibzade in India and the diaspora. At Chamkaur, pilgrims visit the garhi where forty Sikhs held an empire at bay, and parents still tell their children of the seventeen-year-old who asked his father for leave to die, and was given it, because his name meant he could not be conquered.