Sahibzada Fateh Singh Jiਸਾਹਿਬਜ਼ਾਦਾ ਫ਼ਤਿਹ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀ

Sahibzada Fateh Singh Ji was the youngest of the four sons of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, the last born of the Char Sahibzade and the first of them, with his brother Zorawar Singh, whose story the world learned. He was about six years old when he was executed at Sirhind in December 1704, and he is remembered as probably the youngest martyr in recorded history who knowingly laid down his life for his faith: the tradition is careful on the point, because the whole weight of his example rests on the claim that he understood what he was refusing.

The youngest Sahibzada

Fateh Singh was born at Anandpur Sahib in 1699, at the place where Gurdwara Bhora Sahib now stands; most accounts give 25 February, some give 12 December. His mother, Mata Jito Ji, died in December 1700, before his second birthday, and he was raised from infancy by his grandmother Mata Gujri Ji, in whose care he remained to the end. One beloved tradition belongs to his childhood: the little prince appearing before his father dressed all in blue, in a high turban with a loose plume, armed like a tiny soldier at the head of a troop of children, and the Guru laughing and blessing him with the words that a panth of fierce warriors would one day rise in his likeness. On that tradition the blue dress and tall turbans of the Akali Nihangs are traced back to him.

Capture and the Thanda Burj

He was five years old when the siege of Anandpur ended in December 1704. In the night evacuation and the broken oath at the Sarsa river he stayed with his grandmother and his brother Zorawar Singh, was sheltered by the former household servant Gangu at Saheri, and was betrayed by him to the officials at Morinda. At Sirhind the three were locked in the Thanda Burj, the cold tower, where a summer retreat became a freezing cell for an elderly woman and two children in the last week of December. A court servant, Moti Ram Mehta, risked himself to bring them milk and water, and later paid for it with his life and his family's.

What happened in the court at Sirhind?

Twice the brothers were brought before Wazir Khan's court, and twice the machinery of a province was applied to two small children: soldiers drawn up to frighten them, the false news that their father and brothers were dead, offers of treasure and an easy life, and the sentence held over them. The younger boy stood through it beside his brother and did not yield. Where the early accounts say simply that the children were executed, the popular tradition holds that they were bricked alive into a wall and killed when it collapsed; Jugti records both, as the sources give them. The martyrdom is commemorated on 26 December (13 Poh), and in many traditional accounts the year is given as 1705 rather than 1704.

Cremation and the shrines

The bodies of the two boys and of Mata Gujri Ji, who died in the tower on hearing the news, were at first refused even a cremation ground. Diwan Todar Mal, a wealthy banker of Sirhind, bought the plot where they lay by covering it, in the famous telling, with gold coins, and cremated them with honour. Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib stands where the bodies were found, Gurdwara Jyoti Sarup where the cremation took place, and Gurdwara Burj Mata Gujri at the Thanda Burj itself. Nearby Gurdwara Bimangarh marks where the bodies were kept through the night before the cremation. Todar Mal's own ruined haveli, the Jahaz Haveli at Sirhind, is still pointed out to pilgrims.

A note on his age

The accounts do not agree on exactly how young he was, and the disagreement is part of his record. If he was born in February 1699 he was five, nearly six, in December 1704; accounts that place his birth in December 1699 make him barely five; the Shaheedi Jor Mela tradition often calls him seven, counting in the Punjabi manner. Sikh reference works describe him as probably the youngest recorded martyr in history who knowingly laid down his life. Jugti gives his age as about six, with the range stated, because the sources themselves carry all three figures and none can be struck out honestly.

How is Sahibzada Fateh Singh Ji remembered?

His name is spoken with his brother's wherever the Chhote Sahibzade are remembered: in the daily ardas of the Sikhs, in the dhadi ballads sung at the Jor Mela, and at Fatehgarh Sahib every December, when lakhs walk the route of the shrines. Since 2022, 26 December is observed across India as Veer Bal Diwas, the day of brave children, for him and his brothers. The Nihang Singhs, in their blue bana, carry the oldest living memorial of all: a dress that tradition says began with a five year old prince dressing up for his father.