Place · Sikh pilgrimage town · India
Muktsar Sahib, Sri Muktsar Sahib
Also known as Guru Gobind Singh & 40 Muktas, Muktsar Sahib, Sri Muktsar Sahib
The city at Muktsar in Punjab, 236 kilometres from Amritsar — the site of the 1705 Battle of Muktsar where 40 Sikh warriors who had deserted Guru Gobind Singh at Anandpur earlier returned to fight and died for the Khalsa, dying on 29 December 1705. The Guru himself was present and tore up the disbandment papers (bedava) they had signed earlier, declaring the 40 as 'liberated' (muktas) — hence the city's name 'Muktsar' (sar = lake, 'lake of the liberated'). The leader of the 40 was Mai Bhago, a Sikh woman who had rallied them to return and died in the battle (surviving to serve the Guru afterwards). The Darbar Sahib Muktsar Gurdwara on the sacred lake marks the battle site. The annual Maghi Mela festival each January (coinciding with the battle anniversary) draws over 500,000 Sikh pilgrims.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 30.474, 74.512
Connections (1)
- CampaignAnandpur Sāhib
Anandpur was abandoned under siege in December 1704 and the family scattered; the last stand of the forty who had deserted and returned was at Muktsar in 1705. Gobind Singh tore up their disclaimer over their bodies, which is where the town's name comes from. Gobind Singh wrote the Zafarnāmā, his verse letter to Aurangzeb, in the months after these defeats, and it is not a capitulation but an indictment in Persian couplets.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Sri Muktsar Sahib”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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