Shaheedi Jor Mela at Fatehgarh Sahib: remembering the younger Sahibzade

Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, left the besieged fort of Anandpur on a winter night. At the crossing of the Sirsa river his mother, Mata Gujri, and his two youngest sons, Sahibzada Zorawar Singh and Sahibzada Fateh Singh, were separated from the rest of the family. According to the district's account, the family's cook Gangu betrayed them to Wazir Khan, the faujdar (governor) of Sirhind, who held them in the Thanda Burj, the Cold Tower of his fort. The boys, nine and seven years old, refused to give up their faith and were bricked alive in a wall; Mata Gujri died on hearing of it. Sources differ on the year: the district administration gives 1704, while Wikipedia and other accounts give December 1705.

The town was later named Fatehgarh after the younger brother, and the district created in 1992 carries the same name. The present Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib was built over the site in the 1840s; beneath it, Bhora Sahib marks the place of the wall. Behind the main building, the Diwan Todar Mal hall remembers the man who, by tradition, bought the cremation ground with gold coins. Sikhs also remember Nawab Sher Muhammad Khan of Malerkotla, who had fought the Guru yet refused to take part in harming the children.

The mela is held on 11 to 13 Poh in the Sikh calendar, which usually falls around 25 to 27 December. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which manages the gurdwara, holds diwans in which preachers, ragis (hymn singers) and dhadi groups, ballad singers with the small dhadd drum and sarangi, retell Sikh history to traditional music. Pilgrims pray at Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib, at the Thanda Burj gurdwara and at Gurdwara Jyoti Sarup, about 1.5 km away on the Sirhind–Chandigarh road, where the cremation took place.

Day 1 is the quietest and most purely religious. Day 3 brings the procession. Along the approach roads, nearby villages run langar, the free communal meal, cooking in open kitchens for the arriving sangat (congregation); it is offered to everyone.

Despite the word mela, this is a commemoration, and the mood is sober.

Several hundred thousand people come over the three days.

Fatehgarh Sahib is about 42 km west of Chandigarh and about 250 km from Delhi. National Highway 1 passes through the district at Sirhind, and buses on the Delhi–Amritsar route stop there; there are also regular buses from Chandigarh, Patiala and Ropar. By rail, Sirhind Junction on the Delhi–Amritsar line is the main stop, and there is a Fatehgarh Sahib station on the Sirhind–Nangal line. The nearest airport is Chandigarh (Mohali) international airport, about 50 km away.

Chandigarh is the easy base for a day visit; its own gurdwaras are a good introduction to gurdwara customs. Late December nights in Punjab are cold, and much of the mela is outdoors.