116 
W. Irvine —Guru Gobind Sir/gh and BandaJi. 
[No. 3, 
We hear next 1 of an expedition against Gobind, commanded 
by Saida Beg, but we cannot fix the year. The traditions state that 
the commander was won over to the Guru’s side, while the next in 
command, Ramzan Beg, was killed. The Muhammadans, who had been 
encamped at Thanesar, then moved towards Sirhind. The next day 
their baggage was plundered by the Sikhs during the march to Shams- 
abad. The Muhammadans returned to Dilili. 2 
The hill rajas were still hostile, 3 and Rajas Bhim Cand, Madan 
Pal, Blr Siqgh and others combined with Dina Beg, Mughal, to attack 
the Guru. In the ensuing battle the Sikhs were victorious, and they 
pursued the Muhammadans as far as the village Kliidarabad, plundering 
them as they fled. On another occasion, 4 * however, they were less 
successful. The Guru was besieged in Anandpur 6 by all the hill 
rajas. The siege lasted for fifteen days, and the extremity was so 
great that Gobind threw all his treasures into the Satlaj, and his 
followers began to die of starvation. Pamma, the minister of Raja 
Bhim, was sent to negotiate, and as the Sikh story goes, lulled the 
Guru into fancied security by pretending to become a disciple. His 
real object was to gain time for the arrival of the Muhammadans, for 
whom he had sent. 6 
Apparently there was now a combined attack by the hill rajas 
and the Muhammadans commanded by a IQiwajah. 7 Terms of some 
sort were made with the rajas, after which the Guru, with two wives and 
forty followers, fled into the Malwa, or country south and east of the 
Satlaj. The Muhammadans attacked him again near the village of 
Ghanaula, in the Ambala district. One follower, Ude Siggh, who 
1 Sakhi Book, 59. 
2 Malcolm, 59, 60, names Dilawar Khan and Rustam Khan as commanders of 
expeditions sent against G5bind Siqgh. Thanesar is 28 m. S. of Ambala, and 
Sirhind 28 m. N.-W. of the same place. 
3 Sakhi Book, 71. 
4 Idem , 73. 
6 In the K5hlur State, in a bend of the Satlaj ( Thornton, 34 ). The town was 
founded by Tegh Bahadur, Gobind’s father. Makhaval and Kiratpur, the homes of 
previous Gurus, are not far off. 
6 Sakhi Book, 77. Cunningham, 75, says “ He (G5bind) became the ally of 
Bhim Cand of Kahlur, then in rebellion against the imperial authorities at 
Kdt Kakungra,” or perhaps this refers to an earlier event. 
7 Sakhi Book, 98. McGregor, I, 85, says that Zabardast Khan, Subahdar of 
Lah5r, and Shams Khan, of Sirhind, were the Muhammadan commanders. The 
hill rajas had asked ‘Alamgir for aid. The siege of Makhaval ( i . e., Anandpur) 
lasted seven months. Malcolm, 66, gives the names of the leaders as Khwajah 
Muhammad and Nahar Khan. 
