118 
W. Irvine —Guru Gobind Sir/gh and Bandah. 
[No. 3, 
faujdar of Sirhind, under the command of Khizr Khan. Mainer, and 
his own BakhshI or chief officer. At first-, Wazir Khan is said to have 
treated the prisoners with kindness. But, at the suggestion of his chief 
subordinate, Saj Anand, Brahman, who frightened him by a picture of 
the Emperor’s possible displeasure at his mildness, he resolved to put 
them to death. He asked Kliizr Khan to do the deed, but he refused 
with scorn to undertake an executioner’s work. One Karakci Beg, 
Mughal, accepted the office, and although the children clung round 
their grandmother’s neck, he tore them away and cut their throats in 
the poor woman’s presence. 1 * 3 Overcome with grief and horror, she fell 
down and expired on the spot. 8 
The Muhammadan authors assert 8 that Guru Gobind now sent in 
petitions to ‘Alamglr, offering to make his submission, coupled with a 
promise to accept Islam. If this is true, no prospect could be more pleas¬ 
ing to such a bigot as that emperor : and, as we are told, a confidential 
messenger, or mace-bearer, was sent to bring the suppliant to the Court. 
The messenger produced Gobind Siijgli, in the first instance, before 
Mun'im Khan, then Nazim or governor of Labor, and Diwan, or chief 
revenue officer, to Prince Mu‘azzam (afterwards, as emperor, known as 
Bahadur Shah). Gobind Siqgli was forwarded by the governor to the 
Dakhin. On the way the party heard of ‘Alamglr’s death, which took 
place at Ahmadnagar, in the Dakhin, on the 28th Zul Ka‘dh, 1118 (2nd 
March 1707) ; and Gobind, believing his star was again in the ascendant, 
turned his face and hastened back to Hindustan. The story, as it stands, 
with these details, is not quite credible. Was Gobind Siijgli at all likely 
to surrender F If in the custody of a Muhammadan mace-bearer, would 
he be allowed to return home, at his own pleasure, because ‘Alamglr 
was dead ? All we can say is that there may be some foundation for 
the story. 
Of the next part of Gobind’s life we know a little, though not very 
much, more than of that which had gone before. Dr. Trumpp 4 seems 
to look on the evidence for the following facts as slightly doubtful; but 
I think there is partial confirmation of them from the official history of 
Bahadur Shah’s reign, compiled at the time. It seems certain that Gobind 
Siijgli joined Bahadur Shfih at some point, when that prince was on his 
1 Browne, 8, and SakhI Book, 102. 
8 One version is that they were built-np alive in a wall ( McGregor, I, 86 ), 
Warid, fol. 29, says that the mother, wife, two sons, and one daughter of the Guru 
were captured. The two sons and the daughter were subjected to indignities, 
paraded in derision, and then executed, 
3 Warid, fol. 116, b. 
4 Adigranth, xciii. 
