189 - 4 .] 
W. Irvine— Guru Gobind SirjgTi and Bandah. 
123 
Wazir Khan, as soon as he heard of the pretender’s rising, harried 
off from Sirhind with the three thousand to four thousand men then 
present. 1 The Sikhs were then on their way to attack him. Both 
forces met on a plain between Alwan Sarae and the town of Banur, 
some ten to twelve miles north-east of Sirhind. 2 This was on the 24th 
Rabi‘ I, 1122 (22nd May 1710). At the first shock the Sikhs, after a 
feeble resistance, turned and fled. Wazir Khan’s force appeared to 
have already gained the day, when suddenly a crowd of men were led 
by the Guru to an attack on the Muhammadan rear. This bold movement 
put heart into the flying Sikhs and, with loud cries of “ Sacha Padshah ” 
and “ Path Daras,” they fell in a compact body on the Muhammadans, 
who for a time held their ground. The Sikh swordsmen attacked 
several elephants and wounded them. Sher Muhammad and Khwajah 
‘All of Kotilah Maler 3 were killed, and confusion arose in the Muham¬ 
madan ranks. Wazir Khan, then fully eighty years of age, made no 
attempt to escape, but tried to rally his men, and continued to shoot his 
arrows at the enemy. At length he, too, was killed by a musket shot. 
The baggage was plundered, the elephants captured, and the body of 
Wazir Khan dishonoured and hung to a tree. Hot a single Muhammadan 
escaped with anything but the clothes upon his back. 
Alarm spread through the streets of Sirhind, an old and prosperous 
town, inhabited by wealthy bankers and traders and many well-born 
Muhammadans of the learned class. 4 Those who could do so fled, one of 
the first being Wazir Khan’s eldest son, who, leaving all his father’s 
hoards behind him, made off to Dihli with all his family. After a 
feeble defence of two days, the town was taken. Every one who, for 
want of carts or other conveyance, had been left behind, was made 
prisoner. Only those Muhammadans who disguised themselves and 
hid in the houses of the Hindus, escaped injury. The scavengers and 
leather-dressers and such like persons, who were very numerous among 
1 MIrza Muhammad, 215, Qasim, 84, Warid, 117 b, Khali Khan, II, 653, The last 
gives the Muhammadan force as 5,000 to 6,000 horse, 7,000 to 8,000 foot, matchlock- 
men and bowmen, with cannon and elephants. Sirhind is a corruption of the original 
name, Sihrind. 
2 Browne, 9, places the battle at Alwan Sarae, which is 12 m. S. E., of Sirhind. 
Warid, 117 b, says “ near Banur.” The Anonymous Fragment of a Farrukhsiyar 
namah (in my possession), fol. 15 a, states that the fight was near Chapparcharl. 
There are two villages of this name, C. Kalan and C. Khurd, on Sheet No. 48 of the 
Indian Atlas, They lie about 16 m. N. E , of Sirhind, on the Patiyall Rao, and are 
10 m. N. by W. of Banur. 
3 Maler is about 36 m. S.-W. of Sirhind. 
4 MIrza Muhammad, 215, 217, Qasim, 24, KhafI Khan, II, 654 Sirhind, now 
in the Patiala territory, is about 28 m. N--W., of Ambala. 
