Banda Singh Bahadur

Also called: Banda Bahadur · Topic: Regional Resistance: Rajputs, Ahoms, Sikhs · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

Banda Singh Bahadur (also called Banda Bahadur) was a Sikh military leader. Guru Gobind Singh sent him to Punjab around 1708. Banda led the Khalsa against Mughal rule, captured Sirhind in 1710, struck coins in the names of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, and was captured in 1715 and executed in Delhi in 1716.

He matters because he set up the first Sikh political rule in Punjab, with its own coins, seal and administration. He links the founding of the Khalsa (1699) to the later misls and the Sikh Empire of Ranjit Singh.

Explanation

Background: why Banda was sent to Punjab

• Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth and last Guru, founded the Khalsa on Baisakhi, 30 March 1699, at Anandpur [2][3].
• The Khalsa ('the Pure') was an order of saint-soldiers [3].

• It clashed again and again with Mughal forces, and many lives were lost.

• During these wars, the Guru's family suffered badly.

• Wazir Khan, the Mughal faujdar (military commander of a district) of Sirhind, had the Guru's two younger sons put to death at Sirhind.

• Banda was born Lachman Dev (probably c. 1670).

• He became a Bairagi (a Hindu ascetic who gave up worldly life). He was known as Madho Das.
• He met Guru Gobind Singh at Nanded in the Deccan in 1708, shortly before the Guru died there.

• He became the Guru's follower and took the name Banda, which means "servant" (servant of the Guru).

• The Guru gave him authority to lead the Khalsa in Punjab and sent him north.

Main campaigns (sequence)

• 1708–09: Banda reached Punjab. Sikhs and many peasants joined him.
• 1710 — Battle of Chappar Chiri: Banda's army defeated and killed Wazir Khan.
• 1710 — Capture of Sirhind: Sirhind was the Mughal centre that people most linked to the killing of the Guru's sons. Taking it was both a revenge and a political statement.
• He then controlled much of the land between the Sutlej and the Yamuna.
• He made the fort of Mukhlisgarh his base and renamed it Lohgarh ("iron fort").
• 1710 onwards — Mughal counter-attack: Emperor Bahadur Shah I marched against him in person. Lohgarh fell, but Banda escaped into the hills and kept fighting.
• 1715 — Capture: Under Emperor Farrukhsiyar, Mughal forces besieged Banda at Gurdas Nangal. Food ran out and he was captured.
• 1716 — Execution: He was taken to Delhi with hundreds of followers. He refused to give up his faith and was tortured and executed there.

Features of his rule

• Claim to sovereignty (the right to rule on his own):
• He struck coins in the names of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, not the Mughal emperor.
• He issued orders under his own seal.

• Striking coins was a ruler's right, so this was an open break with Mughal authority.

• Land and peasants:

• According to many historians, he ended the power of zamindars (landholders who collected revenue from peasants) in the areas he held.
• The land rights went to the tillers (the peasants who actually ploughed the land).
• This is why many poor peasants, including people from low castes, joined him.

• Historians still debate how far this was a planned reform and how far it was the result of war.

• Social base: His army drew on Jat peasants and lower groups, as well as Khalsa Sikhs. This matched the Khalsa's ideas of justice and equality.

Results

• His rule was short (about 1710–1715), but it showed the Mughals could be beaten in Punjab.
• His execution did not end Sikh resistance. Through the 18th century the Mughal Empire kept declining, and Sikhs organised themselves into misls (confederacies), each under a misldar (commander) [4].
• From these misls came Ranjit Singh, who took Lahore in 1799 and became Maharaja of the Punjab in 1801 [4].

Time, place and evidence

• Period: early 18th century, c. 1708–1716. This was the time of the later Mughals, after Aurangzeb's death (1707).
• Mughal rulers involved: Bahadur Shah I (campaign against Lohgarh, 1710) and Farrukhsiyar (capture in 1715, execution in 1716).
• Places:
• Nanded — where he met Guru Gobind Singh (1708)
• Chappar Chiri and Sirhind — his great victory (1710)
• Lohgarh (Mukhlisgarh) — his base
• Gurdas Nangal — where he was captured (1715)

• Delhi — where he was executed (1716)

• Key people: Guru Gobind Singh, Wazir Khan, Bahadur Shah I, Farrukhsiyar.

• How we know:
• Coins and seal struck in the Gurus' names
• his hukamnamas (written orders sent to Sikh followers)
• Persian chronicles of the Mughal period, such as Khafi Khan's account, which are hostile to him but describe his campaigns and execution

• later Sikh traditional writings

• Dates for his early life are approximate. The main dates (1708, 1710, 1715, 1716) are settled textbook history.

Don't confuse with

• Guru Tegh Bahadur: He was the ninth Guru, beheaded in 1675 in Chandni Chowk, Delhi, on Aurangzeb's orders [1]. Banda was not a Guru. He was a Khalsa commander, executed in Delhi in 1716 under Farrukhsiyar.
• Guru Gobind Singh: He founded the Khalsa in 1699 [2][3]. Banda only led the Khalsa in battle after the Guru's death and founded no order.
• Ranjit Singh: He built a lasting Sikh Empire: Lahore 1799, Maharaja 1801, Sutlej to Indus by 1820 [4]. Banda's rule was short-lived (c. 1710–15) and lay mainly between the Sutlej and the Yamuna.
• Misls: These were Sikh confederacies that came up after Banda's death, each under a misldar [4]. Banda ran one central command, not a confederacy.

Prelims Hooks

• Banda Bahadur was a Bairagi ascetic (Lachman Dev / Madho Das). He met Guru Gobind Singh at Nanded in 1708.
• 1710: He defeated and killed Wazir Khan at Chappar Chiri and captured Sirhind.
• He struck coins in the names of Guru Nanak and Guru Gobind Singh, not the Mughal emperor. Trap: the coins were not in his own name.
• His capital/base was Lohgarh (earlier Mukhlisgarh).
• He was captured at Gurdas Nangal (1715) and executed in Delhi (1716) under Farrukhsiyar.
• Chronology: Guru Tegh Bahadur executed (1675) → Khalsa founded (1699) → Banda captures Sirhind (1710) → Banda executed (1716) → Ranjit Singh takes Lahore (1799) [2][4].

Mains Points

• Coins showed a claim to rule. The land reform gave him supporters.
• Coins in the Gurus' names and his own seal showed that Banda's rule was sovereign (independent of the Mughal emperor). This was more than a rebellion.

• Giving land rights to tillers in areas he held won him peasant support. It shows that the Sikh movement was partly an agrarian (farming-class) uprising against Mughal revenue officials. Historians still debate how far the land changes were planned.

• A link in the chain of Mughal decline and regional powers.

• Persecution of the Gurus → Khalsa (1699) → Banda's rule (1710–15) → misls → Ranjit Singh's empire [4].

• After Aurangzeb, the later Mughals could defeat Banda but could not hold Punjab. So Banda's revolt fits with the Rajput, Jat and Maratha challenges that broke up Mughal control in the 18th century.

• Failure in the short run, success in the long run.

• He was crushed because he faced the full Mughal army, had no allies among the zamindars he had hurt, and ran out of food at Gurdas Nangal.
• Yet his martyrdom and his example of Sikh rule inspired the misls. This is useful for answers on continuity and change in regional resistance.

Related concepts

• Guru Har Rai and Guru Har Krishan
• Guru Tegh Bahadur
• Gurudwara Sis Ganj Sahib
• Guru Gobind Singh
• Khalsa
• Panj Pyare and Five Ks
• Dasam Granth
• Veer Baal Diwas
• Sikh misls
• Rakhi system

Read more

• Guru Tegh Bahadur, the Khalsa and the Sikh Empire