Sharan Kaur was a

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...

martyr who was slain in 1705 by

Mughal Mughal or Moghul may refer to: Related to the Mughal Empire * Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries * Mughal dynasty * Mughal emperors * Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia * Mughal architecture * Mug ...

soldiers while cremating the bodies two older sons of

Guru Gobind Singh ji Guru Gobind Singh (; 22 December 1666 – 7 October 1708), born Gobind Das or Gobind Rai the tenth Sikh Guru, a spiritual master, warrior, poet and philosopher. When his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, was executed by Aurangzeb, Guru Gobind Si ...

, the 10th physical form of Nanak , after the Battle of Chamkaur. She was from the village Raipur Rani which is 2 km from the famous town of Chamkaur.The Battle of Chamkaur (22 December 1704), The Panjab past and present, Volume 20, pp 276, Devinder Kumar Varma, Punjabi University. Dept. of Punjab Historical Studies, 1986 Guru Gobind Singh ji moved on from the fort of Chamkaur on the night of December 25, 1704. Guru Sahib briefly stopped at Raipur on way to

Machhiwara Sri Machhiwara Sahib is one of the developing cities in the Ludhiana district of the Indian state of Punjab. Machhiwara is famous for Gurudwara Sri Charan Kanwal Sahib associated with Guru Gobind Singh ji and named after the Guru's feet that are ...

. Here Guru Sahib ji asked a lady by the name of Bibi Sharan Kaur to perform the last rites of the martyred Sikhs, which included two of Guru Gobind Singh ji's own sons, Sahibzada Ajit Singh and

Sahibzada Jujhar Singh Jujhar Singh (Gurmukhi: ਸਾਹਿਬਜ਼ਾਦਾ ਜੁਝਾਰ ਸਿੰਘ; 9 April 1691 – 22 December 1704), the second son of Gobind Singh, was born to Mata Jito at Anandpur Sahib. This event is now celebrated on April 9 each y ...

. Bibi Sharan Kaur performed the last rites of the two elder Sahibzadas and other Sikh warriors who had laid down their lives in the battle. According to an account, Bibi Sharan Kaur was slain by Moghul soldiers and thrown in the funeral pyre of Sahibzadas, when she and her other accomplices from Raipur, were witnessed cremating the bodies of Sahibzadas. Bibi Sharan Kaur’s husband Bhai Pritam Singh, who was a Khalsa warrior, was with Guru Gobind Singh ji, inside the Chamkaur fort resisting the Moghul attack/onslaught. She discovered her husband among the dead. In total she is said to have collected bodies of thirty-two Khalsa stormtroopers, including the two elder Sahibzadas. She tried to cremate them in a single funeral pyre. As soon as the funeral pyre was lit she was discovered by

Moghul Mughal or Moghul may refer to: Related to the Mughal Empire * Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries * Mughal dynasty * Mughal emperors * Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia * Mughal architecture * Mug ...

and

Ranghar Ranghar are a community of Muslim Rajputs in the Indian states of Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh; and in Sindh (Muhajirs) and Punjab in Pakistan. History and origin The Ranghar were classified as an "agricultural ...

soldiers who wanted the bodies of the “Shaheed” soldiers - martyrs according to warrior tradition - to rot in open air in order to terrorise non-Muslim population who refused to apostasize or give out the whereabouts of Guru Gobind Singh ji. Another school of thought, is of the viewpoint that Bibi Sharan Kaur understood the intentions of the Moghul soldiers to outrage her modesty, she jumped into the funeral pyre of Sikh warriors, which included her own husband, to save her honour. This village has the funerary shrines or 'smadhs' of the following Sikh martyrs: Jathedar Naunihal Singh, Mastan Singh, Santokh Singh and Malkiat Singh. In 1945 a Gurudwara was built in village Raipur to commemorate Bibi Sharan Kaur.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pabla, Sharan Kaur Executed Indian people Indian women in war People executed by the Mughal Empire History of Sikhism Sikh martyrs Women in 18th-century warfare

See also

References