Veer Bal Diwas: The Story of the Sahibzadas and India’s Youngest Martyrs

In the last week of December 1704, in the Mughal town of Sirhind in Punjab, two boys aged nine and seven were ordered to be bricked into a wall because they would not give up their faith. They were Sahibzada Zorawar Singh and Sahibzada Fateh Singh, the youngest sons of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, the tenth Sikh Guru. India now marks their death every year on 26 December as Veer Bal Diwas, a national observance announced by the Prime Minister in January 2022.

Sikh families have remembered this week for more than three centuries. What follows is the sequence of events as Sikh tradition and the early sources record it, the places in Punjab where it happened, and how the day is observed now.

The siege of Anandpur, December 1704

By late 1704 Guru Gobind Singh Ji had been under siege at Anandpur Sahib for about eight months. The besieging force combined the armies of the hill rajas of the Shivalik states and Mughal troops sent under the authority of Emperor Aurangzeb. Supplies in the fort were running out when the Mughal commanders swore on the Quran, and the hill rajas on the cow, that the Guru and his family could leave safely.

On the night of 5 December the Guru left Anandpur. The promise was broken within hours and the column was attacked. In the confusion, while crossing the Sarsa river in flood, the Guru’s party was split apart.

His two elder sons, Sahibzada Ajit Singh (aged eighteen) and Sahibzada Jujhar Singh (aged fourteen), stayed with their father. A few days later both were killed fighting at the Battle of Chamkaur. The two younger boys, Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh, were with their grandmother Mata Gujri, the Guru’s mother, and the three of them were cut off from the rest.

Betrayal by Gangu and the arrest at Morinda

A former servant of the Guru’s household, Gangu, offered Mata Gujri and the boys shelter at his home in the village of Saheri. Sikh accounts say that during the night he stole her gold coins, and in the morning he informed the Mughal post (chowki) at Morinda, hoping for a reward.

The three were arrested and taken to Sirhind, the seat of the faujdar Wazir Khan. They were kept in the Thanda Burj, the “cold tower” of the fort, open to the wind in the middle of a Punjab winter. An old woman and two small children had no bedding and little food.

The trial in Wazir Khan’s court

Over the next few days the boys were brought before Wazir Khan’s court several times. They were offered wealth, rank, marriage into noble families and, above all, their lives, on condition that they accept Islam. Each time they refused.

Sikh tradition remembers their answers in detail. The boys are said to have spoken of their grandfather, Guru Tegh Bahadur, who was executed in Delhi in 1675 for defending the right of Kashmiri Pandits to practise their faith, and to have said that they would follow his example. Whatever the exact words, every account agrees that two children did not give way under pressure from a provincial governor’s court.

One man in the court objected openly. Sher Muhammad Khan, the Nawab of Malerkotla, said that killing children for their father’s deeds was against Islam and asked that they be spared. Wazir Khan overruled him. Sikhs have remembered the Nawab’s protest ever since, and Malerkotla’s Muslim community is still spoken of warmly in Punjab because of it.

What happened on 26 December 1704

Wazir Khan ordered that the boys be bricked alive. Masons began building a wall around them as they stood. The most common account says the wall gave way when it reached their chests and the boys were then put to the sword. Some accounts place the beheading on 27 December, and historians still debate the exact sequence: whether both died by the sword, or whether the younger died within the wall.

Mata Gujri died in the Thanda Burj when the news reached her. Some accounts say it was from shock and grief, and others say she was killed. A Sirhind merchant, Diwan Todar Mal, is remembered for buying land for the cremation by covering it with gold coins, as Wazir Khan’s officials demanded.

The Zafarnama and the fall of Sirhind

Guru Gobind Singh Ji later wrote a Persian letter to Aurangzeb known as the Zafarnama, the “Epistle of Victory”. In it he accused the emperor and his officers of breaking oaths sworn on the Quran and told him that the loss of his sons had not ended the Guru’s cause.

In May 1710, the Sikh commander Banda Singh Bahadur defeated and killed Wazir Khan at the Battle of Chappar Chiri, then took Sirhind and destroyed much of it. The town that grew up on the site is called Fatehgarh Sahib, after Sahibzada Fateh Singh.

Visiting the gurudwaras of Fatehgarh Sahib

Fatehgarh Sahib is a district town in Punjab, about forty five kilometres from Chandigarh. Three gurudwaras mark the events of December 1704.

Gurudwara Fatehgarh Sahib stands where the two Sahibzadas were martyred.

Gurudwara Bhora Sahib, within the same complex, is built over the bhora, an underground room associated in tradition with the boys and their grandmother.

Gurudwara Thanda Burj (Mata Gujri Ji) stands on the site of the cold tower where Mata Gujri died.

Every December, around the anniversary, the town hosts the Shaheedi Jor Mela. Tens of thousands of people attend, and many walk to Fatehgarh Sahib on foot from towns across Punjab and beyond. If you go, expect very heavy crowds and road diversions in the last week of December; a weekday visit in early December or January is much quieter.

Why Veer Bal Diwas was declared a national observance

The Prime Minister announced Veer Bal Diwas in January 2022, on the Prakash Purab (birth anniversary) of Guru Gobind Singh Ji. The name means “Day of Brave Children”. The government’s stated aim was that the courage of the Sahibzadas should be known to every child in India, including children from families with no Sikh connection.

On 26 December, many schools across India hold assemblies, essay competitions and readings from Sikh history, and national events are held in Delhi. In Punjab, Sikhs have marked these days for centuries at the Shaheedi Jor Mela, so the national observance sits alongside a much older tradition.

How Sikh families mark the week

For Sikhs, the whole period from the evacuation of Anandpur to the deaths at Sirhind is a time of mourning. Many families avoid weddings and celebrations in that week, and some people sleep on the floor or give up small comforts in memory of the Sahibzadas and Mata Gujri in the cold tower. Gurudwaras hold kirtan and katha recounting the events day by day.

In the space of about three weeks Guru Gobind Singh Ji lost all four of his sons and his mother. More than three hundred years later, the place in Punjab where the youngest two died is still a town named after one of them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Veer Bal Diwas on 26 December?

It is the date most commonly given for the martyrdom of Sahibzada Zorawar Singh and Sahibzada Fateh Singh at Sirhind in 1704. Some accounts place the final killing on 27 December, so you may see either date in older books.

Who were the four Sahibzadas?

Ajit Singh, Jujhar Singh, Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh, the four sons of Guru Gobind Singh Ji. The elder two died at the Battle of Chamkaur and the younger two at Sirhind in December 1704.

Who was Mata Gujri?

She was the wife of Guru Tegh Bahadur and the mother of Guru Gobind Singh Ji. She was imprisoned with her two youngest grandsons in the Thanda Burj at Sirhind and died there in December 1704.