Lehal Library

88 The Punjab and the Birth of Sikhism The Sikhs held on doggedly until the besiegers were as wearied of fighting as they. The Mughals offered Gobind safe conduct ifhe evacuated Anandpur. Gobind then set fire to his stores and evacuated the fort with his family and a small band of soldiers who remained with him. He had not gone very far when, contrary to their most solemn oaths, the imperial forces and the hillmen came in pursuit. Gobind entrusted his mother, wife, and two of the younger sons to a Brahmin servant and proceeded southwards. A band of Sikhs under the command of Udai Singh fell back and held the pursuers until they were killed to a man. The rearguard action gave the Guru time to reach Chamkaur, where be and forty men who were left with him built a stockade and decided to fight to a finish.30 The gallant little band kept the enemy at bay. Every few hours some of them would issue forth and fight the besiegers until they were killed. Among those who fell at Chamkaur were Gobind's elder sons, Ajit Singh and Jujhar Singh. When all seemed lost, a Sikh who resembled Gobind Singh put on the Guru's clothes and, like the rest of the party, went out of the stockade to fight. While the besiegers were celebrating their kill, the Guru himself made his escape. The Guru's life was saved by two Pathans he had known earlier. At Machiwara, where the imperial troops again closed in on him, the Pathans put Gobind in a curtained palanquin and passed the Mughal sentries with the explanation that they were carrying their pir. That was the end of the pursuit as far as the Guru was concerned. He arrived in the village ofJatpura, weary of limb but still full of faith and courage. 'I shall strike fire under the hoofs of your horses,' he wrote to Aurangzeb, 'and I will not let you drink the water of my Punjab. ' 31 At Jatpura he learned of the execution of his two remaining sons, Zorawar Singh, aged nine, and Fateh Singh, aged seven,311 30 7.afarniimii 31 7.afarniimii 32 According to Sikh chronicles, the boys were betrayed by I.heir Brahmin servant and executed by the order of Wazir Khan, the gO\·emor of Sirhind. There is a difference of opinion about the manner of their