Sirhind -Fategarh
Encyclopedia
Sirhind-Fatehgarh सरहिंद سرحىند is a city and a municipal council
in Fatehgarh Sahib district
in the India
n state
of Punjab
. It is often simply called Sirhind. This is the city where Guru Gobind Singh
's 9 and 7 year old little sons Sahibzada Fateh Singh
and Sahibzada Zorawar Singh
were buried alive by constructing a brick wall around them by the Mughal
rulers of that time.
, Sirhind-Fategarh had a population of 50,788. Males constitute 54% of the population and females 46%. Sirhind-Fatehgarh has an average literacy rate of 71%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 74%, and female literacy is 67%. In Sirhind-Fatehgarh, 12% of the population is under 6 years of age.
invaders saw it as the 'gateway to Hindustan
'. However, a 5th century AD tribe 'Sairindhas Aryans, which inhabited this area, might have also led to its present name.
(505 – 587) in his Sanskrit treatise, Brihat Samhita, mentions the city as 'Satudar Desh', later it was inhabited by a tribe of 'Sairindhas Aryans, leading to its present name.
According to Huan Tsang
, the Chinese traveller who visited India during the seventh century, Sirhind was the capital of the district of Shitotulo, or Shatadru (the present day River Sutlej
).
In 1012, it became the capital of the 'Hindushahi' dynasty and remained so till the end of the 12th century, when it was taken over by the Chauhans. Later during the rule of Prithvi Raj Chauhan (1168–1192), the last Rajput
ruler of Delhi, it became his military outpost.
It further rose in glory during the Mughal Empire
, when it became its provincial capital, controlling the Lahore
-Delhi
Highway, the Grand Trunk Road
. During the Mughal era, Sirhind was the name for Malwa, since it was the area's capital city. Sirhind was the headquarters or the Mughal administration in Eastern Punjab. Many European travellers describe its splendours, and it also developed into a center of cultural activity.
Sirhind was known for the dozens of saints, scholars, poets, historians, calligraphers
and scribes who lived there. A large number of buildings survive from this period, including the fort named 'Aam Khas Bagh
'; it is said that in its heyday, the city had 360 mosques, gardens, tombs, caravansarais and wells. It has also been home to 16th century saint of the Naqshbandi
order, 'Ahmad Sirhindi
' (~1564-1624), whose mausoleum, the Rauza Sharif
is situated in Sirhind. Consequently, this small Indian city is also famous in the territories of the former Ottoman Empire
, particularly in Turkey
, as Serhend.
Beginning with the first decade of the eighteenth century, with the Mughal hegemony on the wane, Sirhind was plundered repeatedly by the Sikhs, Marathas and Afghans
. An important event in the history of the city, was the live entombment of the two sons of the tenth Guru of the Sikhs, Sri Guru Gobind Singh
on 12 December 1705, by the Governor of Sirhind, Wazir Khan
, the place is the today commemorated by Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib, 5 km. north of the Sirhind. This action further soured relations between the Sikhs and the Mughal and the city faced many attacks.
Finally it was completely destroyed in February 1761 in an attack by the Sikhs, led by Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, who had already captured Lahore
in 1758, and now extended his territory to Taran Taran
. The conquest of Sirhind followed the defeat of the Mughal governor in a pitched battle, mosques were destroyed, a massacre of the population occurred and even the bodies of the dead were dug up.
Subhash Parihar, "Medieval Sirhind and its Monuments", Marg (Mumbai), vol. 55, no. 4, June 2004, pp. 42–57.
Subhash Parihar,“Historic Mosques of Sirhind”. Islamic Studies, 43(3)(2004): 481-510.
Subhash Parihar,"Arabic and Persian Inscriptions from Sirhind". Islamic Studies, 38(2)(1999): 255-74.
Municipal council
A municipal council is the local government of a municipality. Specifically the term can refer to the institutions of various countries that can be translated by this term...
in Fatehgarh Sahib district
Fatehgarh Sahib district
Fatehgarh Sahib district , is one of the twenty two districts in the state of Punjab in North-West Republic of India, with its headquarters in the city of Fatehgarh Sahib....
in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n state
States and territories of India
India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...
of Punjab
Punjab (India)
Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...
. It is often simply called Sirhind. This is the city where Guru Gobind Singh
Guru Gobind Singh
Guru Gobind Singh is the tenth and last Sikh guru in a sacred lineage of ten Sikh gurus. Born in Patna, Bihar in India, he was also a warrior, poet and philosopher. He succeeded his father Guru Tegh Bahadur as the leader of Sikhs at a young age of nine...
's 9 and 7 year old little sons Sahibzada Fateh Singh
Sahibzada Fateh Singh
Sahibzada Fateh Singh was the youngest of Guru Gobind Singh's four sons. He and his older brother, Sahibzada Zorawar Singh are among the most hallowed martyrs in Sikhism. He is also known as Baba Fateh Singh...
and Sahibzada Zorawar Singh
Sahibzada Zorawar Singh
Sahibzada Zorawar Singh was the third of Guru Gobind Singh's four sons. He and his younger brother, Sahibzada Fateh Singh are among the most hallowed martyrs in Sikhism....
were buried alive by constructing a brick wall around them by the Mughal
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
rulers of that time.
Demographics
India censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
, Sirhind-Fategarh had a population of 50,788. Males constitute 54% of the population and females 46%. Sirhind-Fatehgarh has an average literacy rate of 71%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 74%, and female literacy is 67%. In Sirhind-Fatehgarh, 12% of the population is under 6 years of age.
Etymology
According to popular notion, the present name of the city, Sirhind, comes from 'Sar-i hind', meaning the Frontier of Hind, as MughalMughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
invaders saw it as the 'gateway to Hindustan
Hindustan
Hindustan or Indostan, literal translation "Land of River Sindhu ", is one of the popular names of South Asia. It can also mean "the land of the Hindus"...
'. However, a 5th century AD tribe 'Sairindhas Aryans, which inhabited this area, might have also led to its present name.
History
Sirhind has been known as a small township from the beginning of the Christian era. VarahamihiraVarahamihira
Varāhamihira , also called Varaha or Mihira, was an Indian astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer who lived in Ujjain...
(505 – 587) in his Sanskrit treatise, Brihat Samhita, mentions the city as 'Satudar Desh', later it was inhabited by a tribe of 'Sairindhas Aryans, leading to its present name.
According to Huan Tsang
Xuanzang
Xuanzang was a famous Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveler, and translator who described the interaction between China and India in the early Tang period...
, the Chinese traveller who visited India during the seventh century, Sirhind was the capital of the district of Shitotulo, or Shatadru (the present day River Sutlej
Sutlej
The Sutlej River is the longest of the five rivers that flow through the historic crossroad region of Punjab in northern India and Pakistan. It is located north of the Vindhya Range, south of the Hindu Kush segment of the Himalayas, and east of the Central Sulaiman Range in Pakistan.The Sutlej...
).
In 1012, it became the capital of the 'Hindushahi' dynasty and remained so till the end of the 12th century, when it was taken over by the Chauhans. Later during the rule of Prithvi Raj Chauhan (1168–1192), the last Rajput
Rajput
A Rajput is a member of one of the patrilineal clans of western, central, northern India and in some parts of Pakistan. Rajputs are descendants of one of the major ruling warrior classes in the Indian subcontinent, particularly North India...
ruler of Delhi, it became his military outpost.
It further rose in glory during the Mughal Empire
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
, when it became its provincial capital, controlling the Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
-Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
Highway, the Grand Trunk Road
Grand Trunk Road
The Grand Trunk Road also formerly known as Uttarapatha, Shah Rah-e-Azam or Sadak-e-Azam or Badshahi Sadak is one of South Asia's oldest and longest major roads...
. During the Mughal era, Sirhind was the name for Malwa, since it was the area's capital city. Sirhind was the headquarters or the Mughal administration in Eastern Punjab. Many European travellers describe its splendours, and it also developed into a center of cultural activity.
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
and scribes who lived there. A large number of buildings survive from this period, including the fort named 'Aam Khas Bagh
Aam Khas Bagh
Aam Khas Bagh, today is actually remains of a highway-inn constructed for the use of royalty as well as common people . This Royal inn was initially built by Babur extended and almost rebuilt by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan along the Mughal military road between Delhi and Lahore, and The Royal couple...
'; it is said that in its heyday, the city had 360 mosques, gardens, tombs, caravansarais and wells. It has also been home to 16th century saint of the Naqshbandi
Naqshbandi
Naqshbandi is one of the major Sufi spiritual orders of Sufi Islam. It is considered to be a "Potent" order.The Naqshbandi order is over 1,300 years old, and is active today...
order, 'Ahmad Sirhindi
Ahmad Sirhindi
Imām Rabbānī Shaykh Ahmad al-Farūqī al-Sirhindī was an Indian Islamic scholar from Punjab, a Hanafi jurist, and a prominent member of the Naqshbandī Sufi order. He is described as Mujaddid Alf Thānī, meaning the "reviver of the second millennium", for his work in rejuvenating Islam and opposing...
' (~1564-1624), whose mausoleum, the Rauza Sharif
Rauza Sharif
Rauza Sharif or Dargah of Shaikh Ahmad Faruqi Sirhindi is situated on the Sirhind-Bassi Pathana Road at a small distance to the north of Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib...
is situated in Sirhind. Consequently, this small Indian city is also famous in the territories of the former Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, particularly in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, as Serhend.
Beginning with the first decade of the eighteenth century, with the Mughal hegemony on the wane, Sirhind was plundered repeatedly by the Sikhs, Marathas and Afghans
Pashtun people
Pashtuns or Pathans , also known as ethnic Afghans , are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group with populations primarily between the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan and the Indus River in Pakistan...
. An important event in the history of the city, was the live entombment of the two sons of the tenth Guru of the Sikhs, Sri Guru Gobind Singh
Guru Gobind Singh
Guru Gobind Singh is the tenth and last Sikh guru in a sacred lineage of ten Sikh gurus. Born in Patna, Bihar in India, he was also a warrior, poet and philosopher. He succeeded his father Guru Tegh Bahadur as the leader of Sikhs at a young age of nine...
on 12 December 1705, by the Governor of Sirhind, Wazir Khan
Wazir Khan
Wazir Khan,Shaikh Ilam-ud-din Ansari , a native of Chiniot, who rose to be a minor court physician to Shah Jahan in Lahore, was a Mughal noble, who was the Subedar of Sirhind, he personally commanded an army of over 30,000 men consisting mainly of Muslim Rajputs.Wazir Khan is noted for his...
, the place is the today commemorated by Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib, 5 km. north of the Sirhind. This action further soured relations between the Sikhs and the Mughal and the city faced many attacks.
Finally it was completely destroyed in February 1761 in an attack by the Sikhs, led by Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, who had already captured Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
in 1758, and now extended his territory to Taran Taran
Taran Taran
Taran Taran can refer to:* Tarn Taran, a place in Punjab, India* Taran Taran, Pakistan, a place in Punjab, Pakistan* Taran Svami the founder of Taran Panth...
. The conquest of Sirhind followed the defeat of the Mughal governor in a pitched battle, mosques were destroyed, a massacre of the population occurred and even the bodies of the dead were dug up.
Further reading
- Subhash Parihar, History and Architectural Remains of Sirhind, 2006, Aryan Books International. ISBN 8173053111.
Subhash Parihar, "Medieval Sirhind and its Monuments", Marg (Mumbai), vol. 55, no. 4, June 2004, pp. 42–57.
Subhash Parihar,“Historic Mosques of Sirhind”. Islamic Studies, 43(3)(2004): 481-510.
Subhash Parihar,"Arabic and Persian Inscriptions from Sirhind". Islamic Studies, 38(2)(1999): 255-74.