Sharan Kaur Pabla - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Sharan Kaur Pabla was a Sikh

Sikh

A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...

martyr who was slain in 1705 by 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...

soldiers while cremating the bodies two older sons of 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...

, the 10th Sikh Guru, after the battle of Chamkaur

Battle of Chamkaur

The Battle Of Chamkaur or also known as Battle Of Chamkaur Sahib was a battle fought between the Khalsa led by Guru Gobind Singh against the Mughal forces led by Wazir Khan. Guru Gobind Singh makes a reference to this battle in Zafarnamah...

. She was from the village Raipur Rani which is 2 KM from the famous town of Chamkaur

Chamkaur

Chamkaur Sahib is a Sub Divisional town in the district of Rupnagar in the Indian State of Punjab. It is famous for the Battle of Chamkaur fought between the Mughals and Guru Gobind Singh....

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Guru Gobind Singh escaped the fort of Chamkaur on the night of December 22, 1705. He briefly stopped at Raipur on his way to Machhiwara

Machhiwara

Machhiwara is a village and a nagar panchayat in the Ludhiana district of the Indian state of Punjab. Machhiwara is famous for Gurudwara Sri Charan Kanwal Sahib named after the Guru's feet that are compared to the lotus flower...

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

Sahibzada Ajit Singh

Sahibzada Ajit Singh was the eldest of Guru Gobind Singh's four sons. His younger brothers were Sahibzada Jujhar Singh, Sahibzada Zorawar Singh and Sahibzada Fateh Singh. With his three brothers, Sahibzada Ajit Singh carried on a great family tradition: that of attaining the status of one of the...

and Sahibzada Jujhar Singh

Sahibzada Jujhar Singh

Sahibzada Jujhar Singh , the second son of Guru Gobind Singh, was born to Mata Jito at Anandpur Sahib on March 14, 1691...

. Bibi Sharan Kaur Pabla performed the last rites of the two elder Sahibzadas and other Sikh warriors who had laid down their lives in the battle. According to one account, Bibi Sharan Kaur Pabla was so grief stricken that she herself jumped in the funeral pyre and ended her life. According to another view she did not self-immolate but was slain by Moghul soldiers and thrown in the funeral pyre of Sahibzadas, when she and her other accomplices from Raipur, were caught cremating the bodies of Sahibzadas.

A third account says that she indeed jump into funeral pyre in a Jauhar

Jauhar

Jauhar and Saka refer to the ancient Indian tradition of honorary self immolation of women and subsequent march of men to the battle field to end their life with respect. It was followed by the Rajput clans in order to avoid capture and dishonour at the hands of their enemies...

style self-immolation. Her own husband Bhai Pritam Singh, who was one of Guru Gobind Singh's warriors, was with the 10th Guru inside the Chamkaur fort resisting the Moghul attack. She discovered her among the dead. In total she is said to have collected bodies of thirty two stormtroopers of the Guru , including two Sahibzadas. She tried to cremate them in a single funeral pyre. As soon as the funeral pyre was lit she was discovered by Moghul and Ranghar

Ranghar

Ranghar are a Muslim ethnic group, which is found in Sindh and Punjab provinces of Pakistan and Haryana and Uttar Pradesh states of India. Ranghar were native to Indian state of Haryana and also found in the Doab region of Uttar Pradesh, as well as Delhi in India...

soldiers who wanted the bodies of the soldiers - martyrs according to Sikh 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. It is said that understanding 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.

Sharan Kaur was a Saini

Saini

Saini is a Rajput descent caste of India. Sainis, also known as Shoorsaini in Puranic literature, are now found by their original name only in Punjab and in the neighboring states of Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh...

and Raipur has considerable Saini

Saini

population. She is also sometimes linked as a possible ancestor with Sikh nobleman of Phulkiyan, Sardar Nanu Singh Saini

Nanu Singh Saini

Sardar Nanu Singh Saini was a Sikh army general and a well-known jagirdar in Phulkian riyasat. He was a close associate of Maharaja Ala Singh who founded the Patiala state in 1753 AD....

, whose family later owned sizeable land in the village Raipur. This village also 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 Pabla.

See also