Battle of Gurdas Nangal

The Battle of Gurdas Nangal was a battle that took place on April 1715 between the Sikhs, led by Banda Singh Bahadur, and the Mughals, led by Abd al-Samad Khan. Banda was at that time carrying on operations and small raids to the north of Amritsar. Just then, the Mughal Army appeared to confront them with the full determination to finally crush the Sikhs. Banda then quickly retired northwards to take shelter in the fort of Gurdaspur. It had been recently extended so as to accommodate 60,000 horses and food. Large stores of grain and fodder had also been collected there. The Mughal Army converged upon the fort from three sides. The Delhi force of 20.000 men under Qamar-ud-din Khan advanced from the east. The Lahore troops consisting of 10,000 men under Abd al-Samad Khan marched from the south. And the Jammu troops numbering nearly 5,000, under Zakariya Khan, moved from the north. To the west of the fort was River Ravi, which had no bridge over it. All the boats had been withdrawn to the opposite bank which was closely guarded by numerous local chiefs and government officials. The pursuit was so tight that Banda could not enter his fort at Gurdaspur. Thus, he quickly turned west.[4]

Battle of Gurdas Nangal
Part of Mughal-Sikh Wars
Date 1 April 1715 - 7 December 1715 Location Gurdaspur Result Mughal victory.[1] Territorial changes Banda Singh's empire comes to an end and all of his territories are captured by the Mughals. Banda Singh is captured by the Mughals.
Belligerents
Khalsa	Mughal Empire
Commanders and leaders
Banda Singh Bahadur  Baj Singh Binod Singh  Hakim Nand	Abd al-Samad Khan Zakariya Khan Bahadur Qamar-ud-din
Strength
4,000 [2]	100,000 [3]

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Finding that all the ways of escape had been barred, he rushed into the haveli of Duni Chand which had a large open compound with a wall around it at village Gurdas Nangal, 6 kms to the west of Gurdaspur. In it, Banda accommodated 1,250 men with a small number of horses.

Banda Singh dug a ditch around the enclosure and filled it with water from the canal flowing nearby. The Mughals also dug trenches all around the enclosure. The battle then took place on the beginning of April 1715. The news of the battle reached Farrukhsiyar on 17 April 1715. The siege lasted a little over eight months. The full summer from April to June, the entire rainy season from July to September, and half of winter from October to the beginning of December passed in this condition with frequent sorties and occasional skirmishes.

Muhammad Qasim, a Mughal soldier who fought against the Sikhs, in this campaign wrote:

The brave and daring deeds of the infernal Sikhs was wonderful. Twice or thrice everyday some forty or fifty of the black-faced Sikhs came out of their enclosure to gather grass for their cattle, and, when the combined forces of the Mughals went to oppose them, they made an end of the Mughals with arrows, muskets and small swords, and disappeared. Such was the terror of the Sikhs and the fear of the sorceries of the Sikh Chief that the commanders of this army prayed that God might so ordain things that Banda should seek his safety in flight from the Garhi.

Eventually all supplies of foodstuff and fodder came to a dead stop. All animals died, and their flesh was eaten. Then their bones and bark of trees were powdered and eaten. Many Sikhs died of hunger and the rest were completely famished and reduced to skeletons. Seeing that resistance had completely ceased, the Mughal Army on 7 December 1715, ventured into the enclosure. About 300 Sikh men, almost on the verge of death, were beheaded. Their bodies were then cut up in search of gold coins which the Mughals believed that they had swallowed. Banda was then, along with his 740 followers, captured.

With this beggarly equipment in men, money and material and living in a small house with an open compound, Banda had defied the mighty Mughal Empire for over eight months. No better record than this challenge can be traced anywhere else in world history.[5]