Sharan Kaur Pabla

Sharan Kaur Pabla was a Sikh martyr who was slain in 1704 by Mughal soldiers while cremating the bodies two older sons of Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh Guru, after the Battle of Chamkaur. She was from the village Raipur Rani which is 2 km from the famous town of Chamkaur.[1][2]

Guru Gobind Singh escaped the fort of Chamkaur on the night of December 22, 1704. He briefly stopped at Raipur on his way to Machhiwara. 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 and Sahibzada Jujhar Singh . 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.[1]

A third account says that she indeed jumped into funeral pyre in a Jauhar 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 husband 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 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.[3]

Sharan Kaur was a Saini and Raipur has considerable Saini population. She is also sometimes linked as a possible ancestor with Sikh nobleman of Phulkiyan, Sardar Nanu Singh Saini, whose family later owned sizeable land in the village Raipur.[2] 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.[2]