A household that travelled with the community

Mata Gujri, also written Gujari, was the wife of Guru Tegh Bahadur and mother of Guru Gobind Singh. A. C. Banerjee’s account places her family at Kartarpur and traces her married life through Amritsar, Kiratpur and Bakala. During the eastern journeys of the 1660s, she stayed at Patna, where Gobind Rai was born in 1666. The family later returned through Lakhnaur to Chakk Nanaki, the settlement associated with Anandpur. After Tegh Bahadur’s execution in 1675, she initially managed affairs there with help from her brother Kirpal Chand while her son was young.[1]

The well remembered at Lakhnaur

Lakhnaur preserves a different part of her memory. Major Gurmukh Singh’s local history describes a stay of about six months in 1670–1671, with her brother Mehar Chand and the local congregation leader, Jetha. It also recounts her intervention over drinking water. A well outside the village had collapsed, while other wells supplied brackish water. At her request, a narrower well was dug inside the ruined one, restoring the source. The account identifies its continuing name as Mataji da Khuh, or Mata Gujri da Khuh. This local tradition remembers care for a shared practical need.[2]

Captivity, death and a place of mourning

Banerjee’s retrospective narrative ends with the evacuation of Anandpur, separation near the Sarsa and her captivity with her younger grandsons, Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh, at Sirhind. Sikh chronicles remember their confinement in the Thanda Burj. Gujri died during this crisis; the reference follows the 1705 chronology. The account joins her final days to the children’s deaths and the mourning that followed.[1]

The Fatehgarh Sahib district administration identifies Gurdwara Jyoti Sarup as their cremation memorial. Its description also recounts the belief that Todar Mal obtained land for the cremation by covering it with gold coins. The page itself marks this as a belief. The shrine brings the grandmother and both grandsons together in remembrance, extending her story beyond the site of confinement to the place where their bodies were cared for.[3]

Sources & notes

Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.

  1. A. C. Banerjee; Punjabi University, Encyclopaedia of Sikhism. Gujari, Mata (1624–1705) ↗Authored historical reference · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Full entry: Kartarpur and household moves; Patna birth; Chakk Nanaki responsibilities after 1675; final Sirhind narrative. Accessed 2026-11-01.The actual full entry was read, including its bibliography and attribution to Sikh chronicles. No precise converted December day, age at execution, graphic killing account or collective religious blame is adopted. Its 1705 chronology remains explicitly attributed.Return to At a glance: Husband ↑Return to At a glance: Son ↑Return to A household that travelled with the community, paragraph 1 ↑Return to Captivity, death and a place of mourning, paragraph 1 ↑
  2. Major Gurmukh Singh (Retd.); Punjabi University, Encyclopaedia of Sikhism. Lakhnaur ↗Authored local historical reference · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Opening account of the 1670 visit and approximately six-month stay; paragraph beginning “Water in the wells in Lakhnaur”. Accessed 2026-11-01.The actual full entry was read. The well-repair episode is presented as the reference account’s local tradition, not an inspected seventeenth-century engineering or land record. Unrelated miracle and later violence narratives are excluded.Return to At a glance: Local remembrance ↑Return to The well remembered at Lakhnaur, paragraph 1 ↑
  3. District Administration Fatehgarh Sahib; Government of Punjab. Gurudwara Jyoti Sarup ↗Official site and commemoration description · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: Historical description directly below the photo gallery; footer last updated 22 October 2018. Accessed 2026-11-01.The actual government page was inspected. It identifies the cremation site and explicitly uses “It is believed” for the gold-coin land-purchase narrative. The footer update date is not treated as the original publication date.Return to Captivity, death and a place of mourning, paragraph 2 ↑
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Record PH-PEO-0063 · English edition · human review not performed