Bahadurgarh Fort

Bahadurgarh Fort stands about 8 km north-east of Patiala, on the Patiala-Rajpura road. It was built on the site of Sayfabad, a village founded in 1656-57 by the Mughal noble Sayf Khan (Sayf al-Din Mahmud). He governed Delhi, Kashmir, Multan, Bihar and Allahabad, wrote the Rag Darpan on Indian music, and patronised the poet Nasir Ali Sirhindi. Between postings he lived as a hermit, and he chose this quiet place, far from the royal highway, for his village. According to Sikh tradition, Sayf Khan was a friend and admirer of Guru Tegh Bahadur. In June 1675 the Guru came to visit him and, at his request, stayed in the Nawab’s garden for about three months through the rains. He held diwans inside the fort for the Nawab’s household and left on 17 September 1675. The garden is now Gurdwara Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib, about 200 m north-east of the fort. Sayf Khan’s gateway still stands. Its verse inscription names Aurangzeb as emperor, though Shah Jahan was still on the throne in 1656-57. The historian Subhash Parihar thinks the inscription was added after Aurangzeb took the throne in 1658 and Sayf Khan changed sides. A mosque followed in 1666. Sayf Khan died at Allahabad in 1683, and his body was brought home to Sayfabad for burial. His descendants held the village until 1774, when Amar Singh of Patiala took it after a week-long siege. In 1837 Maharaja Karam Singh laid the foundation of the present fort and renamed it Bahadurgarh for the Guru. He also built two gurdwaras in the Guru’s memory, one outside the fort and one inside. The fort has two circular ramparts about 33.5 m apart. The outer one is 8.85 m high and ringed by a ditch 7.6 m deep and 17.7 m wide. It took eight years and 10 lakh rupees to build, and it was never attacked. Of Sayf Khan’s village, only the gateway and mosque survive inside the walls. His tomb and those of his family stand just south of the fort. Today the fort is a police and paramilitary base, and it is said to have sheltered refugees during Partition and later housed a Punjab Police commando training centre. Every Vaisakhi a large festival is held at the gurdwara. Sources: Parihar, “Architectural Remains at Bahadurgarh”, Islamic Studies 36:1 (1997); Parihar, Mughal Monuments in the Punjab and Haryana (1985), ch. 5; DiscoverSikhism.com, “Gurdwara Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib Bahadurgarh Qila”.