Samadh of Sham Singh Attariwala

In Attari village, the memorial samadhs of Sardar Sham Singh Attariwala stand beside a gurdwara. They were built in 1846, after his death at the Battle of Sobraon, to honour one of the last Sikh generals to die fighting for the Khalsa Raj. The current marble structures were built in later 20th century. A memorial and small museum in his honour stand next to it, with portraits depicting the story of his life. His death anniversary is still observed at Attari every year. Most visitors come to Attari for the border ceremony and never see the village itself. The samadhs are usually quiet and rarely visited, even though they mark the resting place of the man who made Attari famous in Sikh history. Sham Singh was martyred on 10 February 1846 at Sobraon. Dressed in white and mounted on his horse, he rode into the British lines and was shot. His body was later found where the dead lay the most. Two days after the battle, people from Attari came to look for him, and the British allowed them to take his body back for cremation with full respect. Attari was settled around 1735 by Sham Singh's ancestors Gaur Singh and Kaur Singh. Their family were Sidhu Jats who came from Mehraj in Bathinda and had spent time at Kaunke Kalan near Jagraon. Gaur Singh served the Bhangi Misl. His son Nihal Singh stayed loyal to the Bhangis for decades. Later he joined the Shukerchakia side under Maharaja Ranjit Singh and was rewarded with jagirs, including the Kasur area after its conquest. Sham Singh was born around 1790 and spent his youth at Kaunke Kalan, away from the misl conflicts of the Majha. After his father's death around 1816, he took his place in Ranjit Singh's army. He fought at Multan (1818), in Kashmir (1819) and at Naushera (1823). He was also posted to the Jamrud area after the death of Hari Singh Nalwa in 1837. In the same year his daughter Nanaki Kaur married Kanwar Nau Nihal Singh, grandson of Ranjit Singh in one of the grandest weddings in Sikh history. After Ranjit Singh passed away, Sham Singh stayed out of the court intrigues and retired to his estates. When the First Anglo-Sikh War broke out, he opposed it, but he was accused of cowardice and decided to fight. According to tradition, he and his men swore before the Guru Granth Sahib in the village gurdwara that they would return only in victory, otherwise be martyred. At Sobraon, he refused Tej Singh's advice to flee and died with his troops. Even British accounts record that he fought for Punjab to the end, unlike Tej Singh and Lal Singh, who abandoned the field. British Commander-in-Chief Hugh Gough said: "I would have wept to have witnessed the fearful slaughter of so devoted a body of men."