Diwan Todar Mal
Merchant of Sirhind who bought land to cremate the Guru's younger sons and mother by covering it in gold coins, said to be the most expensive land ever bought.
Todar Mal was a wealthy Hindu merchant and official of Sirhind, a devotee of the Gurus. He was in Sirhind in December 1704 when the young sons of Guru Gobind Singh and their grandmother Mata Gujri died.
The governor Wazir Khan refused to allow the bodies to be cremated on any land not bought for the purpose, and the landowner demanded that the plot be covered with gold coins. Diwan Todar Mal laid gold mohurs, set on their edges by one telling so as to cover more ground, across the land and bought it, and cremated them there.
It is said to be the most expensive piece of land ever bought. Gurdwara Jyoti Sarup stands on it, and the Sikhs honour him as one of the most selfless men in their history.
Connected
The Guru's younger sons, aged about nine and six, executed at Sirhind for refusing to convert. Their week of martyrdom is the Shaheedi Jor Mela.
Wife of Guru Tegh Bahadur and mother of Guru Gobind Singh. Held with her younger grandsons in the cold tower of Sirhind, she died there on hearing of their execution.