
Battle of Amritsar
Began over a hawk of Shah Jahan's that the Guru's Sikhs would not give back. A Mughal detachment attacked during a wedding in the Guru's family and was beaten off.
In 1634 the emperor Shah Jahan was hunting near Amritsar when one of his white hawks flew into the Guru's camp, and the Sikhs refused to give it back to the royal huntsmen. The quarrel became a pretext for war.
A Mughal force under Mukhlis Khan was sent from Lahore and attacked Amritsar at night, while the Guru's household was preparing for his daughter Bibi Viro's wedding. The Sikhs fought through the night and the next day in the streets and at Pipli Sahib outside the city. Mukhlis Khan was killed in single combat with the Guru himself, who used his shield to take the blow and struck him down.
It was the first great victory of the Sikhs over a Mughal army. But the Guru knew Amritsar was too exposed, and the household withdrew to Jhabal, where the wedding took place, and then towards the Malwa.
Same era
Mughal Punjab, 1526 – 1705
Babur's field guns and cavalry tactics destroyed a much larger Lodi army. Guru Nanak's hymns of the same years speak of the suffering of Babur's invasions.
Battle of MachhiwaraMay 1555 · Mughal victory; Humayun regains HindustanOn the Sutlej at Machhiwara the returning Mughals beat the Afghans of the Sur dynasty, and a month later won again at Sirhind.

Hemu, a Hindu general who had taken Delhi, was winning until an arrow struck his eye; his army broke and the boy Akbar's throne was saved.

The first armed clash of Guru Hargobind's time, fought over the founding of Sri Hargobindpur on the Beas.

Fought in the Malwa over horses the Sikh Bidhi Chand had recovered from imperial stables, which had originally been gifts for the Guru.

Painde Khan, once the Guru's own commander, led a Mughal army against him and was killed. The young Tyag Mal fought so well he was renamed Tegh Bahadur.

A skirmish as the Guru withdrew from Kartarpur towards Kiratpur.

The Guru's first battle, aged about twenty-two. Pir Budhu Shah of Sadhaura fought for him with his followers and lost two sons.