From Machhiwara Guru Gobind Singh moved into the dry country of the Malwa, gathering new followers, with a Mughal force from Sirhind on his trail. In his camp were the forty Sikhs of Majha who had disowned him at Anandpur and then come back, shamed by Mai Bhago and the women of their villages.
At the pool of Khidrana, the only water for miles, the forty and Mai Bhago turned to face the Mughal army. They spread sheets over the bushes to look like tents. The Guru watched and shot arrows from a mound. They fought until almost every one was dead, and the Mughals, without water and exhausted, withdrew.
The Guru went among the fallen, blessing them by name. Mahan Singh, dying, asked him to tear up their disclaimer, and he did. He called them the Chali Mukte, the Forty Liberated, and the place became Muktsar. The battle is dated variously in 1705 or 1706. It was the last battle of the Guru's life, and the Maghi fair at Muktsar commemorates it.
Guru Gobind Singh's last journeys
Anandpur to Nanded, 1704 – 1708Same 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.
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.
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.
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Painting depicting the Battle of Khidrana (later known as the Battle of Muktsar)Government Museum, Chandigarh · photo Wikimedia Commons (Wikimedia Commons) ↗