
Battle of Nadaun
The Guru helped the hill rajas, who had refused to pay tribute, defeat a Mughal force on the Beas.
In 1690 the Mughals demanded arrears of tribute from the hill rajas. Bhim Chand of Kahlur, reconciled with Guru Gobind Singh, asked for his help, and the Guru joined the rajas against the Mughal commander Alif Khan at Nadaun on the Beas in Kangra.
The battle was fought on the hills above the river. The Mughals were defeated and Alif Khan fled. The Guru describes it in the Bachittar Natak with vivid verses on the clash of armies.
Soon afterwards, the rajas made peace with the Mughals without the Guru, the first of many betrayals. The Guru stayed eight days at Nadaun before returning to Anandpur.
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.

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.