In 1702 Guru Gobind Singh left Anandpur for a time and camped at Nirmohgarh, on a low hill near Kiratpur on the Sutlej. The hill rajas, who had failed to take Anandpur, saw a chance to catch him in the open, and called on a Mughal detachment under Wazir Khan of Sirhind for help.
For two days the allied force attacked the Guru's camp. The Sikhs held their ground, and the Guru's artillery and archers drove the attackers back; tradition tells of a Mughal gunner aiming at the Guru himself and missing.
The Guru then crossed the Sutlej and stayed for a time at Basali at the invitation of its raja before returning to Anandpur. Gurdwara Nirmohgarh Sahib stands on the hill.
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.