Page 207 - Lohgarh

Battle of Gurdas Nangal and Arrest of Banda Singh Bahadur w 207

Singh, along with more than 700 other Sikh prisoners and two thousand
severed heads of the Sikhs; severed heads of the Sikhs had been heaped
in carts; the prisoner Sikhs had been tied in 2s and 3s and were ‘laden’
on camels. Banda Singh, who was in fetters, had been put in a big cage;
this cage had been placed on an elephant and a Mughal soldier, carrying
an unsheathed sword, was standing behind this cage, due to fear that
Banda Singh might not break the cage with his ‘magical power’ and fly
away. 24
The procession of the Sikh prisoners first reached the village of
th
Agarabad, in the outskirts of Delhi, on the 27 of February 1716. On
th
the 29 of February, before imprisoning them in the Salimgarh Fort (a
Fort built by Salim Shah Sur in 1540s, on the back side of the Lal Qila,
built by Shah Jahan in the 1620s; Salimgarh Fort was used for keeping
the prisoners); these prisoners were paraded through the streets of
Delhi. 25

The Scene of Procession of the Sikh Prisoners

This procession of the Sikh prisoners began from Agarabad and after
covering about ten km route it reached the Lal Qila. It was led by a
musical band, followed by the carts laden with severed heads of some
two thousand Sikhs. These heads had been filled with chaff and were
hung on the tops of bamboo sticks. The hair of these heads had been
left flowing so that people might know that they were the heads of the
Sikhs; these included some heads of the Sikh females as well and due
to their long hair they too looked like male Sikhs.
Next to these severed heads, one soldier was carrying a dead cat at
the top of a long bamboo stick. It signified that in the houses of the
Sikhs not only human folk, but even no animal was left alive.
It was followed by Banda Singh; who had been put in a big cage
that had been placed on an elephant; to ridicule Banda Singh, he had
been dressed as a bridegroom; he was made to wear a royal cloak
embroidered with pomegranate flowers and a red colored golden
brocade turban. A heavy wooden case, carrying 3-4 kg soil had been
placed on his head, and, due to this heavy weight he was sitting in a