Page 248 - Lohgarh

248 w Lohgarh : The World’s Largest Fort

by Sukha Singh and Gurbilas Patsahi Chhevin (1835-40) by some
unknown author (by Gurmukh Singh and Darbara Singh as per Kahan
Singh Nabha). All these three works present distorted history of the
Gurus period. These too do not have much materials about the Banda
Singh’s role.
Kesar Singh Chhiber (great-grandson of the Diwan Dargah Mall,
minister of Gurus from 1644 to 1696) wrote the Bansawlinama Dasan
Patsahian DA in 1769. The second part of this book is based on the
author’s memoirs, but still it gives some useful materials about Banda
Singh’s role.
In 1790, Sawrup Singh Kaushish wrote Guru Kian Sakhian, which
was solely based on Bhatt Vahis. This book has very precious data of
the Gurus - period and some information about Banda Singh too.
The next in this series are the works by Santokh Singh (Gur Partap
Suraj Granth, 1839), Ratan Singh Bhangu (Prachin Panth Parkash, 1814/
1840) and Giani Gian Singh (Panth Patkash 1890). Though, these books
are a chronological account of the Sikh history, but all the three are
replete with seriously distorted information. However, another work
Shashi Bans Binod (1879) by Ganesha Singh Bedi has preserved some
precious data of relations between the Gurus and the Bilaspur (Kehlur)
state. Ram Sukh Rao’s Fateh Singh Parbhakar and Jasa Singh Binod
(written in the second half of the nineteenth century) to have some
good information.
The Persian sources are most valuable source of information about
the Banda Singh’s period. Though a reference to the Gurus too can be
found in Akbar Nama (Abu Fazal, 1601), and Tuzk-i-Jahangiri (1620s)
but Dabistan-i-Mazahib (1645-46) by Zulfikar Ardastani (earlier mistaken
as Muhsan Fani) has much detailed information about Sikhism (though
it is an amalgam of right information and hearsay materials). Sujan Rai
Bhandari’s Khulastut Twareekh (1696) also has some references to
Gurus-period, but it covers the period up to 1695-96 only.
Most precious Persian sources narrating the Sikh situation are
Akhbarat-i-Darbar-i-Mu’alla (literally: the news of the court of the
Emperor); this is in the form of the reports sent by the agents of Jaipur