Page 64 - Lohgarh

64 w Lohgarh : The World’s Largest Fort

Samana. This town had been the capital of the Punjab up to 1360, before
Firoz Shah Tughlak moved it from Samana to Sarhind. But, in spite of
this, Samana city was still the abode of very rich persons. It had several
big mansions of the Sayyads 8 and the Mughals. There were 22 such
umraa (plurals of amir, literally: very rich and affluent persons and chiefs,
i.e. the aristocracy) in this city, who had a right to move about in the
city in their own palanquins. These umraa’s houses were not less than
mini Forts; and there were heaps of gold and diamonds in these
mansions. The city had a big Fort too (a part of the wall of that Fort is
still in existence). Though there was no force, the umraa had no
apprehension that anybody would even think of attacking Samana.
Samana had a notorious image in the Sikh history and Sikh psyche.
This place was known as a ‘city of the jallads (executioners)’. Sayyad
Jalal-ud-Din, the executioner of Guru Tegh Bahadur belonged to this
town. Shashal Begh and Bashal Begh executioners, who had executed
the younger Sahibzadas at Sarhind, too belonged to Samana. The Qazi
who delivered the Aurangzeb’s letter (in fact not written by Aurangzeb)
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to the Guru at Anandpur on the 4 of December 1705 (asking the Guru
to quit Anandpur and reach Kangar village) too belonged to this town.
Many Sikhs had disdain for this town.
Banda Singh assessed the situation of attack on Samana and in the
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early hours of the 26 of November 1709 he attacked this town. The
Sikh soldiers entered the town just before dawn when most of the city
was asleep and began killing all those who dared to stop or attack them.
When the umraa saw the Sikh army, some of them tried to confront
the Sikhs but could not fight for long and finally shut themselves in
their mansions.
After capturing the main Fort, Banda Singh announced that the
Sikhs would not be revengeful towards any one; only the cruel officials
and the jallads (executioners) would be punished. After this declaration,
the local common Muslim workers sided with the Sikhs. As they had
also been the victims of the atrocities of their Sayyad and Mughal
landlords, they had no sympathy for the umraa. They helped the Sikhs
with secret information about the treasures of the umraas. After this,