The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c19.84

v4.c19.84

In the hills of the northern Punjab Govind passed most of his days, constantly fighting with the hill-rajas from Jammū to Garhwāl or with Mughul officers and local Muslim chiefs who had entered the hills. Large imperial forces were sent from Sirhind to co-operate with the hill-rajas against him; but they were usually defeated. His army went on increasing, as recruits from the Punjab plains flocked to him for baptism; and he even enlisted Muhammadans. Ānandpur, his stronghold, was five times invested. In the last attack, after undergoing great hardship and loss, the Gurū evacuated the fort and then entered the Punjab plains, closely pursued by the Mughuls. At Chamkaur, with only forty followers, he was besieged in a Jāt cultivator's house; but two of his sons were slain and he fled again, from place to place like a hunted animal, undergoing many adventures and hairbreadth escapes. His two remaining sons were put to death by the governor of Sirhind (1705). Then the baffled Gurū with a few faithful guards made his way to the Deccan by way of Bīkāner, but returned to northern India on hearing of Aurangzīb's death. In the war of succession among that emperor's sons, he took the side of Bahādur Shāh, and accompanied that monarch when he marched to Golconda against Kām Bakhsh (1707). Here the Gurū took up his residence at Nānder on the Godāvarī, 150 miles north-west of Hyderābād, and here he was stabbed to death by an Afghān follower in 1708.