Later Mughals v1.c6.s19.18

v1.c6.s19.18

Here the Sikhs had built a strong fort as a place of refuge, apparently the first to resort to this quarter having been Guru Govind Singh, in the period of seclusion succeeding his father, Tegh Bahadur's, death. The name given to the stronghold was Lohgarh, or Iron Fort, either in allusion to the prominence of iron in the Guru's new ritual, or with reference to the fort's supposed impregnability. Its exact situation cannot be determined, but it was about half-way between the towns of Nahan (in Sirmur) and Sadhaura (sarkar Sarhind); probably it stood on some spur of the hills overlooking one of the dry, stony, torrent beds, or raos, which form such a peculiar feature of the hill country and its border-land, both there and in the north of the Saharanpur district. The fort may have been on the Som rao, or more probably, on the rao still bearing the name of Lohgarh.* Roughly speaking, it lay some twelve miles to the north-east of Sadhaura. Here the Guru stood at bay, having the walls of the fort mounted with small cannon and pierced for musketry.†