The pursuing Mughal force was held at the dried pool and turned back; the Forty died to a man.
01The bedava
During the long siege of Anandpur forty Singhs of the Majha had signed a bedava, a writing that they were no longer the Guru’s Sikhs, and gone home. At home they were shamed by their families. Mai Bhago of Jhabal led them back to find the Guru, who was then moving through the Malwa country with Mughal troops behind him. They reached the dhab, a pool, at Khidrana ahead of the pursuers and stood there.
02Forty mukte
They fought until all were killed or dying. The Guru went among the fallen. Mahan Singh, the last alive, asked him to tear up the bedava, and he did. The Sikh ardas still remembers the Chali Mukte, the forty liberated ones, and the place has been called Muktsar, the pool of liberation, ever since. The Maghi mela held there each January keeps their day.
The last battle Guru Gobind Singh fought against the Mughals, remembered in every ardas.