01Chandni Chowk, 1675
A deputation of Kashmiri Pandits came to Anandpur in 1675 asking the Guru to help them against forced conversion. Guru Tegh Bahadur set out for Delhi, was arrested and held in the kotwali of Chandni Chowk with three companions. Bhai Mati Das was sawn apart, Bhai Dayala boiled alive and Bhai Sati Das burnt wrapped in cotton, before the Guru’s eyes. When he still refused to give up his faith, he was beheaded under a banyan tree by the kotwali in November 1675. Guru Gobind Singh wrote in the Bachittar Natak that his father gave his head but not his faith, and did this for the tilak and janeu of others.
02The head and the shrine
That night Bhai Jaita carried the Guru’s head (sis) to Anandpur, where Guru Gobind Singh cremated it, and Lakhi Shah Vanjara took the body to his house in Raisina and burnt the house over it, where Gurdwara Rakab Ganj stands. In March 1783 the Sikh chief Baghel Singh entered Delhi with his army and made Shah Alam II agree to let him raise shrines at the Gurus’ places; Sis Ganj was built that year beside the kotwali. The site was disputed with the adjoining mosque for many years until the Privy Council decided for the Sikhs, and the present building went up in 1930. The trunk of the old tree and the well the Guru used in prison are kept inside.
The life of this place
- November 1675Guru Tegh Bahadur and three companions are executed at the Chandni Chowk kotwali.
- 1783Baghel Singh raises a shrine at the spot.
- 1930The present gurdwara building is completed.
- November 2025The 350th anniversary of the martyrdom is observed.
Open day and night, with langar; it is a short walk from Chandni Chowk metro station.
