SUCHCHĀNAND (d. 1710), a Khatrī official in the court of Nawāb Wazīr Khān, faujdār of Sirhind, was instrumental in the execution of Sāhibzādā Zorāwar Siṅgh and Sāhibzādā Fateh Siṅgh, Gurū Gobind Siṅgh's two younger sons aged nine and seven respectively. The Sāhibzādās and their grandmother, Mātā Gujarī, had been betrayed into Mughal custody by their servant, Gaṅgū. Brought to his presence at Sirhind, Wazīr Khān offered to the captive young men the usual choice of conversion to Islam or death. The Sāhibzādā having scornfully rejected the former were ordered to be executed. At this Nawāb Sher Muhammad Khān of Mālerkoṭlā, who was present, protested against the sentence awarded to the children. As Wazīr Khān began to waver at the just reproof of his peer, Suchchānand put in a remark: "The progeny of a serpent shall grow up as serpents, and should therefore be shown no mercy." Wazīr Khān thereupon reiterated his order for the children to be bricked up alive in a wall.

        In January 1710, when Bandā Siṅgh Bahādur invested Sirhind, Suchchānand too met his nemesis and was done to death.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  1. Kuir Siṅgh, Gurbilās Pātshāhī 10. Patiala, 1968
  2. Santokh Siṅgh, Bhāī, Srī Gur Pratāp Sūraj Granth. Amritsar, 1927-35
  3. Macauliffe, Max Arthur, The Sikh Religion. Oxford, 1909

Piārā Siṅgh Padam