VAR SRĪ GURŪ GOBIND SIṄGH JĪ KĪ, also known as Jaṅgnāmā Bhaṅgāṇī, is an account in Punjabi verse of Gurū Gobind Siṅgh's battle at Bhaṅgāṇī, near Pāoṇṭā, in AD 1688, with some of the surrounding hill chiefs supported by the Mughal authority in Delhi. The poem comprises thirty two cantos of unequal length written in Nishānī metre. An old manuscript of this work of unknown authorship was said to have been in Bhāī Kāhn Siṅgh Library at Nābhā but the text is now available in printed form in an anthology entitled Prāchīn Vārāṅ te Jaṅgnāme, published by the Shiromaṇī Gurdwārā Parbandhak Committee, Amritsar, in 1950.

        The Vār opens with Emperor Auraṅgzīb telling his court about the letters exchanged between him and Gurū Gobind Siṅgh. He seems bent upon waging a war against the Gurū who has refused to accept his sovereignty. A vain effort is made to check him first by his daughter, Zeb un-Nisā, and then by the soothsayers who predict disaster for him were he to persist in his plans of attacking Gurū Gobind Siṅgh. In a subdued manner, his nobles advise him against such course too. He however is adamant, and this constitutes the subject matter of the first fifteen cantos of the Vār. The remaining seventeen cantos describe the battle scene, the marching of the armies of the hill chiefs against Gurū Gobind Siṅgh, the action that ensues and the Gurū's glorious victory in face of heavy odds. At the bidding of the Emperor himself, Rājā Bhīm Chand Rāi Kaṭoch, Hayāt Khān and others come with a large host. In the unequal fight between the princely forces and a small band of devoted Sikhs, Nand Chand, Kirpāl, Lāl Siṅgh, Dīp Siṅgh and Gulāb Siṅgh among the latter are shown to have fought with conspicuous valour. What inspired Sikhs to such brave deeds was the presence amid them of Gurū Gobind Siṅgh.

        Gurū Gobind Siṅgh has also described the battle of Bhaṅgāṇī, in his autobiographical Bachitra Nāṭak and the details of the action in both accounts generally tally. One factual error can easily be marked in Vār Srī Gurū Gobind Siṅgh Jī Kī, that is about the Gurū's son Ajīt Siṅgh taking part in the battle. Ajīt Siṅgh was then a mere infant.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  1. Bachitra Nāṭak
  2. Padam, Piārā Siṅgh ed., Vārāṅ Srī Gurū Gobind Siṅgh Jī Dīāṅ. Patiala, 1967
  3. Ashok, Shamsher Siṅgh ed., Prāchīn Vārāṅ te Jaṅgnāme. Amritsar, 1950

Jīt Siṅgh Sītal