Dewan Todar Mal

 

   

These are the remains of the Havaili of Devan Todar Mal, and a fine building it must have been in its hay day. Todar Mal was a true Sikh of Guru Gobind Singh Ji. In the dark days when Guru Sahib Ji made his way through the jungles of Machhiwara, and his younger sons were put on trial by Zikharia Khan many Sikhs betrayed Guru Ji.

 
As Guru Ji made his may from Machiwara through to Sabo Ki talwandi many so called devotees asked Guru Ji to leave their premises as they were in fear that if the authorities were to hear of it then they would be persecuted. But not Todar Mal, he did not shirk his responsibilities, he put Guru Ji before everything.

 
With Mata Gujri Ji and the younger sons of Guru Ji – Baba Zorawar Singh Ji and Baba Fateh Singh Ji – shaheed (martyred) at the tender ages of 5 and 7 the despicable Mughal authorities refused their funeral rites on government land, it was decreed that there funeral rites could only be performed on land bought from Chaudhari Atta. Not only this, but the land could only be bought by laying gold coins (ashrifs) on the required area, vertically.

 
Todar Mal did not shun his responsibility and laid down the required coins and made arrangements for the cremations.

Let us look at this in a little detail, say that a gold coin has a diameter of around 3cm and would take up an area of (3 x 3 ) 9cm squared. The land required for the martyred children would be approximately 2.0m by 2.0m, a total area of 40,000 cm squared if laid next to each other. Add to this the area required for Mata Ji (2.0m by 1.5m) if the coins were laid horizontally then to cover this area would require around 7800 gold coins. Now, if the coins had to be stacked vertically then possibly 10 coins would be needed to cover the 9cm squared area, so vertically 7800 x 10 coins would be required, or 78,000.

That is an awful lot of gold coins today, one can only imagine how much they were worth three hundred years ago. It is safe to say it was probably his life’s savings. Maybe he had to beg and borrow to raise the total amount, who knows, but the fact remains this was truly a noble deed. Todar Mal forsake everything for his love of Guru Gobind Singh Ji , which is the reason why Sikhs hold Devan Todar Mal in such high esteem.

A splended Gurdwara, Gurdwara Jyoti Swarup, now stands at the place where these three martyrs were cremated. This Gurdwara is at a distance of about a mile to the east of the main Gurdwara at Fatehgarh Sahib and the road connecting the two Gurdwaras is known as Dewan Todar Mal Marg. A spacious congregation hall has been constructed by the sikhs at Fatehgarh Sahib to commemorate his noble service which is a symbol of the great respect the sikhs have for the Dewan.

 

 Dewan Todar Mal Gate.
A point of note.
 

Since all historic sites have now been destroyed and covered by such beautiful slabs of marble it is hard to envisage the type of Havali that Guru Gobind Singh Ji and his 40 sikhs took over at Chamkaur Sahib. By looking at the above images of Devan Todar Mals havaili one can get an idea of the types of structure they were. This sweeps away the notion that a havaili was some sort of ramshackle building or wooden stables, rather they were solid buildings which could be defended against a potential siege situation, which is exactly what happened at Chamkaur Sahib. It is now easier to see how Guru Ji and 40 Singhs held out in such a building while around them the enemy hoards laid siege.

  Home