Guru Gobind Singh's Death at Nanded Examination of - Vidhia.com

64 AN EXAMINATION OF SUCCESSION THEORIES
Mandi, now in the Himachal Pradesh. This place had once
been visited by Guru Gobind Singh. In 1989 Bikrami, A. D.
1932, Bhai Ganga Singh gave out that Guru Gobind Singh
had appeared to him in human form—Zahira zahir darshan
ditte—in 1988 Bikrami, A.D. 1931, and had given him a
written document with the instruction "to have it printed after
Sammat 88 (in Sammat 1989) and distributed in the Sangat".
Bhai Ganga Singh, however, did not claim to be Guru
Gobind Singh himself but only a Special Messenger—Khas
Nama-bardar—of the Guru. In 1989 Bk., A. D. 1932, he
issued a pamphlet Kalghldhar da Zahur, printed at the Simla
Printing Press, Amritsar. Therein was given a poem written
in the style of Guru Gobind Singh, using the nom de plume
of 'Nanak' at the end of every stanza. At the end of the
pamphlet there was a hukam-nama under the name of the
Tenth Guru addressed to Bhai Ganga Singh himself desiring
him to publish and distribute the document mentioned
above. The main sections of the document published by
Bhai Ganga Singh were :
Rawal Chhand Patshahi 10-11;
Chitthi Patrika Patshahi 10-11;
Sach sunaisi sach ki bela Patshahi 10-11;
Hukam Nama Patshahi 10-11.
And in the second edition of the pamphlet issued in
Magh 1989 Bk. (January-February 1933) were added at the
end :
Farkhati Gur-Ans Patshahi 10-11;
Hukam Nama sach ki bela Patshahi 10-11. [pp. 28-29.]
The title of the second edition was changed to Guru
Granth Patshahi (Das Yaran) 10-11, Kalghidhar da Zahiir.
Thus in the years 1931-33 there were at one and the
same time two prophets—one put up by the Kuka publicists
on the basis of Baba Ajapal Singh fable, and the other Bhai
Ganga Singh who claimed himself to be the Special Messenger
of Guru Gobind Singh. The story of the Special Messenger—
Khas Nama-bardar—, however, came to an abrupt end with
his murder.
T GURU GOBIND SINGH S DEATH AT NANDED 65
The story of Baba Ajapal Singh of Nabha first
appeared in the Panjabi Bhain of Ferozpur for May 1916.
It did not carry the name of its author. According to the late
Bhai Takht Singh, the founder of the Sikh Kanya-Mahavidhyala
of Ferozepore, it was written by Bhai Kahan Singh
of Nabha. The fact that he, or whoever the author was,
did not subscribe his name to it makes it suspect. An
anonymous writing will not have much meaning for a student
of history.
The other two articles of Bhai Kahan Singh on the
subject appeared in the Phulwari of Amritsar for March and
April 1927, written at the request of its editor Giani Hira
Singh Dard. There is not a word in them to suggest that
Bhai Kahan Singh believed in Baba Ajapal Singh being
Guru Gobind Singh. To leave his readers in no doubt about
his own belief on this point, he tells us in the very beginning
of his first article that ' 'nothing is known as to who the
illustrious Baba Ajapal Singh was or to which family or
place he belonged—MBH yyifi §H VH ^ST W^TH ftfri Ss ns, fstn
?H wi sain f?B ASH, fan HI c?s M3t snT—[Itihas de an-likhe patre,
Article I, March 1927, p. 378]. "Whatever story of his my
respected father had made me note down many years ago, I am
presenting to the readers at the request of Giani Hira Singh
Dard." Nothing also was known about the five Singhs who
were nearest to Baba Ajapal Singh [p. 379]. In the beginning
of the second article also he says : "Baba Ajapal Singh
never narrated his story to anyone. But the people who lived
near him—his nikat-varti- believed that Guru Gobind Singh
did not die in the Deccan because neither the arms worn by
him nor the bones of his body were found after his cremation.
His pet horse had alsd disappeared from the stable, and that
the Guru lived in concealment in the Panjab under the name of
Ajapal Singh." [Phulwari, April 1927, p. 461, Appendix XIV
(a) No. 2.] About his arms, a number of writers have accepted
that a kirpan was found in the ashes searched after the cremation.
The horse could have easily fallen into the hands of some
adventurist who might have found a favourable opportunity