Mata Gujri Ji was the wife of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji and the mother of Guru Gobind Singh Ji. She was with her husband through the twenty years at Bakala, went east with him, and was at Patna when her son was born.
She was at Anandpur through the sieges. In December 1704, at the Sarsa crossing, she was separated from the main party with her two younger grandsons, Sahibzada Zorawar Singh Ji, nine, and Sahibzada Fateh Singh Ji, seven.
They were sheltered and then betrayed by a former servant, Gangu, taken to Sirhind and held in the Thanda Burj, the cold tower, in late December. The boys were brought before Wazir Khan, refused conversion, and were killed.
She died on hearing of it, in the tower. Gurdwara Mata Gujri at Fatehgarh Sahib is on the site.
She had lost her husband to execution at Delhi in 1675, and in 1704 she lost her two younger grandsons and her own life at Sirhind, after her two elder grandsons had fallen at Chamkaur. She is commemorated with the younger two at the Shaheedi Sabha each December.
The Patna years were hers to run. Her husband was travelling in Assam and Bengal, and the household where her son spent his first years was held together by her and by her brother Kirpal Chand.
Kirpal Chand fought at Bhangani and stayed with the family through the Anandpur period. He is the one thread of her own family that runs the length of the account.
She died there. Gurdwara Thanda Burj marks the tower and Gurdwara Jyoti Sarup marks the ground where she and her grandsons were cremated.