From Punjab’s countryside to the streets of Delhi.
The Karorsinghia Misl is remembered for reaching the Mughal capital, but its most enduring achievement there was built after the fighting: shrines that gave Sikh history a permanent place within the city.
Its story brings together military pressure, negotiations, unlikely allies and the difference between entering a city and governing it.
KARORA SINGH AND THE NAME OF THE MISL
The misl took its name from Karora Singh, one of the leaders who shaped its early following. It is also known as the Panjgarhia Misl.
Karora Singh belonged to the generation that turned mobile Sikh bands into more substantial political powers.
These bands were groups of people gathered around commanders, connected through service, kinship, religious affiliation and the expectation of sharing in success.
They were not established as twelve neatly bordered states on a single day.
Karora Singh acquired a position in the Hoshiarpur region before his death in 1761. Baghel Singh later became the chief most strongly associated with the misl’s wider fame.
WHO WAS BAGHEL SINGH?
Baghel Singh came from Jhabal, near Amritsar.
He developed bases at Haryana in the Hoshiarpur region and Chhalaudi farther southeast. These positions connected his following to Punjab while placing it within reach of the routes towards the Yamuna.
His reputation rests partly on military ability and partly on his willingness to negotiate.
He operated in a world where an emperor might retain a throne while other men controlled much of the revenue and force needed to sustain it.
That was the position of Shah Alam II, the Mughal emperor during the Sikh entry into Delhi in 1783.
The Mughal Empire had not simply vanished. Its authority had become a prize around which regional powers competed.
WHY SIKH CHIEFS CAMPAIGNED SO FAR FROM PUNJAB
Baghel Singh and other chiefs crossed into the upper Gangetic plain for several reasons.
Campaigns could bring payments, plunder, political influence and opportunities to establish protection arrangements.
Under the wider rakhi system, a settlement paid for protection without necessarily becoming directly administered territory. Such arrangements continued east of Punjab even after many Sikh chiefs had established more settled rule at home.
For a village, the promise of protection might be valuable in a region threatened by several armed powers. It also involved a financial burden.
The experience depended on whether the arrangement provided real security - and whether another army arrived demanding payment of its own.
THE MUSLIM ALLY
Among Baghel Singh’s allies was Zabita Khan, a Rohilla chief whose interests brought him into conflict with the Mughal government.
Rohilla leaders were powerful figures in northern India, associated with Afghan-origin military communities and regional states.
Baghel Singh’s cooperation with Zabita Khan was therefore a Sikh–Muslim alliance against other political opponents.
It did not make every campaign peaceful. Their forces also plundered settlements.
That combination is important: cooperation across religious lines and violence against ordinary inhabitants could exist within the same expedition.
For a household losing grain or livestock, the religious identity of a commander did not remove the immediate loss.
DELHI IN 1783
Sikh forces entered Delhi in March 1783. Baghel Singh participated alongside other commanders, including Jassa Singh Ramgarhia.
This demonstrated how far the balance of power had shifted. A community once hunted by Mughal provincial governments could now place direct military pressure on the imperial capital.
Yet the Sikh forces did not establish a permanent monarchy over Delhi.
An agreement allowed the main body to withdraw while Baghel Singh remained temporarily with a smaller force to establish shrines at sites associated with Sikh history.
Historical accounts describe a share of the city’s octroi income being assigned to the project.
Octroi was a duty charged on goods entering a town or city. The arrangement therefore connected a religious building programme to the everyday movement of merchandise through Delhi.
WHAT BAGHEL SINGH BUILT
Baghel Singh’s work is associated with seven historic gurdwaras.
Among the most significant sites was Sis Ganj, marking the place where Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru, was executed in 1675 under Mughal orders.
Rakab Ganj commemorates the cremation of the Guru’s body.
The significance of those places was already preserved through Sikh memory. Building shrines gave that memory a more durable public presence.
Baghel Singh did not construct every part of the large complexes visible today. Buildings were expanded, altered and rebuilt by later generations.
His achievement was in securing and establishing the sites during the political opening of 1783.
THE PEOPLE BEHIND A MILITARY FOLLOWING
A commander’s success depended on more than battle.
Horses needed feed and care. Weapons required repair. Food had to be obtained and distributed. Movement across rivers and long distances relied on local knowledge.
At home, territorial income helped support campaigning. Away from home, armies could obtain supplies through purchase, negotiated contributions or seizure.
The historical record preserves Baghel Singh’s negotiations more clearly than the individual experiences of the people who supplied his force. Both belonged to the same political economy.
That is why a campaign could be remembered as a landmark achievement by one community and as a period of disruption by some of those living along its route.
KALSIA: A BRANCH WITH ITS OWN FUTURE
The Karorsinghia connection also included Gurbakhsh Singh of Kalsia.
He was a Sikh chief associated with Karora Singh who acquired territory around Chhachhrauli following the conquest of Sirhind in 1764. His principality took its name from his home village, Kalsia.
It developed a separate dynastic identity.
Later, British protection of the cis-Sutlej chiefs helped preserve Kalsia outside Ranjit Singh’s permanent control.
The whole Karorsinghia network therefore did not enter the Sikh Empire as one indivisible unit. Different branches and possessions followed different paths.
THE LASTING ACHIEVEMENT
Baghel Singh’s most famous success was not a throne retained at Delhi.
It was an agreement that translated military leverage into religious institutions.
The imperial capital remained under other rulers. The shrines remained part of Sikh life.
To The Panjgarhia Misl, whose profound understanding of Punjabi land changed history. With respect and honour - Trish Saab