Religious Events

The Release of Guru Hargobind From Gwalior

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General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "The Release of Guru Hargobind From Gwalior." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/religious-events/the-release-of-guru-hargobind-from-gwalior.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). The Release of Guru Hargobind From Gwalior. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/religious-events/the-release-of-guru-hargobind-from-gwalior

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-the-release-of-guru-hargobind-from-gwali,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {The Release of Guru Hargobind From Gwalior},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/religious-events/the-release-of-guru-hargobind-from-gwalior},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The release of the sixth Guru, Hargobind, from imprisonment in the fortress at Gwalior under the emperor Jahangir. Sikh tradition holds that he refused to leave alone and secured the release of the princes held with him, who left holding the tassels of his cloak, and that his arrival at Amritsar was met with lamps. The episode is commemorated as Bandi Chhor Divas, the day of liberation from imprisonment, and the traditional accounts differ on the year and on the number of prisoners.

Facts

Disputed

When It Happened

Louis E. Fenech and W. H. McLeod's Historical Dictionary of Sikhism, 3rd edition (Rowman and Littlefield, 2014) gives the traditional date of Guru Hargobind's release from imprisonment in the fortress at Gwalior under the emperor Jahangir as 1619 CE, the date commemorated as Bandi Chhor Divas, when Sikh tradition holds he secured the release of the princes imprisoned with him by having them leave holding the tassels of his cloak; the dictionary notes some accounts place the release a year or more earlier or later, and the number of princes released also varies across sources. 3

How Its Legacy Is Contested

The exact number of princes released and the precise terms of the negotiation vary between traditional accounts, with the number fifty two treated by most Sikh sources as symbolic of the scale of the release rather than a precisely documented figure. 3

Consequences

What It Settled

Guru Hargobind, imprisoned by the Mughal emperor Jahangir at Gwalior fort, was released and, according to Sikh tradition, negotiated the simultaneous release of fifty two Hindu princes also held there, refusing to leave without them. 1

Lasting Consequence

Commemorated as Bandi Chhor Divas, the day of release of prisoners, observed by Sikhs at the same time of year as the Hindu festival of Diwali. 2

Learn More

A Guru Who Would Not Leave Without Others

Guru Hargobind, the sixth Guru of the Sikh faith, was imprisoned for a period at Gwalior fort by the Mughal emperor Jahangir, an episode traditionally dated to around 1619 CE, though the precise circumstances and exact chronology of his imprisonment are not consistently recorded across the various historical and traditional sources that describe it. Sikh tradition holds that when Jahangir eventually ordered Guru Hargobind's release, the Guru declined to leave the fort unless a group of Hindu princes also imprisoned there, said in most accounts to number fifty two, were released alongside him.

According to the traditional account, Jahangir agreed on the condition that only as many princes could leave as could hold onto the Guru's cloak as he departed, a condition Guru Hargobind is said to have met by having a specially made cloak with fifty two tassels sewn onto it, allowing every prince to grasp one and leave together with him.

The episode is remembered within Sikh tradition as demonstrating Guru Hargobind's concern for justice and liberty extending beyond his own community, consistent with the broader Sikh emphasis, associated particularly with his own tenure as Guru, on the combination of spiritual and temporal authority, expressed in his adoption of two swords representing both forms of leadership.

A Story Fixed More by Memory Than by Record

Historians of Sikhism note that the exact year of Guru Hargobind's imprisonment and release at Gwalior is not fixed with precision across the range of Sikh historical sources, with some accounts placing it earlier or later than the commonly cited 1619 date, and that the specific number of princes released, given in most traditional accounts as fifty two, functions in the tradition more as a symbolically significant figure representing the scale of the Guru's act of liberation than as a number scholars treat as independently documented with certainty.

The episode is commemorated annually as Bandi Chhor Divas, the day of release of prisoners, observed by Sikh communities at the same time of year as the Hindu festival of Diwali, a timing that has led to some conflation of the two observances in popular understanding even though they commemorate different events and carry different theological significance for their respective communities.

The Golden Temple at Amritsar is traditionally illuminated on Bandi Chhor Divas in a manner that visibly parallels Diwali celebrations in the surrounding region, reflecting both the shared cultural calendar of Punjab and the specifically Sikh content of the Bandi Chhor Divas observance itself, centered on Guru Hargobind's release and his act of securing freedom for others alongside his own.

Cross-Tradition Connections