December

Theses 3 drawings are probably the most personal to me, not just because of the subject matter, but also because my Mum ‘Shkinder Kaur’ was so heavily involved in every part of the process of these drawings. Even trivial things like the lengths of ‘Sahibzade Zarowar and Fateh Singh’ fingers were changed due to my mum’s input.

My mum not only chose these 3 Sikhi artworks for me to draw, but she also contributed to the look, feel and message that each piece was trying to portray. My original visions for each piece were quite different from the final versions, but with my mum’s input, they turned out the way they are today, which I am really happy about as they are now some of my most popular pieces.

Over the years I had seen quite a lot of artwork portraying these significant moments in Sikh history, but I did not feel that they portrayed the whole story in each of these artworks.

With the martyrdom of ‘Sahibzade Zarowar and Fateh Singh’ in 1704, I wanted to show a different perspective. The two young boys are normally shown with their hands up, defiantly doing ‘fateh’. I wanted to depict a more emotional side, and show the love between the brothers, and how they might have comforted each other during those last minutes, knowing that they were facing certain death.

I had also seen lots of depictions of ‘Mata Gujuri’ and ‘Sahibzade Zarowar and Fateh Singh’ in the Thanda Burj (cold tower), but they always seemed to show them laughing and playing and the weather being quite warm. This was actually not accurate, as they were imprisoned on top of a tower which was opened from all sides without any warm clothes in the very cold month of December.

My artwork tries to show the harsh environment that they were in, and so Mata Gujuri has them cuddling her try to keep warm.

In the background there is ‘Moti Ram Mehra’ who used to sneak into the ‘Thanda Burj’ and served them milk for three nights. Because of his kindness he was executed along with his family. 'Zorawar Singh and Fateh Singh' were later bricked alive.

Upon hearing the news of her grandsons execution, 'Mata Gujri' collapsed and died.

The other drawing is of 'Guru Gobind Singh Ji' and his elder sons Baba 'Ajit Singh Ji' (18 years old) and 'Jujhar Singh Ji' (14 years old), who were both martyred at the 'Battle of Chamkaur' in 1704. I was trying to show the bravery and unity that the Sikhs must have had, whilst being so heavily outnumbered and surrounded.

There were thousands of Mughal soldiers surrounding the fort outside, but there were only a handful of Sikhs in the fort. These included 'Guru Gobind Singh Ji's' elder sons Baba 'Ajit Singh Ji' and 'Jujhar Singh Ji', another 40 Sikh Soldiers and the 5 Panj Pyare. So this drawing is to honour all the Sikhs that fought so bravely and lost their lives at the ‘Battle of Chamkaur’.