ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>FATEHN&#256MAH</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279<i>FATEHN&#256MAH</i>, or N&#257mah-i-Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh, a letter (<i>n&#257mah</i> in Persian) that Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh (1666-1708) is believed to have addressed to Emperor Aura&#7749gz&#299b prior to his better-known <i>Zafarn&#257mah</i> included in the <i>Dasam Granth</i>. The first reference to the existence of <i>Fatehn&#257mah</i> dates to 1922 when B&#257b&#363 Jagan N&#257th D&#257s published in the <i>N&#257gar&#299 Prach&#257r&#299n&#299 Patrik&#257</i>, S&#257van 1979 / July-August 1922, a letter supposed to have been sent by Chhatrapati Shiv&#257j&#299 to Mirz&#257 R&#257j&#257 Jai Si&#7749gh. In his introduction, B&#257b&#363 Jagan N&#257th D&#257s had mentioned that he had copied around 1890 two letters from manuscripts in the possession of B&#257b&#257 Sumer Si&#7749gh, <i>mahant</i> of Ta<u>kh</u>t Sr&#299 Harimandar S&#257hib at Pa&#7789n&#257 from 1882 to 1902 --- one, Shiv&#257j&#299's which he was publishing in the <i>Patrik&#257</i> and the other, Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh's which, he added, he had lost and of which he could not procure another copy owing to the death of the owner of the original document. According to B&#257b&#363 Jagan N&#257th D&#257s, the letter, which he declared was not the same as the <i>Zafarn&#257mah</i> or any portion of it, contained more than 100 couplets. He reproduced some of the couplets from memory which he sent to Sard&#257r Umr&#257o Si&#7749gh Maj&#299&#7789h&#299&#257 (1870-1954), who arranged them in order and sent a copy each to the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 College, Amritsar, and to Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh (1872-1957). The latter published it with a Punjabi translation in the <i><u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 Sam&#257ch&#257r</i> of 16 July 1942 in an essay entitled Uchch d&#257 P&#299r. Sird&#257r Kap&#363r Si&#7749gh reproduced it two years later with an introduction and translation in Urdu in the <i>Aj&#299t</i>, a weekly then published from Lahore. He gave it the title <i>Fatehn&#257mah.</i> Dr Ga&#7751&#7693&#257 Si&#7749gh included the Persian text, with an introduction in Urdu, in his <i>M'&#257<u>kh</u>iz-i-Tw&#257r&#299<u>kh</u>-i-Sikkh&#257&#7749</i>, vol. 1, 1949, under the title "N&#257mah-i-Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh."</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The incomplete letter <i>Fatehn&#257mah</i> has twenty-three and a half couplets, the twenty-first one having only one line. Its theme, language, style and metre are the same as those of the <i>Zafarn&#257mah</i>, though its tone is severer. Like the latter, it too chastises Aura&#7749gz&#299b for his tyranny, deceitful policy and perjury. The fourteenth couplet refers to the killing of two of the Gur&#363's four sons which shows that this letter was written sometime after the battle of Chamkaur in which his two elder sons fell fighting and before the news of the martyrdom of the two younger ones at Sirhind had reached him at Lamm&#257 Ja&#7789&#7789pur&#257. As history records, the <i>Zafarn&#257mah</i> was written and despatched to Aura&#7749gz&#299b through Bh&#257&#299 Day&#257 Si&#7749gh and Bh&#257&#299 Dharam Si&#7749gh only a few days later.</p> </ol><p class="CONT">J&#299t Si&#7749gh S&#299tal<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>