History’s Strangest Deaths by Riley Knight

Author:Riley Knight [Riley Knight]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2025-05-29T00:00:00+00:00

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1 Apparently he adopted a pseudonym in an attempt to allow his wealthy family to avoid the humiliation of being related to an actor.

2 The very same French king that poor François Vatel had been so worried about disappointing with a lack of fish.

3 Who was, of course, also proudly Polish, as the airport in Warsaw is so determined to remind us.

27

Bhai Mati Das, Bhai Sati Das, Bhai Dayala, and Guru Tegh Bahadur

Executed in Inventively Horrific Ways, 1675

In 1675, four Sikhs—a guru and three of his followers—were all executed on the orders of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, who managed to come up with some wonderfully grisly ways to do away with these religious dissidents. When it came to executions, Aurangzeb certainly wasn’t in the business of efficiency, as he didn’t just line up his poor Sikh prisoners and hang ’em, oh no. Instead, they died in ways that really cast the phrase ‘cruel and unusual punishment’ in a new light.

The Sikh religion was founded in the late fifteenth century, and during the following years several gurus—spiritual leaders—were instrumental in developing the religion as it grew and gained new followers. Throughout its history, however, Sikhism has faced its fair share of challenges—such as in the 1670s, when the Mughal Empire got stuck into some pretty full-on persecution of not just Sikhs but also non-Muslims in general.

Despite having increased the territory of the Mughal Empire to its largest extent, ridding his imperial government of corruption, and his generous patronage of art and culture, Aurangzeb left a historical legacy heavily marred by his immense religious intolerance. His oppressive religious policies saw strict taxes levied on non-Muslims, Hindu and Sikh temples and other non-Muslim places of worship desecrated and destroyed, and the persecution and murder of those who refused to accept Islam.

And it was this persecution that saw the ninth Sikh guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, captured and executed along with three of his most devoted followers: two brothers, named Bhai Mati Das and Bhai Sati Das, and a third man named Bhai Dayala. Tegh Bahadur had been named guru in 1664, and since then had travelled the Indian subcontinent, not just preaching Sikhism but also encouraging resistance to the religious oppression of the Mughals. He didn’t limit himself to protecting Sikhs, but also also lent aid and support to persecuted Hindus.

This ongoing resistance ultimately led to the arrest of Guru Tegh Bahadur in 1675, whereby Emperor Aurangzeb made his displeasure with him and his followers very clear indeed. They had been causing problems for him all over the place while he was simply trying to get on with the business of good old-fashioned religious persecution; they had made an enormous nuisance of themselves by protecting Sikhs and Hindus from the Mughal authorities instead of gratefully accepting the jackboot of faith-based oppression. Now, they would pay the price.

Following the arrest of Tegh Bahadur and his three devotees, they were brought to the city of Delhi in November 1675. There, the emperor made a simple request of

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