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BHARATGARH, an old village 18 km north of Ropar (30°58`N, 76°S1`E) in the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Tegh Bahadur. Guru Tegh Bahadur passed through this village travelling in July 1675 from Anandpur to Delhi resolved to make the supreme sacrifice to uphold the freedom of faith. His first halt was at Kiratpur where he spent a day meeting relations and making offerings at the holy shrines. The next halt was at Bharatgarh, a distance of about 10 km from Kiratpur.
BHIM CHAND, ruler of Kahlur (Bilaspur), a princely state in the Sivaliks, from 1665-92. The family claimed descent from Chandel Rajputs of Bundelkhand. Bhim Chand`s father, Dip Chand, was a tributary of the Mughals and he was allowed to exercise nominal authority over twenty-two states in the hills including Kulu, Karigra, Mandi, Suket and Chamba. Till the accession of Bhim Chand to the gaddfin 1665, the rulers of Kahlur had maintained amicable relations with the Gurus. In 1635, Guru Hargobind had retired to Kiratpur, a town founded by his son, Baba Gurditta, on the base of the Kahlur mount.
DHIR MALL (1627-1677), the elder son of Baba Gurditta and a grandson of Guru Hargobind, was born at Kartarpur, now in Jalandhar district of the Punjab, on 10 January 1627. From his early years, he was prone to stubbornness which trait became stronger as he grew up. He stayed behind in Kartarpur when Guru Hargobind moved along with the family to Kiratpur. At the death, in 1638, of his father, Baba Gurditta, he did not go to Kiratpur to attend the obsequies, nor did he part with the original volume of the Adi Granth which had been left at Kartarpur at the time of Guru Hargobind`s migration to Kiratpur and which had to be recited as part of the rites.
