Muktsar

Muktsar was once called Khidrana, after a pool in the dry country of Punjab's Malwa. Its present name recalls the “pool of liberation” and the forty Sikhs remembered as the Chali Mukte, or Forty Liberated Ones. The place became a centre of Sikh memory after Guru Gobind Singh fought a Mughal army here in 1705.

After the fighting at Anandpur and Chamkaur, Gobind Singh chose Khidrana to face the pursuing army. Sikh tradition tells how forty men who had left the Guru returned to fight, encouraged by Mai Bhago. As they resisted the imperial forces, the pool remained out of their enemies' reach and the attackers withdrew. The Guru is said to have torn up the men's declaration of separation, granting them liberation. In 1807 Dewan Mokham Chand conquered the surrounding territory for Lahore and established a post at Muktsar.