Bhai Gaura
Bhai Gaura the elder son of Bhai Bhagatu (d. 1652), a Sidhu Jatt of the Malva region of Punjab, of village Vinjhu, Bhai Bhagatu a devout and leading Sikh since the time of Guru Arjan Dev ji, Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji, and Guru Har Rai Sahib Ji. Bhai Gaura was a brave warrior who had carved out an extensive estate for himself around his native village Vinjhu, 14 km north of Bathinda, he kept a force of 300 men with him at all times. Owing to a misunderstanding, by Bhai Bhagatu, while on his last visit to Kartarpur to see Guru Har Rai Sahib in 1651, got remarried to a young Jatt girl. The girl considered herself the wife of the old Bhai they got married soon after Bhai Bhagatu died, She would not remarry. When Bhai Gaura came to know this, he brought the girl to his house and ever treated her as his mother. As Bhai Gaura and Bhai Jeebav his younger brother did not have a mother, they made her their own mother, and respected her.
The following year, when Guru Har Rai visiting sangats in the Malva region, came to Vinjhu, Gaura served him devotedly and accompanied the Guru`s train through his own neighbourhood. One day, angered by an insulting remark made by Bhai Jassa, one of the Guru`s attendants, about his stepmother, Gaura had the former assassinated by his men. Guru Har Rai forbade Gaura`s presence in sangat. Gaura was repentant and wanted to tender apology but the Guru would not grant him an audience. He, with a few hundred of his men, therefore followed the Guru`s progress to Kiratpur, keeping a few kilometres behind him.
A few months later as Guru Har Rai, on his way to Kartarpur, had just crossed the River Sutlej, his family and the baggage still on the other bank, a Mughal force attacked his rear. But Bhai Gaura, who as usual was following close behind, chased the attackers away and helped the Guru`s party safely cross the river. When Guru Har Rai came to know of this, he called Gaura to his presence, pardoned his past crime and giving him his blessing sent him back to his home in the Malva, where he flourished as a virtual ruler of a vast tract. One of his descendants, Bhai Desu Singh, founded the autonomous state of Kaithal in 1767.
