PHERU MALL, BABA

PHERU MALL, BABA (d. 1526), father of Guru Arigad, was the third son of Bhai Gchnu Mall, a Trchan Khairi of Marigoval village in the present Gujrat district of Pakistan. He was born in his ancestral village, but was brought up in the family of his mother`s parents, who lived at Matte di Sarai, a village now known as Sarai Nariga, 16 km northeast of Muktsar, in the Punjab. He gained proficiency in Persian and, as he grew up, he was employed as an accountant by the local landlord, Chaudhari Takht Mall. He was married in the same village (the bride`s name has been recorded differently by chroniclers as Sabhrai, Ramo and Daya Kaur).

A son, Lahina (Guru Arigad), was born to the couple on 31 March 1504. In 1519, Pheru Mall had differences with his employer and quit service. In the following year, during one of Babar`s incursions into the plains of India, Matte di Sarai suffered pillage at the hands of the invaders. Pheru Mall, along with his family left the village and, after a brief stay at Harike, shifted to Khadur, now known as Khadur Sahib. Here Mat Sabhrai, the sister of his former employer and a devotee of Guru Nanak, treated him as her own brother and helped him to get settled. Pheru Mall died at Khadur in 1526.

References :

1. Santokh Singh, Bhai, Sii Cur Pratdp Suraj Cranth. Amritsar, 1927-35
2. Satbir Singh, Qudamti Nur. Jalandhar, 1981
3. Gian Singh, Giani, Twfinkh Guru Khalsa. [Reprint]. Patiala, 1970
4. Macauliffe, Max Arthur, The Sikh Religion. Oxford, 1909