Mai Bhago Ji was born at Jhabal Kalan in Amritsar district, granddaughter of Pero Shah, a Sikh of Guru Arjan Dev Ji's time.
When forty men of the Majha left the siege of Anandpur in 1704 after signing the bedava, she went to their villages and shamed them, and the women of those villages with her. The forty returned, and she rode with them.
At Khidrana in 1705 they fought an imperial column. All forty were killed or mortally wounded. She was wounded and survived.
She afterwards served in Guru Gobind Singh Ji's personal bodyguard, in male dress, and went south with him. After 1708 she settled at Jinvara near Bidar in Karnataka and lived as an ascetic. Gurdwara Tap Asthan Mai Bhago is there, and her weapons are held at Nanded.
She is the only woman in Sikh tradition who is remembered primarily as a soldier, and she is remembered for making men go back rather than for anything she did with a spear.
She shamed the forty who had left the Guru at Anandpur into going back, and she fought at Khidrana with them in December 1705.
She survived. She afterward served in the Guru's guard and went south with him, and she died at Jinvara in Karnataka, where a gurdwara marks the place.
Her weapon is held at Nanded. She is the one woman in the Sikh martial tradition with a full account attached to her and she has almost no scholarly literature.