The four sons of Guru Gobind Singh Ji died within about a fortnight of each other in December 1704.
Sahibzada Ajit Singh Ji, eighteen, and Sahibzada Jujhar Singh Ji, fourteen, were killed in the fighting outside the garhi at Chamkaur.
Sahibzada Zorawar Singh Ji, nine, and Sahibzada Fateh Singh Ji, seven, were separated from the party at the Sarsa crossing with their grandmother Mata Gujri Ji. They were betrayed by a former servant, Gangu, taken to Sirhind, held in the Thanda Burj, and brought before Wazir Khan. They refused conversion. They were bricked into a wall and then killed. Mata Gujri Ji died on hearing of it.
Diwan Todar Mal, a Hindu trader of Sirhind, bought the ground for their cremation by covering it with gold coins laid on edge, which is recorded as the most expensive piece of land ever sold. Gurdwara Jyoti Sarup marks the cremation site.
Nawab Sher Mohammad Khan of Malerkotla protested against the order in open court. That protest is remembered as the Haah da Naara and is the reason Malerkotla has a particular standing in Sikh memory.
The last week of December is kept across Punjab as the Shaheedi Sabha at Fatehgarh Sahib, and in 2022 the government of India named 26 December Veer Bal Diwas.
The account of the younger two rests on the Sikh tradition and on a small number of Persian references, and the details differ between them, including whether the wall was finished before they were killed.
Chhote Sahibzade and Vadde Sahibzade, the younger and the elder, is how they are named in ordinary Punjabi speech, and the two pairs are commemorated separately, at Fatehgarh Sahib and at Chamkaur.
The four deaths inside one week are the centre of the Sikh martyrological tradition and the December mela at Fatehgarh Sahib is built on them. All four were children by any reckoning.