Mātā Jīto (1670 – 5 December 1700,
Gurmukhi
Gurmukhī ( , Shahmukhi: ) is an abugida developed from the Laṇḍā scripts, standardized and used by the second Sikh guru, Guru Angad (1504–1552). Commonly regarded as a Sikh script, Gurmukhi is used in Punjab, India as the official scrip ...
: ਮਾਤਾ ਜੀਤੋ,
Shahmukhi
Shahmukhi (, , , ) is the right-to-left abjad-based script developed from the Perso-Arabic alphabet used for the Punjabi language varieties, predominantly in Punjab, Pakistan. It is generally written in the Nastaʿlīq calligraphic hand, whic ...
: ), or Ajeet Kaur, was a wife of Guru Gobind Singh.
Biography
She was the first wife of the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru
Gobind Singh.
The couple married on 21 June 1677 and had three children together.
The initial marriage ceremony between Mata Jito and Guru Gobind Singh took place when she was seven years old and he was eleven. Due to the dangers associated with traveling to Lahore—her hometown—just two years after the execution of Guru Tegh Bahadur, Guru Gobind Singh established a new settlement called Guru Ka Lahore. This village, situated approximately 12 kilometers northeast of Anandpur, became the site of their wedding in 1677. The muklawa, a traditional ceremony marking the completion of the marriage, was held in late 1688, after Mata Jito had reached puberty, following Guru Gobind Singh's return from Paonta Sahib to Anandpur.
Mata Jito was the mother of
Jujhar Singh,
Zorawar Singh and
Fateh Singh but was not the biological mother of
Ajit Singh, who was the son of
Mata Sundari.
Presence during Amrit Sanchaar
There are different views among Sikh historians on her presence during this event. According to Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha in the
Mahan Kosh
''Guru Shabad Ratnakar Mahan Kosh'' (Punjabi: ਗੁਰਸ਼ਬਦ ਰਤਨਾਕਰ ਮਹਾਨ ਕੋਸ਼), known by its more popular name of ''Mahan Kosh'' (ਮਹਾਨ ਕੋਸ਼) and by the English title ''Encyclopædia of the Sikh ...
, Mata Sahib Devan was present during the creation of Khalsa Panth and participated in making Pahul by adding sugar wafers but the
Twarikh Guru Khalsa refutes this claim.
[Twarikh Guru Khalsa, Page 177, Topic: Teesri Shadi] The Twarikh states that Guru Gobind Singh's first wife, Mata Jito, put sugar wafers in the Pahul and that Mata Sahib Devan was not married to Guru Gobind Singh at that time.
According to Kanwarjit Singh Kang, a fresco that was located in the original Akal Takht depicting a woman appending sugar crystals to ''Amrit'' during the Vaisakhi events of 1699 depicts Mata Jito, not Mata Sahib Devan.
See also
*
Mata Sundari
*
Mata Sahib Kaur
*
Women in Sikhism
The principles of Sikhism state that women have the same souls as men and thus possess an equal right to cultivate their spirituality with equal chances of achieving salvation. Women participate in all Sikh religious, cultural, social, and secul ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jito, Mata
1700 deaths
Family members of the Sikh gurus
People from Lahore
1673 births
17th-century Indian people