Lakhi Jungle

Lakhi Jungle is a village in the district of Bathinda in Punjab, India. It is situated 15 km from the city of Bathinda (near Goniana), on the way to Muktsar. The historic Gurdwara Lakhi Jungle Sahib is located on the outskirts of the village.

History
A jungle formed in this area due to the shifting course of the Sutlej river. A Bhatti chief, named Rana Lakhi, is said to have settled in the area of the Lakhi Jungle around the turn of the millennium between the 10th and 11th centuries. The ninth Sikh Guru, Guru Teg Bahadur and tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh visited this place. During the time period of Guru Gobind Singh and later, the area of the later Firozpur division was covered by a dense forest which stretched from Bathinda to Kotkapura. In the 18th century, the Sikhs used the surrounding jungle (from which the village takes its name) as a hideout from persecution by the Mughal Empire and the Duranni Empire. During Ahmad Shah Durrani's seventh invasion of India between 1764–65, the Sikhs used the jungle as a hideout. The area was known for its horse traders, which may have partly attracted Sikh refugees to the area. Historian Muzaffar Alam notes that the Sikhs of the 18th century used the jungle as a place of safety from state oppression and as a staging ground to launch attacks on plundering neighbouring villages and extracting tribute from zamindars. Abdus-samad Khan crushed a rebellion by local Bhatti zamindars of the Lakhi Jungle in the 18th century. The area was well-renowned for horse-breeding and its oxen all the way up till the 19th century. The jungle itself has mostly since been deforested.