Mai Bhag Kaur, or Mai Bhago, was a Sikh at the beginning of the 18th century. At this time, the Mughal Empire was trying to stamp out Sikhism, and the tenth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh, was besieged at Anandpur.
Forty of the Sikh soldiers there asked to be allowed to leave - the position seemed hopeless. Mai Bhag Kaur followed them, talked them into going back, and led them in a desperate battle against the Mughal forces - the Battle of Muktsar in 1705. All of them died, and Mai was badly wounded, but the Mughal army fled.
The forty soldiers are now known as the Forty Liberated Ones, and Mai Bhag Kaur became the Tenth Guru's bodyguard.
There is a shrine to her memory at Gurdwara Tap Asthan Mai Bhago.
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