He felt that the Akal Sena was not living up to the challenge and sought to reform the Sikh military forces.

[4] It is a Holy Army of the Deathless (Akal), at once pure and perfect, baptized and sculptured in purity of love and total sacrifice.

[13] Banda and his retinue were instructed to go to Sirhind to take revenge for the tyranny of the local Mughal governor of the area.

[12] He would go on to rebel against the Mughal empire and form the first sovereign Sikh republican state, ruling over parts of the Punjab, especially in the southeastern regions, albeit the polity was a short-lived one.

[16][8] After the death of Banda Singh Bahadur, the Khalsa Fauj divided into various jathas (armed group or band of Sikhs).

[17][18][19] Since the Sikh community had dispersed to the jungles, deserts, and mountains to avoid state persecution, the focus of the Khalsa Fauj turned to plunder for the time being.

[22] Small groups of bands of Sikh horsemen still carried out guerilla ambushes on the enemy when the opportunity arose.

[8] During this time, Abdus Samad Khan, a Turani official and commander of the Mughal military stationed in Punjab, had a very harsh policy against the Sikhs.

[24] Horses for the army were sourced from small zamindars (feudal lords) located between the Ravi and Beas rivers.

[8] Guru Gobind Singh compared the Khalsa Fauj to a coiled snake ready to pounce, which he calls the pechida maar,[25] in his Zafarnama (epistle of victory) letter addressed to Aurangzeb:[26][27][28][29] چھا شد کہ چوں بچگان کشته چارکه باقی بماند است پیچیده مار You killed my four sons:What difference does that make,When after their deaths there stillRemains behind a coiled snake?The uniform and colours of the Khalsa Fauj were blue due to Guru Gobind Singh witnessing his youngest son, Fateh Singh, donning such garbs in this colour.