Guru Hargobind, the sixth Guru of the Sikh faith, was imprisoned for a period at Gwalior fort by the Mughal emperor Jahangir, an episode traditionally dated to around 1619 CE, though the precise circumstances and exact chronology of his imprisonment are not consistently recorded across the various historical and traditional sources that describe it. Sikh tradition holds that when Jahangir eventually ordered Guru Hargobind's release, the Guru declined to leave the fort unless a group of Hindu princes also imprisoned there, said in most accounts to number fifty two, were released alongside him.
According to the traditional account, Jahangir agreed on the condition that only as many princes could leave as could hold onto the Guru's cloak as he departed, a condition Guru Hargobind is said to have met by having a specially made cloak with fifty two tassels sewn onto it, allowing every prince to grasp one and leave together with him.
The episode is remembered within Sikh tradition as demonstrating Guru Hargobind's concern for justice and liberty extending beyond his own community, consistent with the broader Sikh emphasis, associated particularly with his own tenure as Guru, on the combination of spiritual and temporal authority, expressed in his adoption of two swords representing both forms of leadership.