Gurdwara Janam Asthan

About

The gurdwara stands in the heart of the town of Nankana Sahib, about sixty-five kilometres from Lahore. The town itself was once called Rai Bhoi ki Talvandi, the village in which Guru Nanak was born to Mehta Kalu and Mata Tripta in 1469, and was later renamed in his honour so that pilgrims could find their way to the place of his coming into the world.

Gurdwara Janam Asthan is the principal of nine historic gurdwaras gathered around Nankana Sahib, each one preserving the memory of an episode from Guru Nanak's early life. Together these shrines form an essential circuit for Sikh yatris travelling in Pakistan, who come for the celebration of Guru Nanak's Gurpurab in November and for ordinary pilgrimage throughout the year.

The gurdwara is officially listed as a Protected Heritage Monument by the Government of Punjab in Pakistan and is administered by the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee under the federal authorities. Each visit to the shrine is an act of deep remembrance, returning the devotee to the very ground where the founder of Sikhi first drew breath.

History

Tradition holds that the first gurdwara was raised on the site in the sixteenth century by Baba Dharam Chand, a grandson of Guru Nanak. The present building was constructed in the nineteenth century during the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

The gurdwara is also remembered for the tragic events of 20 February 1921, when eighty-six Sikhs were killed in what is known as the Nankana massacre. The killings followed a confrontation between the mahant Narayan Das, whom reformist Akalis accused of corruption and impropriety, and members of the gurdwara reform movement seeking to return management of the shrines to the Sikh sangat. The martyrs of Nankana Sahib are remembered with reverence as the Saka, a turning point in the Gurdwara Reform Movement of the twentieth century.

Significance

For Sikhs worldwide, Janam Asthan is the very ground where Guru Nanak Sahib appeared in this world, and to bow at its threshold is to honour the source of the path that begins with the Mool Mantar. The shrine carries also the memory of the martyrs of 1921, whose sacrifice opened the way for the community's stewardship of its own holy places.