Gurudwara Bangla Sahib

About

Standing on Baba Kharak Singh Marg near Connaught Place, Gurdwara Bangla Sahib is the largest and best-known gurdwara in the city of Delhi. Its golden dome and white marble courts welcome thousands of devotees and visitors each day, drawn by the daily diwan, the langar that feeds the hungry without distinction, and the sarovar whose waters are believed to bring healing.

The site was once the bungalow of Raja Jai Singh I of Amber, who hosted the child Guru Har Krishan during the Guru's visit to Delhi in 1664. While the Guru stayed here, a smallpox and cholera epidemic was raging in the city, and tradition recalls that the Guru offered water from the well of the bungalow to all who came in need. Many were restored to health, and the sarovar grew up around that blessed water, which devotees still draw and carry home as amrit.

The young Guru himself, only eight years old, contracted the illness while serving the sick and passed into Sachkhand at the bungalow soon after. The shrine that grew up here is therefore both a place of healing and a reminder of the Guru's gift of his own life in service of others.

Originally a small shrine was raised at the site by Sardar Baghel Singh in 1783, when the Sikh general restored nine historic Sikh places in Delhi after his entry into the city. The grand marble complex of today, with its broad sarovar and gilded dome, was developed in the twentieth century to serve the ever-growing sangat of the capital.

History

Guru Har Krishan came to Delhi in 1664 at the invitation of the Mughal court and stayed at the bungalow of Raja Jai Singh I of Amber. While there he offered water and his presence to those afflicted in the epidemic that gripped the city. The eight-year-old Guru himself fell ill and ascended to Sachkhand on 30 March 1664 at this place.

In 1783, Sardar Baghel Singh, having entered Delhi at the head of his forces, restored nine historic Sikh shrines across the city, including a small gurdwara raised at the bungalow of Raja Jai Singh. The shrine was expanded across the centuries that followed, and the present marble complex with its sarovar took form in the twentieth century.

Significance

Bangla Sahib commemorates the compassion of Guru Har Krishan, whose presence brought healing to a stricken Delhi and whose life was given in serving the sick. Pilgrims and seekers of every faith draw water from the sarovar, sit in the darbar to hear the Guru Granth Sahib, and share in the open langar that embodies the Sikh ideal of seva.