Hazur Sahib

About

Hazur Sahib stands at Nanded, on the south bank of the Godavari River, marking the place where the tenth Guru, Sri Guru Gobind Singh Sahib, ascended to the Eternal Light in 1708. It is one of the five Takhts, the seats of supreme religious authority in the Sikh tradition, alongside Akal Takht at Amritsar, Keshgarh Sahib at Anandpur, Patna Sahib in Bihar, and Damdama Sahib in Talwandi Sabo.

The gurdwara within the complex is called Sach-Khand, the Realm of Truth, the name given by Guru Nanak Sahib to the abode of God. At its inner heart is the Angitha Sahib, raised over the place where the Guru was cremated. The Takht itself rises above the platform on which the tenth Guru held his darbar.

When Guru Gobind Singh conferred eternal Guruship upon the Sri Guru Granth Sahib here at Nanded, he gave the city the name Abchalnagar, the Steadfast City, taken from the first word of a hymn opened at random on that occasion. Both the Guru Granth Sahib and the Sri Dasam Granth are reverently installed within the Takht, in the manner also kept at Patna Sahib.

Many of the daily and ceremonial practices observed here follow ancient customs preserved from the time of the tenth Guru, including the offering of sandalwood tilak on the foreheads of granthis and devotees. The inner sanctum holds personal belongings, weapons, and articles of the Guru, accessible only to the head granthi.

History

Guru Gobind Singh came to Nanded in 1708, where he held his court and met assassins sent against him. Wounded by a stab, he was treated by an English surgeon sent by the emperor Bahadur Shah. The wound seemed to heal but reopened when the Guru was stringing a bow, and shortly thereafter he passed into Joti Jot, having first conferred eternal Guruship on the Sri Guru Granth Sahib.

Sikhs raised a small chamber over the place where the Guru had sat in darbar and installed the Guru Granth Sahib there. The present Takht was built between 1832 and 1837 by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who sent materials, artisans, and labour from Punjab. Care of the shrine returned to mainstream Sikh hands under the Singh Sabha movement of the late nineteenth century, and in 1956 management was placed under a board constituted by an Act of the Hyderabad legislature.

Significance

Hazur Sahib is the Takht where the lineage of the human Gurus came to its appointed close and the Sri Guru Granth Sahib was given as eternal Guru. For Sikhs across the world, a pilgrimage to Nanded is a return to the place where Sri Guru Gobind Singh entrusted the sangat to the Shabad Guru, the living Word that abides forever.