Historical Gurdwaras in India

State of HARYANA

Pehowa

Gurdwara Baoli Sahib Patshahi Pahili and
Gurdwara Manji Sahib

Pehowa, pronounced variously as Pahoa, Pahova, Paheva or Bheva, is like Kurukshetra an ancient pilgrimage centre for the Hindus who come from far and near for performing certain funeral rites and registering their dead with their respective pandas or family priests. These pandas possess genealogical record of their client families going back to several centuries. Situated on the bank of the ancient Saraswati river, Pehowa is 27 kilometres west of Kurukshetra along the road to Kaithal. Other roads from Ambala, Karnal and Ghua-Chika also converge here.

Guru Nanak Dev visited Pehowa during his first udasi on the occasion of the traditional Chet-Chaudas fair held on the fourteenth day of the dark half of the lunar month of Chet. During his sermons he particularly stressed the futility of performing superstitious rites supposedly for the benefit of the dead and exhorted the people to remember God and perform right actions, which alone would avail them in the hereafter. The priests naturally did not like the Guru's reformist teachings and forced him to quit the site. The Guru, however, retired to a clearing outside the town and resumed his sermons to a large gathering that had followed him there.

Two shrines dedicated to Guru Nanak Dev, one inside and the other outside the old town, were established at Pehowa, which are said to have been visited later by Guru Har Rai, Guru Tegh Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh. The one outside the town had a baoli dug near it. It had lain in a state of neglect for a long time until Baba Jiwan Singh Sevawale took up its reconstruction during the 1950s. Now called Gurdwara Baoli Sahib Patshahi Pahili, located close to the bus stand, it is a magnificent complex spread over several acres and comprising the 63 feet square sanctum lined with white marble and having a fluted lotus dome above it, a spacious divan-hall for larger congregations, a 100 yards square sarovar, and ancillary buildings for Guru ka Langar, offices and residential quarters for staff and pilgrims.

The other Gurdwara right on the bank of Saraswati inside the town, is called Gurdwara Manji Sahib. It was a single-room structure constructed by Bhai Udai Singh, Chief of Kaithal. This, too, has since been replaced by a new two-storeyed building by Baba Jiwan Singh's successors. Pilgrims frequent both these Gurdawaras.