Historical
Gurdwaras in
India
State of HARYANA
Lakhnaur
Gurdwara
Lakhnaur Sahib
Gurdwara Lakhnaur Sahib - Gurdwara Lakhnaur
Sahib derives its name from the village
it is situated in. Lakhnaur is an old
village 10 kilometres south of Ambala
City and 7 kilometres from Ambala Cantonment.
It was the ancestral village of Guru Gobind
Singh's mother, Mata Gujari, whose father,
Baba Lal Chand Subhikhi, and brother Bhai
Mehar Chand, lived here. The marriage
of Guru Tegh Bahadur to Mata Gujari had
however taken place at Kartarpur near
Jalandhar, and Lakhnaur had not been visited
by the Gurus until Guru Gobind Singh,
then a child of four years, arrived here
from Patna in September 1670. He was accompanied
by his mother, Mata Gujari, and grandmother,
Mata Nanaki, and his maternal uncle, Kirpal
Chand. Guru Tegh Bahadur had left Patna
earlier and traveling via Delhi joined
the family here at Lakhnaur, again to
proceed onwards alone leaving the family
behind. They stayed at Lakhnaur for over
six months until, summoned by Guru Teg
Bahadur, they joined the latter at Chakk
Nanaki (Anandpur Sahib). It was at Lakhnaur
that Pir Shah Bhikh (Bhikhan Shah) came
and made his bow to the young Gobind Rai
whose birth he had divined earlier as
an event propitious for humanity. Another
Muslim divine, Pir Arif Din, is also said
to have made obeisance to Guru Gobind
Singh here. After the departure of the
holy family, the house in which they had
lived during their stay at Lakhnaur, was
maintained as a holy shrine. During the
later half of the eighteenth century when
the Sikh misls held sway over the entire
Punjab from Indus to Yamuna, the house
was converted into a proper Gurdwara.
The Cis-Sutlej region fell under the British
rule early in the nineteenth century.
Soon after 1849, Maharaja Narinder Singh
of Patiala acquired Lakhnaur and surrounding
territory from the British in exchange
for some of his own elsewhere. Gurdwara
Lakhnaur Sahib continued to be maintained
and administered under Patiala's Dharam-arth
Board upto 1956, when, consequent to the
merger of P.E.P.S.U. in Punjab, the administration
passed to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak
Committee. The Gurdwara building in the
centre of a large walled compound has
some distinctive architectural features.
Sta ding on 10-feet high ground, it is
itself within a high enclosure. The 20-feet
square sanctum, with a high dome on the
centre of the roof and a kiosk at each
corner, is entered through a rectangular
vestibule covered with elongated dome.
The entire interior including the cupola
is artistically painted. A vast congregation
hall, 120x40x10-feet has been constructed
in the outer compound recently. A deep-bore
well has been installed within an old
baoli or open well. Another well in the
open ground outside the village, half
a furlong from the Gurdwara building is
called Mata Gujari da Khuh (Mother Gujari's
Well). This was constructed within an
older but dilapidated well at the instance
of Mata Gujari in 1670-71, and still used
as a source of sweet drinking water.
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