Legacy-of-the-warrior

In the late seventeenth century, the sixteen years old tenth Sikh Guru Gobind Singh came to the state of Sirmour on the invitation of its ruler Raja Maidni Prakash. The Raja accorded a grand reception at his capital Nahan. A gurudwara commemorates the spot where the Guru dismounted from his horse. After surveying the area Guru Gobind Singh decided to set camp on the banks of the river Yamuna, at what is now known as Paonta Sahib. Paonta means a space for a foothold and here Guru Gobind Singh spent the next four and half years.

Today Paonta Sahib’s large gurudwara gleams like an edifice carved out of snow and as the sun sets the white marble is offset by touches of pink and gold. Here the Guru wrote the Dasam Granth and with in the precincts are a number of significant spots associated with his sojourn. At the Sri Talab Asthan, the Guru disbursed salaries. At the Sri Dastar Asthan, he judged turban tying competitions; and at the Kavi Darbar Asthan, poetic symposia were held. Interestingly fifty two well known poets joined the Guru’s retinue at Paonta Sahib. There is also a memorial to Kaalpi Rishi and a museum where the pens of the Guru and weapons from those days are kept.

Just a short distance away from the gurudwara, the river Yamuna flows with all the noise that rivers are wont to make. But just short of its walls the water suddenly falls silent. And while there may be a perfectly sound geological reason for this lack of sound, the story goes that it happened only at the Guru’s behest. One version says that the Guru noise disturbed Guru’s meditations, and another says that the Guru found it hampered his communication with the sufi saint Bhure Shah who lived high above the opposite bank. Even today no pilgrimage to Paonta Sahib is regarded complete without a visit to the mazhaar, tomb, of Bhure Shah which has a commanding view of the area.

Past high pampas grass and luxuriant fields, Bhangani is fourteen kilometers out of Paonta Sahib. In a bid to crush the growing power of the Sikhs in 1687 the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb actively aided an army that some of Guru Gobind Singh’s old enemies had raised against him. Settling on high ground, the Guru fought his first battle at Bhangani. Guru Gobind Singh defeated a phalanx of twenty thousand professional soldiers that had expected scant opposition from the Guru’s rag-tag force of five hundred men. The Guru’s eldest son was also born during the twelve-day period of the battle. Near Bhangani, is the gurudwara Tirgadi Sahib, built at the spot where the Guru had fired arrows to help the kin of the slain perform the last rites. In the vicinity, the gurudwara Shergah Sahib commemorates the spot where the Guru sliced off the head of a man-eating tiger with one blow of his sword.

Rewalsar, 25 km from Mandi, is a place that is sacred to many faiths. With his enormous powers Padmasambhava is regarded to have flown from here to Tibet to spread Buddhism and the sage Lomas (regarded by many to be Padmasambhava) is also said to have meditated here. And at a couple of hike-hours, are the caves which are said to lie at the head of a labyrinth, where the Pandava brother are believed to have emerged through the escape tunnel when the palace of wax was burnt around them in an episode from the epic Mahabharata. Some what away from legend, the gurudwara at Rewalsar was built in 1930 under the patronage of Raja Joginder Sen of Mandi and with the humble efforts of Dewan Nath, Chief Minister Mandi State and Doctor Tehl Singh. This was also endowed with a grant of cultivated land for its upkeep. Guru Gobind Singh stayed here for a month in 1738 and held meeting with the hill Rulers – ‘the Bai-Dhar Rajas’ – to evolve a programme in his ongoing fight against Aurangzeb’s tyranny.
Another important gurudwara is at Manikaran, near Kullu. The place was visited by Guru Nanak, the first Sikh Guru.