Lall Kalan

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Lall Kalan, village 10 km west of Samrala (30"50'N, 76"11'E) in Ludhiana district possesses a shrine called Gurdwara Gurusar which commemorates the visit of Guru Gobind Singh. When Guru Gobind Singh, disguised as the Pir of Uchch carried in a palanquin, was passing by this village, the commander of an imperial patrol in search of him, suspected that the Guru might be posing as the Pir, stopped and interrogated the party.

Sayyid Pir Muhammad of Nurpur, who was present and who had in fact recognized the Guru for he had once been his Persian tutor, testified that the personage inside the palanquin was a most exalted Pir, and the party was allowed to proceed. A modest looking shrine was later established under a banyan tree where Guru Gobind Singh had stopped. The present building was raised towards the close of the nineteenth century by Namdhari Sikhs from whom the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee acquired possession through a legal suit. The Gurdwara, inside a walled compound is an octagonal shaped room, with the sanctum in the middle. Over the sanctum on the first floor there is a low domed room built in the same style. In a field next to the Gurdwara compound there is a peculiar banyan tree having pointed leaves like those of a pipal tree. The villagers see in this peculiarity Guru Gobind Singh's own miracle.

There is a second version of this story which tells us that, in spite of Sayyid Pir Muhammad's testimony, the oficer leading the Mughal patrol still suspected that the Pir was, in fact, Guru Gobind Singh. The officer took recourse to a strategem. He invited the 'Pir' and his disciples to dinner knowing that if the Pir was in fact Guru Gobind Singh, he and his Sikhs would not dine with Muslims. The 'Pir' however, excused himself saying, he was on a long fast.

However, he instructed his Muslim attendants, in reality Bhai Daya Singh and Man Singh, to go and take food after making it a "sacrifice to the sword". The party was allowed to resume their journey the following morning. The shrine later established at Lall Kalan was developed into Gurdwara Gurusar.