The Founding of Anandpur Sahib

The Founding of Anandpur Sahib

On May 13,1665 Guru Tegh Bahadur along with his wife and young son, Mata Gujri and Gobind Rai traveled to Bilaspur to attend the cremation of Raja Dip Chand of Bilaspur. Others said to accompany him on this journey were his mother, Mata Nanaki, Mata Sulakkhni, the widow of Guru Har Rai, Mata Hariji, the wife of Suraj Mal, Bibi Rup Kaur, the daughter of Guru Har Rai, and both Deep and Nand Chand, the sons of Suraj Mal who was the son of Guru Hargobind. The Raja's wife Rani Champa, an ardent admirer of the Guru, offered to give the Guru a large piece of land in her state in hope that the Guru and his devotees would move to the area. Guru Tegh Bahadur agreed to purchase the land for Rs 500 (Five Hundred Rupees). The land consisted of the villages of Lodhipur, Mianpur and Sahota. On the mound of Makhowal (once an ancient historic Hindu city) the Guru and his devotees began a new city for the followers of the flourishing religion. The new village was named after Guru Tegh Bahadur's mother, Mata Nanaki who was, of course named after Guru Nanak Dev's sister.

Ground was broken on June 19, 1665, by Baba Gurditta Randhawa

The new city was thus called Chakk Nanaki. The city prospered and grew rapidly as Sikhs from many areas moved to be near their Guru. In fact the city and the Sikh religion grew so rapidly that the leaders of the neighboring Hindu kingdoms became concerned with its rapid growth. It was from here that Guru Tegh Bahadur, in defense of the Kashmiri Pandits, issued his challenge to Aurangzeb.

While his father's death delayed Aurangzeb's planned conversion of the Pandits of Kashmir, it had little effect on the policies of Aurangzeb and the contempt that the Mughals held for theHindu religion - its people and its temples. Soon relations with the surrounding Pahari Rajas (often called hill chiefs) became strained as even some of their subjects, seeing a way of life in Sikhi that promised more for them and their children than their caste ridden religion could, began to join the new Sikh devotees spilling into Chakk Nanaki.

It was to this city that the young Raja of Assam would cross India to bring Guru Gobind Rai a small trained elephant, five horses of a rare breed (perhaps, the blue horse of Guru Gobind Singh), treasures of gold and silver and even a fortune in rare jewels. Failing in his attempt to buy Prasadi, as the Guru had named the elephant, the Raja of Kahlur, Bhim Chand (one of the neighboring kingdoms) even staged an attack on Anandpur in an attempt to steal the Chotti Hathi.

Let all embrace one creed and obliterate differences of religions

Renamed Anandpur (the city of bliss) the city was the site of the birth of the Khalsa in 1699 when Guru Gobind Singh created a new order of Saint-soldiers to stand up for the equality of all men/women that Sikhi had stressed since Guru Nanak's days. The battles of this new order were by the Guru's Hukam (order) to be only defensive in nature. They were to defend their own right to practice their religion and even fight for their neighbors , the Hindus, rights to do the same, even if need be, to the point of death as his father had done in Chandini Chowk. The Guru even went to the trouble that day to make sure that his followers understood that they were his equal, when he bowed before the Panj Piares, five men who had offered their heads to their Guru as his father had given his to protect Sanatanan Dharma, to become not the first Khalsa, but the sixth.

Ghulam Muhajuddin, a Persian historian, in a document sent to Aurangzeb, records the proclamation made by Guru Gobind Singh that day:

"Let all embrace one creed and obliterate differences of religions. Let the Hindus who believe in four different castes and who have different rules for their guidance, abandon them, and adopt the one form of adoration, and become brothers. Let none deem himself superior to another. Let men of the four castes receive my baptism, eat out of one dish, and feel no disgust or contempt for one another."

Hearing of this, rather than thinking of the Sikhs and their Guru as allies to fight Mughal tyranny, the Rajput hill Chiefs, mostly Hindus who had formed alliances with the Mughal rulers (Emperor Akbar's mother was a Hindu Princess) saw the Sikhs and their belief in equality as a more serious threat to their religion and way of life than that the beliefs of the Mughals. They increased their attacks and finally managed to enlist the Mughals in their efforts to rid the Sivaliks and its foothills of Sikhs. After a long protracted siege of Anandpur they promised the half starved Sikhs, that had not deserted the city and their Guru, even Sikhi, safe passage through their lines. Guru Gobind Singh knew better, but he bowed to the advise of the Sangat and left the city only to lose his four sons and his mother to the treachery of men whose promises made on their Holy Qur'an and the Hindu cow were worthless. Guru Gobind Singh spent 25 of his 42 years on Earth at Anandpur.

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