Dera Baba Nanak

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Dera Baba Nanak

Dera Baba Nanak (30° 2'N, 75° 2'E), on the left bank of the River Ravi in Gurdaspur district of the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Nanak, who on the conclusion of one of his long travels arrived here and sat near a well owned by Ajitta Randhava, the chaudhan or headman of Pakkhoke Randhave, village where the Guru's family had been staying with his wife's parents. Around the spot where he had halted grew the town of Dera Baba Nanak. As the news of the Guru's arrival spread, people from the surrounding villages started pouring in everincreasing numbers to see him and receive his blessing. Bhai Ajitta requested him to settle down permanently at or near Pakkhoke. This led to the foundation of a habitation across the Ravi, which the Guru named Kartarpur. On his death, on 7 September 1539, his ashes were buried near Kartarpur and a monument raised over them. But the monument was soon after washed away by a flood in the river. Guru Nanak's elder son, Baba Sri Chand, who was then staying at Pakkhoke, got the urn containing the ashes salvaged, reburied it close to Ajitta's well and raised over the spot a mud hut which came to be called Dehra or samadh of Guru Nanak. Later Baba Dharam Das, the sonofGuruNanak's younger son, Lakhmi Das, founded a new habitation around this Dehra and named it Dera Baba Nanak. There are two historical gurdwaras in the town now.