Gurdwara Dera Baba Nanak

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Gurudwara Sri Dera Baba Nanak j.jpg

Gurdwara Dera Baba Nanak is situated in the Dera Baba Nanak city of Gurdaspur District. As its name defines its related to Guru Nanak Dev. Guru Ji used to worship god on bank of well Ajita Randhawa da khooh after his first udasi in 1515. On the Stage situated in the Gurudwara Sahib Guru Ji had sicussion with Ajita Randhawa.

Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the first master, spent the last days of his temporal life in Gurudwara Dera Baba Nanak. The exact location of Gurudwara Dera Baba Nanak is left bank of Ravi River on the Indo-Pak border. Guru Nanak Dev Ji used to visit this site for meditation.

On the right bank of river Ravi Guru Nanak Dev Ji founded the city of Kartarpur. At the age of seventy, Guru Nanak Dev Ji left for heavenly abode here. The Gurudwara is in the territory of Pakistan, but you can see it standing ashore River Ravi or from Dera Baba Nanak.

Maharaja Ranjit Singh offered a copper gilded throne to the Gurudwara and got its canopy covered with marble. The Gurudwara preserves a cloak that according to the belief was worn by Guru Nanak Dev Ji during his journey to Mecca and Medina.

The shrine is in the centre of the town, comprises three separate memorials. The well which originally belonged to Bhai Ajitta Randhava still exists and is reverently called Sarji Sahib. Pilgrims take its water home in the belief that it possesses curative properties.

The second memorial is the Kirtan Asthan, a rectangular hall, which marks the site where Guru Arjan had sat rapt in Kirtan when visiting Dera Baba Nanak for condolence on the death of Baba Dharam Das. The Guru Granth Sahib is seated in the hall.

The central shrine, called Thara Sahib, marks the thara, or platform, on which Guru Nanak had sat when he first came to Ajitta's well and where, later, Baba Sri Chand buried his father's ashes. The Guru Granth Sahib is seated here in a small square pavilion with a pinnacled lotus dome under an overhanging gilded canopy. The whole pavilion is covered with goldplated metal sheets with some of the hymns of Guru Nanak embossed on them. The Thara Sahib is at one end of a recently constructed spacious hall, above which, over the sanctum, is a square domed room with an ornamental arched coping and domed kiosks at the corners. The entire exterior above the roof level of this room is covered with goldplated metal sheets. The goldwork on top as well as on the sanctum was got executed in 1827 by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who also made endowments in cash and land for the maintenance of the shrine. Dera Baba Nanak being situated only 1 km from india pakistaan border, Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib can be seen from the Border with naked eyes.

Gurudwara Sri Dera Baba Nanak ji.jpg

The Gurdwara is administered by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee through a local committee. Special divans take place on every amavasya, the last day of the dark half of the lunar month, and all major anniversaries, especially the one marking the death of Guru Nanak, are observed. But the most important annual event is the fair celebrating the Baisakhi festival. A handwritten copy of the Guru Granth Sahib is preserved in this Gurdwara. It has 1660 pages, each page having a handsomely illuminated border.

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