The recent news highlights India’s plea to Pakistan for the repair and reconstruction of parts of the revered Kartarpur Sahib gurudwara, which were damaged during a storm on April 18, 2020. Located in Pakistan’s Narowal district, the shrine stands where Guru Nanak Dev, founder of the Sikh faith, spent his final years. The shrine is held in high esteem by followers and worshippers from India and beyond.
The Importance of Kartarpur Sahib
Kartarpur Sahib, currently celebrating year-long festivities associated with the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, has become a major center of Sikh pilgrimage in Pakistan. This increase in importance and popularity followed the operationalisation of a corridor connecting it with India. The corridor links the Kartar Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan’s Narowal district with the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district, located in India’s Punjab province.
History of Kartarpur Sahib
Guru Nanak Dev journeyed through many countries, spreading messages of universal peace, harmony, and love, before finally settling in Kartarpur in 1521. The region’s governor at the time, Duni Chand, donated 100 acres of land by the river Ravi to him. After he established residence there, Kartarpur evolved into a religious site. The gurdwara’s foundation stone was laid in 1572, and its dome was later covered with gold by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. In 1925, the present structure was constructed by Bhupinder Singh, the Maharaja of Patiala.
Teachings of Guru Nanak Dev
Guru Nanak Dev Jayanti is a celebration observed to honor the birth of Guru Nanak Dev (1469-1539), the first of the 10 Sikh Gurus and the founder of Sikhism. He propagated the ‘Nirguna’ form of bhakti, which represents devotion to and worship of a formless divine entity. He disapproved of sacrifices, ritual baths, image worship, austerities, and both Hindu and Muslim scriptures. He fostered his follower base into an organized community and established rules for congregational worship (Sangat) that involved collective recitation.
The Creation of Sikh Scriptures
Guru Nanak Dev’s hymns, along with those of his four successors and other religious poets such as Baba Farid, Ravidas (also known as Raidas), and Kabir, were compiled in the Adi Granth Sahib by Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Sikh Guru. These hymns, known as ‘Gurbani’, are composed in a variety of languages. In the late seventeenth century, the tenth preceptor, Guru Gobind Singh, added the compositions of the ninth guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, to this scripture, thus giving it the name Guru Granth Sahib.
Last Modified: February 7, 2024