SIĀṆĀ SAYYIDĀṄ, a village in Kurukshetra district of Haryāṇā 5 km from Pehowā (29º-59'N, 76º-35'E), is the birthplace of Sayyid Shāh Bhīkh or Bhīkhan Shāh, a Muslim saint, who guided by intuition and divine inspiration, had gone to pay obeisance to the child Gobind at Lakhnaur in 1670. There are two historical gurdwārās in this village.

        GURDWĀRĀ DAMDAMĀ SĀHIB. Gurū Gobind Siṅgh had not forgotten this elderly devotee, and, when he visited Kurukshetra and Pehowā in 1702, he detoured into this village and halted there for a night. The site where he had encamped is now marked by Gurdwārā Damdamā Sāhib. The present building was raised during the 1960's by Sant Bābā Jīvan Siṅgh. It is located inside a walled compound and has a hall, with a white marble canopied platform for the Gurū Granth Sāhib in the middle of it. The facade of the hall is covered with marble tiles and the entire compound has a marble floor. The ribbed lotus dome above the central pavilion on the first floor has also a white marble pinnacle. The khaṇḍā on top of the flagmast is gold-plated. Another walled compound nearby has rooms for the granthī and for the Gurū kā Laṅgar. The Shiromaṇī Gurdwārā Parbandhak Committee manages the shrine through the committee which looks after Gurdwārā Bāolī Sāhib at Pehowā.

        GURDWĀRĀ JOṚĀ SĀHIB. The descendants of Bhāī Jhaṇḍā, one of Gurū Nānak’s disciples, were also living in this village following a carpenter's trade. They came to pay homage and took the Gurū to their house. One of them presented him with a pair of wooden sandals. The Gurū was pleased and not only accepted the present but also left his own pair of shoes joṛā, in Punjabi) in the house. This family is no longer living in Siāṇā, but the Gurū's shoes, embriodered in red and white silk thread, are still kept reverentially in a glass case at the Gurdwārā inside the village known as Gurdwārā Joṛā (lit. pair; pair of shoes) Sāhib.

        It is a single flat-roofed room, housing the holy relic as well as the Gurū Granth Sāhib. The Gurdwārā is administered by the village saṅgat.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  1. Narotam, Tārā Siṅgh, Srī Gurū Tīrath Saṅgrahi. Kankhal, 1975
  2. Giān Siṅgh, Giānī, Twārīkh Gurduāriāṅ. Amritsar, n.d.
  3. Harbans Singh, Guru Gobind Singh. Chandigarh, 1966

Major Gurmukh Siṅgh (Retd.)