Driving north from Amritsar through green fields dotted with spurts of mustard, one comes to the small market town of Dera Baba Nanak. Situated a couple of kilometres from the international border with Pakistan, on the left bank of the Ravi river, Dera Baba Nanak is 49 kms from Amritsar and 26 kms from Batala.
In 1515, after one of Guru Nanak Dev’s long travels (udasis) he came to Pakkhoke and sat by a well owned by Ajitta Randhawa, the village chaudhari. This was the village where his wife, Mata Sulakhni and his family lived with her parents.
As news of the Guru’s arrival spread, devotees from far and near came to seek his blessings and hear his discourses. His family and his devotees requested him to settle here, but he chose to found a place across the Ravi that he named Kartarpur, where he lived tin his death in 1539. His ashes were buried in Kartarpur and a samadh was raised over it. However, the monument was soon washed away by floods.
The Guru’s son, Baba Sri Chand, rescued the urn bearing his father’s ashes from across the river. He had it reburied at the tharra or platform next to Ajitta’s well where the Guru sat and preached. In course of time he raised a samadh over the spot, and it came to be known as dera or mausoleum of Guru Nanak. The Guru’s grandson, Baba Dharam Das, is credited with founding the habitation around this dera, and naming it Dera Baba Nanak.
As one enters the town of Dera Baba Nanak, the first thing one notices is the gilded dome of the Darbar Sahib which is unique in that it is bereft of the sheen that the newer structures have. This is probably because the original gold has not had to be replaced since 1827 when Maharaja Ranjit Singh had the gurdwara built. Ranjit Singh also made huge endowments in cash and land for the maintenance of the gurdwara.
The gurdwara is located on a noisy market street but an immense serenity envelops the pilgrim as soon as he enters the precincts. Unlike other major gurdwaras, the Darbar Sahib has lawns and evergreen shrubs around the building. Even the sarovar is surrounded with flower beds.
The present Darbar Sahib at Dera Baba Nanak was built in 1827 over the original dera, incorporating the well at the basement level. Pilgrims believe that the water from the well has curative powers and carry it back with them.
The central shrine is called Tharra Sahib as it marks the spot where Guru Nanak Dev sat when he first came to the well of Ajitta Randhawa. The Guru Granth Sahib is seated in the large central hall in a gold-plated square pavilion with a pinnacled-lotus dome. The sides of the gilded pavilion have verses from the Guru Granth Sahib embossed on them. Above the ground level there is an encircling first floor where marriages are performed. The large sarovar to the left of the main shrine is fed by water from Ajitta’s well. The area around the sarovar is being widened.
Another shrine to the left side of the main gurdwara is called Kirtan Asthan. It commemorates the place where Guru Arjan Dev is said to have performed kirtan when he came to visit Baba Sri Chand and Dharam Chand.
As one drives further into the little town surrounded by sprawling green fields, one comes closer to a line of three small gurdwaras. These gurdwaras are connected with a relic of Guru Nanak Dev – a robe or chola with Koranic verses and Arabic numerals imprinted on it, that is believed to have been gifted to the Guru by a Muslim devotee when he visited Baghdad.
The main gurdwara, Langar Mandir Chola Sahib, was established by Baba Kabuli Mal, a descendant of Guru Nanak Dev, who retrieved the Chola Sahib, as it is reverently called, and brought it to Dera Baba Nanak in 1828. He had it installed in this building and the gurdwara compound today also includes a small samadh of Baba Kabuli Mal, and an octagonal well.
The chola, however, is now preserved not in this gurdwara but in a newlybuilt shrine managed by the descendants of Guru Nanak. The chola is showcased in an ordinary glass case, and a part of the Koranic texts and Arabic numerals inscribed on it are visible.
Under it one can see the rumal or handkerchief embroidered by Guru Nanak Dev’s sister, Bebe Nanaki, on the occasion of his marriage. The ceremonial rumal is decorated with motifs of flowers and animals.