Bhai Rupaਭਾਈ ਰੁਪਾ

Where is Bhai Rupa?

Bhai Rupa is a large village in Rampura Phul tehsil of Bathinda district, in the Malwa region of Punjab, India. It covers 4,567 hectares, which makes it one of the biggest villages in the district by area as well as by population. The nearest town is Bhagta Bhai Ka, about 6 kilometres away, and the village has its own gram panchayat in the Phul community development block. Its PIN code is 151206 and its Census 2011 village code is 035656. Pucca, all-weather roads link it to Rampura Phul and the villages around it.

The Sikh who gave the village its name

Bhai Rupa was born Roop Chand in 1614, the son of Bhai Sadhu and Bibi Soorti. His parents took the infant to Guru Hargobind Sahib, the sixth Guru of the Sikhs, who named him Roop Chand. As a young man he worked the fields beside his father. The story the village still tells is of a fiercely hot day when father and son carried a mashak of water to their work and found it so cold and sweet that they resolved not to drink it themselves but to keep it for the Guru. Working on in the heat, both collapsed from thirst. Guru Hargobind, who was then at Daroli Bhai, sensed their trouble, came to them and revived them by sprinkling water on their faces, then drank the water they had saved for him. The place where this happened is marked today by Gurdwara Jand Sahib in the neighbouring village of Kotha Guru, named for the jand tree under which the mashak had hung.

How the village was founded

Father and son had been living at Tuklani, where, the accounts say, their devotion drew envy. Guru Hargobind advised them to found a new village at a distance and to name it after Roop Chand. In 1630-31 the Guru himself laid the foundation of Bhai Rupa, setting a wooden pillar at the site, and stayed for over six months helping the settlement take root. He honoured Roop Chand with the title Bhai, meaning his own brother, anointed him with a tilak, and made him the masand responsible for the spiritual welfare of Malwa and the country south of the Sutlej. The Guru also gave him a karchha, the long spoon of the langar, and charged him to run a kitchen that would feed the poor and the needy. Villagers still repeat the Guru's words that in this langar even freshly cut wood would burn like dry wood. The Guru later returned to the area with his warriors, and nearby Kangar, whose chief Rai Jodh was part of the same circle of devotees, became part of the story of the fighting against Mughal forces near Mehraj in 1631.

Gurdwara Patshahi Chhevin and the village's sacred places

The village's sacred heart is Gurdwara Sahib Patshahi Chhevin, also known as Gurdwara Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib, a two-storeyed domed building raised beside Bhai Rupa's own house, where the foundation pillar set by the Guru is still preserved. Across a narrow lane stands the Guru ka Langar, carrying on the kitchen the founder was commanded to run, and a pavilion has been added for larger gatherings. The gurdwara is managed by the descendants of Bhai Rupa, who are known in the village as the Bhai ke, the Bhai's own family. In a private house of one of the descendants, close to the gurdwara, the family preserves an old wooden rath, a chariot that tradition says was gifted to Guru Ram Das by the sangat of Kashmir and later used by Guru Arjan, Guru Hargobind and Guru Har Rai. A grandson of Bhai Rupa, Bhai Gian Chand, is said to have brought the rath from Dehra Dun, where it had remained with Ram Rai. The founder's own samadh, called Bhai Ki Samadh, marks the place where, by tradition, Bhai Rupa left his body in 1709, after his sons Bhai Dharam Singh and Bhai Param Singh had returned from Nanded with news of Guru Gobind Singh's passing.

Population and people

At the 2011 census Bhai Rupa had 14,841 residents, 7,726 men and 7,115 women, living in 2,832 households. Children under seven numbered 1,480. Scheduled Castes made up 3,862 of the population, a little over a quarter. At about 325 people per square kilometre, this is a big, spread-out settlement of farmers, artisans and traders rather than a compact town, and its lanes are still laid out in the pattis of an old Malwa village.

Land, work and literacy

Farming still shapes the village. Of its 4,567 hectares, 3,684 hectares were net sown in 2011, and every sown hectare was irrigated, 2,205 hectares by canal and 1,479 hectares by wells and tube-wells. The census counted 6,129 workers. Cultivators numbered 1,731 and agricultural labourers 1,360, while 2,487 people were recorded as other workers, in trade, transport, services and the small industry of the Rampura Phul side. Literacy stood at 67.61 per cent, 71.15 per cent among men and 63.77 per cent among women.

Schools and facilities

The 2011 Village Directory recorded three government primary schools, a government middle school, a government secondary school and two government senior secondary schools in Bhai Rupa, an unusually full ladder of schooling for a single village. Health care rested on a primary health sub-centre and a dispensary, and there was a veterinary hospital for livestock. The village had treated tap water, a post office, a cooperative bank and a private bus service, though the nearest commercial bank was more than 10 kilometres away.

Why is Bhai Rupa famous?

Bhai Rupa is famous across Malwa as the village of Bhai Roop Chand, the Sikh whom Guru Hargobind honoured with the title Bhai and charged with running a langar for the poor. Its Patshahi Chhevin gurdwara, the founder's preserved house and chariot, and a langar tradition that the village traces to the Guru's own words draw devotees from across the region.

What is the population of Bhai Rupa?

The population of Bhai Rupa was 14,841 at the 2011 census, living in 2,832 households in Rampura Phul tehsil of Bathinda district.