Guruhar Sahai Ruralਗੁਰੂ ਹਰ ਸਹਾਏ ਰੂਰਲ

Where is Guruhar Sahai (Rural)?

Guruhar Sahai (Rural) is a village of Guru Harsahai tehsil in Ferozepur district, Punjab, in the Malwa region of the state. It is the largest village in Punjab: the Census of 2011 counted 26,221 people in 5,010 households here, more people than many towns have, and the village carries census code 034863. It covers 5,510 hectares and wraps around the town of Guru Har Sahai, its nearest town, about 3 kilometres away. Rather than one compact settlement, it is a ring of bastis, or hamlets, among them Basti Nijjar, Basti Kesar Singh Wali, Basti Gobindgarh, Basti Jhandu Wala and Basti Kalle Wali, looked after by 20 gram panchayats. Its PIN code is 152022.

How Guru Har Sahai got its name

The place was settled in the early 1700s by Guru Jiwan Mal (born 1694), a Sodhi who stood seventh in descent from Guru Ram Das Ji, the fourth Guru of the Sikhs, in the line of Baba Prithi Chand. Driven from his home at Mohammadpur near Chunian in the Lahore district during the invasions of Ahmad Shah Abdali, Jiwan Mal settled on a waste tract that the Brar and Dogar tribes fought over, and raised the Pothimala building, begun in 1705. He named the new settlement after his eldest son, Guru Har Sahai (1725 to 1750), and the village and the town beside it carry that name to this day. The locality had taken shape by 1745.

The Pothimala and the relics of Guru Nanak

In the old village, beside the town, stands the Pothimala, the seat of the Sodhi family and of its hereditary custodian, the Gaddi Nashin. The family, direct descendants of Guru Ram Das Ji, has kept here for generations the relics of Guru Nanak Dev Ji: his mala (rosary), his topi (cap), a padam, a jewel in which the Guru’s image and footprint are said to be visible, and the pothi, the sacred book from which the shrine takes its name. The present and 17th Gaddi Nashin is Guru Yuvraj Singh Sodhi.

The Guru Harsahai pothi is one of the most discussed manuscripts in Sikh history. The family holds that it is Guru Nanak’s own pothi, handed down through Baba Prithi Chand’s line, and scholars count it among the earliest surviving manuscripts of the Adi Granth tradition, written in letter forms older than the standard script. In 1969 the pothi was taken to Patiala and displayed for the 500th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, its first journey in more than 200 years. The following year, in 1970, it was lost while being carried by train from Delhi to Firozpur, and it has never been found. Photographs of some of its pages survive.

The Pothimala building is itself a monument: an 18th century structure of carved wood and painted walls, its frescoes telling scenes from the life of Guru Nanak and from the Sodhi family’s own story. In 2010 the Archaeological Survey of India took up the restoration of the building and its murals. Every year a mela at the Pothimala brings devotees from across the region for darshan of the relics.

Religious places

The village’s religious heart is the Pothimala, known as Gurdwara Shri Pothimala Sahib, in the old village next to the town. The Ferozepur district gazetteer also records two old temples here dedicated to Mata Jajol and Mata Hanswali, where fairs are held twice a year. Beyond these, each basti has its own gurdwara where the village gathers from day to day, and the temples and gurdwaras of Guru Har Sahai town serve the rural families as well.

Population and households

The 2011 census counted 13,689 men and 12,532 women in the village, a sex ratio of 915 women for every 1,000 men. Children under the age of seven numbered 3,453. Scheduled Caste residents numbered 16,641, about 63.5 percent of the village. Literacy stood at 63.25 percent: 69.47 percent among men and 56.53 percent among women. At 476 people per square kilometre, the village is settled as densely as a small town.

Work, land and daily life

Of the village’s people, 10,187 were recorded as workers in 2011, 6,520 of them main workers. Among the main workers, 1,543 were cultivators and 1,370 agricultural labourers, while 3,499 were in other work, a sign of the town next door with its trade, transport and services. A further 3,667 people were marginal workers, most of them women doing seasonal farm work. The land tells the farming story: 4,745.57 hectares are sown, and every sown hectare is irrigated, mostly by tubewells, while 764 hectares are put to non-agricultural use.

The village has government schools up to Class 12: the village directory recorded three primary schools, six middle schools, a secondary school and a senior secondary school inside the village. There is no hospital or health centre within the village itself; health facilities, the bank and the post office are in Guru Har Sahai town, within about 5 kilometres. Public and private bus services run in the village, and the railway station, Guru Har Sahai (GHS) on the Firozpur to Fazilka line, is within 5 kilometres. Firozpur city is about 40 kilometres away.

Is Guruhar Sahai (Rural) the largest village in Punjab?

Yes. With 26,221 people at the 2011 census, Guruhar Sahai (Rural) had more residents than any other census village in Punjab. The next largest, Abohar (Rural) in Fazilka district, counted 19,262. The village is also bigger than its own namesake town, which counted 17,192 people in 2011.

What is the Guru Harsahai pothi?

The Guru Harsahai pothi is an early manuscript of Sikh scripture that the Sodhi family kept for centuries at the Pothimala here. The family holds it to be a pothi of Guru Nanak Dev Ji himself, passed down through the descendants of Baba Prithi Chand. Shown publicly in 1969 after more than 200 years at home, it was lost in 1970, and it is known today only from photographs of its pages.