Bilgaਬਿਲਗਾ

The wedding halt of Guru Arjan Dev Ji

Bilga is a large village in Phillaur tehsil of Jalandhar district, Punjab, in the Doaba region, about 10 kilometres from Nurmahal, at roughly 31 degrees 3 minutes north and 75 degrees 39 minutes east. It falls in the Nurmahal block, has its own gram panchayat, and the census record carries it as village code 030044 across 1,603 hectares. It is not the Bilga of Ludhiana district; this Bilga's name is known across the Sikh world for one halt in the summer of 1589. Guru Arjan Dev Ji, the fifth Guru and the compiler of the Guru Granth Sahib, was travelling from Goindwal Sahib to Mau Sahib, the village west of Phillaur where he was to marry Mata Ganga Ji, daughter of Bhai Krishan Chand. The wedding party, which by the Mahan Kosh's account included Baba Budha Ji, Bhai Gurdas Ji, Bhai Manj Ji, Bhai Shalo Ji and Mian Mir Ji, stopped at Bilga on the way. The Mahan Kosh dates the arrival to 1 July 1589, though the gurdwara's own board gives the year as 1590. Bilga then consisted of just seven mud huts, yet its people served the Guru and his party with such devotion for two days that, pleased with their hospitality, he left some of his own clothes with the village as a gift.

The Guru's clothes and the two gurdwaras

Those clothes are still Bilga's treasure. Gurdwara Sri Guru Arjan Sahib, in the centre of the village, preserves the garments the Guru gave: among them his chola, pyjama and silk dushala, his saili cap, his batva wallet, a handkerchief, his simrana mala rosary and a sandalwood chawanki. A well preserved in the gurdwara is remembered as the one that gave the Guru his bathing water during the halt. Every year a great diwan is held on 18, 19 and 20 Harh, and on the last day the Guru's clothes are brought out and displayed to the congregation. The relics are cared for professionally: the SGPC, which manages the shrine, had them scientifically restored by a team of experts led by S. P. Singh, a former director of the National Museum, in work entrusted to NRI Harbhajan Singh Shergill; the restoration took about three months, and the articles now rest in special glass cases for pilgrims. Bilga's second historic shrine, Gurdwara Sri Pipli Sahib, marks the spot, then at the edge of a forest, where Guru Arjan Dev Ji sat in prayer beneath a pipli tree during the same halt.

Pattis, people and the diaspora

Bilga is organised in pattis, named quarters founded, by the village's recorded account, by branches of a Sanghera family that came from Sanghera in the Barnala country: Patti Bhalaayi, Patti Duniya Mansoor, Patti Bhoja, Patti Mahena, Patti Bagga, Patti Bhatti and Patti Neelowaal. One gram panchayat and one sarpanch govern the whole village. The 2011 census counted 10,125 people here: 5,182 men and 4,943 women, in 2,201 households at about 4.6 people to a household, the smallest households of this group of villages, and a density of about 632 people per square kilometre on its tight 1,603 hectares. The sex ratio was 954 women for every 1,000 men, by far the strongest of the group, and children up to six numbered just 949, about 9 percent. Scheduled Castes made up 5,094 people, about half the village. Literacy stood at 81.69 percent among residents aged seven and above, men at 85.73 percent and women at 77.49 percent, Doaba's education belt showing in full.

Work has turned away from the fields. Of Bilga's 3,347 workers, about 33 percent of the village, the 2,957 main workers were led by 2,161 other workers in trade, transport and services, against only 502 cultivators and 159 main agricultural labourers; with marginal workers counted, the totals are 517 cultivators and 198 labourers. It is the economy of a village tied to towns and to the world: Bilga's people were among the early Punjabis to try their luck overseas, and its emigrants are found in almost every developed country. In Canada, Bilga families have held annual gatherings for decades, meeting in Metro Vancouver, where an Akhand Path and three days of reunion at a Surrey gurdwara keep the village's name and its Guru's story alive abroad. The Bilga General Hospital stands on the village outskirts.

Land and farming

What farming Bilga does is fully watered. Of its 1,603 hectares, 1,397 hectares were net sown area in the 2011 record, and every sown hectare was irrigated: 1,137 hectares from wells and tube-wells and 260 hectares from canals. About 206 hectares, some 13 percent of the village, lay under non-agricultural uses, the built-up share of a village that behaves increasingly like a small town. Farm power supply was recorded at 8 hours a day.

Schools, health and daily facilities

Bilga's schooling is the deepest of this group: the 2011 directory recorded 2 government schools at every level, 2 primary, 2 middle, 2 secondary and 2 senior secondary, so children can study in the village to Class 12 twice over. An anganwadi centre and an ASHA worker were also recorded.

Health care in the village rests on a primary health centre and an allopathic hospital, the freshly read 2011 Village Directory confirms, with a veterinary hospital for livestock; there was no community health centre, sub-centre or dispensary. Treated tap water was available. The village had both a post office and a sub post office, a PDS ration shop, mobile phone coverage, and banking in the village itself through a commercial bank branch, a cooperative bank branch and an ATM. The nearest internet common service centre was more than 10 kilometres away. Domestic electricity supply, at 16 hours a day, was the most generous of the three villages in this group.

Getting there: its own railway station

Bilga is one of the few villages here with its name on the railway map. Bilga station, code BZG, stands in the village on the Ludhiana to Lohian Khas line, in the Firozpur division of Northern Railway: the Ganga Sutlej Express halts here, along with the DEMU and passenger services that run between Ludhiana, Phillaur side towns and Lohian Khas. By road, the Phillaur to Nurmahal road passes about 2 kilometres away, and the 2011 directory recorded both public and private bus services in the village itself, on pucca, all-weather roads. Nurmahal, about 10 kilometres away, is the nearest town; Phillaur is the tehsil headquarters and Jalandhar the district headquarters. Neighbouring villages include Ranwan, Aujla, Khela and Mawai.

What is the population of Bilga?

The population of Bilga was 10,125 at the 2011 census, living in 2,201 households in Phillaur tehsil of Jalandhar district.

Why is Bilga important in Sikh history?

Bilga hosted Guru Arjan Dev Ji and his wedding party for two days in 1589, on the journey to his marriage at Mau Sahib. The clothes the Guru gifted the village are preserved at Gurdwara Sri Guru Arjan Sahib and displayed each year at the diwan of 18 to 20 Harh.