Gurdwara Bala Sahibਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਬਾਲਾ ਸਾਹਿਬ

Gurdwara Bala Sahib is a major Sikh shrine in New Delhi, standing by the Outer Ring Road near Maharani Bagh, on ground that was once the bank of the Yamuna. It marks the cremation in 1664 of Guru Harkrishan Ji, the eighth Guru, who died of smallpox at the age of seven after tending Delhi's sick during an epidemic, and whose last words, Baba Bakala, pointed to his successor. Mata Sundri Ji and Mata Sahib Kaur Ji, the widows of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, were also cremated here, and their samadhis keep the shrine at the heart of Delhi Sikh memory.

What is Gurdwara Bala Sahib?

Gurdwara Bala Sahib is the New Delhi shrine raised where Guru Harkrishan Ji was cremated on the Yamuna bank in 1664. Guru Harkrishan, called the Bala Guru, the Child Guru, became Guru at five, was summoned to Delhi by Aurangzeb, spent his last days healing the city's cholera and smallpox sufferers, and died on 30 March 1664, naming his successor only as the one at Baba Bakala. The shrine also holds the samadhis of Mata Sahib Kaur Ji, inside the main hall, and Mata Sundri Ji, outside the newer building, both of them cremated on this ground.

The child Guru summoned to Delhi

Guru Harkrishan was nominated as Guru in 1661 by his father, the seventh Guru, Guru Har Rai Ji, in preference to his elder brother Ram Rai. Ram Rai, who had standing at Aurangzeb's court, complained to the Emperor that his claim had been passed over, and the child Guru was summoned to Delhi. He came at the intervention of Raja Jai Singh of Amber, who sent a senior official to escort him and received him with full honour. The Raja persuaded Aurangzeb to let the Sikhs themselves confirm their leader, and a deputation of Delhi Sikhs left the Emperor in no doubt: their Guru was Harkrishan. Aurangzeb still wanted a personal meeting, and Jai Singh promised to arrange one. It never happened. The Guru was lodged as the Raja's guest in his Delhi bungalow, the house Sikhs now know through Bangla Sahib, and events moved faster than diplomacy.

Healing Delhi, and the smallpox of 1664

Delhi in 1664 was in the grip of epidemic disease, cholera and smallpox together, and the child Guru went out among the sick. He is remembered for applying a healing touch to ailing bodies and for giving solace to the poor and the suffering, work that won him admirers across the city's communities; even those outside the Sikh fold, the accounts say, respected the peace his presence carried. Then the pattern every Delhi Sikh knows turned on him: as if he had taken the burden of others onto his own shoulders, he was struck by a severe attack of smallpox himself. Realising the end was near, he had himself moved from Raja Jai Singh's bungalow to the bank of the Yamuna, away from the crowded city, where the Sikhs pitched a large tent. A note on dates, because it matters here: the Guru died on 30 March 1664, aged seven. Two widely read Sikh websites print the year as 1684, a copying error that would make him twenty seven and contradicts every standard account of his life; the correct year is 1664.

Baba Bakala: the last words and the cremation

In his tent on the Yamuna bank, Guru Harkrishan told his Sikhs he was leaving for Sach Khand. Asked who would succeed him, and pressed for a name, he asked for five paise and a coconut and answered with two words only: Baba Bakala. Bakala was a small village on the Beas in Amritsar district, where Tegh Bahadur Ji, the younger brother of the Guru's grandfather Baba Gurditta Ji, lived in quiet retirement. The Sikhs went to Bakala and there found and acknowledged Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji as the ninth Guru. Guru Harkrishan was cremated on the Yamuna bank where he had died, and that cremation ground is the site of Bala Sahib. His ashes were carried to Gurdwara Patal Puri Sahib at Kiratpur Sahib, the town of his birth. The river has since changed its course, so the gurdwara no longer stands on the bank itself, a quiet reminder of how much of old Delhi the Yamuna has rearranged.

Mata Sundri Ji and Mata Sahib Kaur Ji

Bala Sahib is sacred a second time over. Mata Sahib Kaur Ji and Mata Sundri Ji, the wives of Guru Gobind Singh Ji who outlived him and guided the young Khalsa from Delhi, were both cremated on this ground after their deaths in the capital. Their samadhis are part of the shrine a visitor walks through today: the samadhi of Mata Sahib Kaur Ji, a small marble room, stands in the main hall of the gurdwara, while the samadhi of Mata Sundri Ji stands outside the new building. Together the three cremations give Bala Sahib a span no other Delhi shrine matches: the eighth Guru, and the two Mothers of the Khalsa who held the community together after the tenth Guru.

The old and new buildings, side by side

Delhi's Sikhs built the present complex to keep this memory, and it preserves its own growth honestly: the old and the new gurdwara buildings stand side by side on the cremation ground. The new building, with its big hall, was completed in 1957 to 1958. The shrine sits on the Ring Road on the far side of Maharani Bagh Colony, at Bhagwan Nagar near Ashram, and it is counted among Delhi's most important Sikh shrines, next in importance to Sis Ganj Sahib and Bangla Sahib, drawing large numbers of Sikh and Hindu visitors every day. Its scale is gentler than Bangla Sahib's crowds: this is a shrine of cremation ground solemnity, and visitors feel it.

Visiting Bala Sahib: how to reach

Gurdwara Bala Sahib stands on Gurudwara Road at Bhagwan Nagar, near Ashram, on the Outer Ring Road in New Delhi, postcode 110014, across from the Maharani Bagh side of the road. Visitors cover their heads and remove their shoes, as at any gurdwara, and langar is served to all. Allow time for both samadhis as well as the hall: Mata Sahib Kaur Ji's marble samadhi room inside, and Mata Sundri Ji's outside the new building. Pair the visit with Bangla Sahib, where the Guru stayed, and Sis Ganj Sahib, where his successor was martyred: together the three shrines tell the whole Delhi story of the eighth and ninth Gurus.