Gurdwara Goindwal Sahibਗੋਇੰਦਵਾਲ ਸਾਹਿਬ

Gurdwara Goindwal Sahib is a historic gurdwara on the banks of the Beas in the Tarn Taran district of Punjab, built around the Baoli, a covered stepwell of 84 steps constructed under the third Sikh Guru, Guru Amar Das Ji. The Guru made Goindwal his base for 33 years, and tradition holds that bathing in the Baoli while reciting Japji Sahib at each step frees the soul from the cycle of rebirth.

What is the Baoli of 84 steps?

When Guru Amar Das took the guruship in 1552, he began digging a baoli, a covered well with steps descending to the water, to give pilgrims a place for a holy dip. The Baoli has 84 covered steps descending underground to the sacred water: each step stands for 100,000 of the 8.4 million forms of existence through which, in the Indic belief the Guru was addressing, a soul may wander. The staircase is divided, with one side for women and the other for men, and there are resting places between the steps where pilgrims gather for spiritual discussion.

The well is about 25 feet deep, entered through a wide pointed archway into a domed entrance decorated with frescoes from the life of Guru Amar Das, while frescoes of the ten Gurus line the wall above the entrance. The practice is exacting and famous: the pilgrim bathes, descends to the lowest step, recites the whole of Japji Sahib, dips again, and moves up one step, repeating the prayer 84 times in the hope of liberation from transmigration.

How Goindwal was founded

Goindwal grew out of a trader's fear and a Guru's blessing. The site stood on an ancient east-west highway crossing the Beas, the head of the river's most important ferries, and after Sher Shah Suri renovated the highway in the 1540s it became a busy transit point. A Marvaha Khatri trader named Goinda planned a settlement at the ferry's western end, but setbacks he blamed on evil spirits stopped him, so he went to Guru Angad Dev Ji at Khadur Sahib for a blessing, asking if one of the Guru's sons would live there to end the people's fear.

None of the Guru's sons agreed, so the Guru asked his devoted disciple Amar Das, who knew the tract well from carrying river water daily from this very spot to Khadur for his Master's bath, to oversee the project. Amar Das laid the foundation of Goinda's village, which was named after the trader, Goindwal, the City of Govind, an epithet of God. Goinda later built a special place in the town in the Guru's honour.

Thirty-three years of Guru Amar Das

Amar Das was anointed Guru in 1552 at the age of 73 and moved the Sikh centre from Khadur to Goindwal with his family and followers, staying there for 33 years. Goindwal became the first organised Sikh pilgrimage site, and the Guru made it the laboratory of the young faith. He started the annual Vaisakhi fair here, made the langar an inseparable part of Sikh life with the rule that no one could see the Guru without first eating in the community kitchen, first the row of diners, then the congregation, and built the manji system of missionary districts to carry the teaching to distant places.

The Guru wrote the hymn Anand Sahib at Goindwal, ended the practice of sati among his followers, and composed much of the Bani that shapes Sikh worship. The poet Bhai Gurdas was born here in 1551, and Guru Arjan Dev Ji came to Goindwal to collect the hymns of the first four Gurus from Baba Mohan for the compilation of the Adi Granth. Bhai Jetha, who would become Guru Ram Das Ji, worked here on the Baoli's construction and in the langar; he married the Guru's daughter Bibi Bhani on 1 February 1554, and their son Arjun, the future Guru Arjan Dev Ji, was born at Goindwal on 15 April 1563.

The emperor who ate in the langar

In 1569 the Mughal emperor Akbar, travelling from Delhi to Lahore, stopped at Goindwal to meet the Guru. Before the meeting he ate in the langar like everyone else, sitting in the common row. He was so impressed by the institution that he granted land in the name of the Guru's daughter, Bibi Bhani, and the Guru directed his son-in-law Guru Ram Das to found a new town on that land. That town became Amritsar, and the shrine at its heart the Harmandir Sahib. It is a measure of Goindwal's place in Sikh history that the Golden Temple's city traces its charter to a meal here.

Architecture: the white gurdwara and the well

Beside the Baoli stands the main gurdwara in white, a classic of Sikh architecture: a large golden dome tipped with a gold pinnacle, four cupolas echoing the dome, turrets, elliptical cornices and projected windows. The entrance is decorated with murals of scenes from Sikh history, and the Baoli's own domed entrance carries the fresco cycle of Guru Amar Das's life. Goindwal is also one of the places where Sikhs disperse the ashes of their dead as part of the Antam Sanskar rites.

Visiting Goindwal Sahib today

Goindwal Sahib is a town on the Beas in the Majha region's Tarn Taran district, about 23 kilometres from Tarn Taran Sahib. Pilgrims usually combine it with Khadur Sahib, nine kilometres away, and Sri Tarn Taran Sahib, and the town is listed in the Gurdwaras in India guide. The great langar of Guru Amar Das still serves crowds of pilgrims every day, and the Baoli draws devotees year-round, especially at Vaisakhi.