Gurdwara Majnu ka Tilla Sahibਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਮਜਨੂੰ ਕਾ ਟਿੱਲਾ ਸਾਹਿਬ

Gurdwara Majnu ka Tilla Sahib is one of the oldest Sikh shrines in Delhi, standing on a hillock on the right bank of the Yamuna river, opposite Timarpur and beyond the Khyber Pass stretch of North Delhi. Its name, the hillock of Majnu, remembers Abdulla, an Iranian Sufi mystic nicknamed Majnu, who ferried travellers across the Yamuna free of charge and who met Guru Nanak Dev Ji here on 20 July 1505. Guru Hargobind Ji, the sixth Guru, also stayed at this mound, and Sardar Baghel Singh raised the first shrine here in 1783. Delhi knows the wider neighbourhood by the same name, Majnu ka Tilla, today famous as the city's Tibetan quarter.

What is Gurdwara Majnu ka Tilla Sahib?

Gurdwara Majnu ka Tilla Sahib is a historic gurdwara in North Delhi that marks the meeting of Guru Nanak Dev Ji with the Sufi ferryman Abdulla, called Majnu, in July 1505. Guru Nanak stayed on the mound until the end of that July. The shrine built by Baghel Singh in 1783, endowed by Maharaja Ranjit Singh in the early 19th century and rebuilt in a larger form by the Delhi sangat in 1950, is counted among the oldest extant Sikh shrines in the capital. Its best known gathering is Baisakhi, when the birth of the Khalsa is celebrated here with a very large langar.

Majnu, the ferryman of the Yamuna

During the reign of Sikandar Lodhi (1489 to 1517), a Sufi hermit named Abdulla camped on a small hill at the edge of the Yamuna. He fasted and meditated day after day, lost in the yearning to see God, and grew so thin and so oblivious to the world that people began to call him Majnu: in Persian storytelling, Majnun is the lover driven half mad by love, and the name had become a symbol of intense, self forgetting love of God. When he was not in meditation, Majnu worked a small boat and carried people across the Yamuna without charging anything, treating the ferrying itself as service to God. Sikh tradition holds that when Guru Nanak came walking by the river and blessed him, Majnu found the enlightenment he had sought for so long and became the Guru's devoted disciple. Other Sufi saints of Delhi are said to have come to the mound to meet Guru Nanak during his stay, among them the custodian of the shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia.

Guru Nanak's stay in July 1505

The meeting is dated to 20 July 1505, and Guru Nanak is remembered to have stayed at the mound until the end of July. Tradition adds that, pleased with Majnu's dedication, the Guru told him his name would live on: the place would be famous by the ferryman's name, not the Guru's. That is exactly what happened. Five centuries later, the whole locality, its market lanes and its Tibetan settlement, is still called Majnu ka Tilla, the hillock of Majnu. For Sikhs the story carries a clear teaching: devoted, selfless service, the seva Majnu practised at his ferry, is itself a way to God, whoever practises it.

Guru Hargobind Ji and the later Gurus

A century later the mound received the sixth Guru. Guru Hargobind Ji stayed at Majnu ka Tilla on his journeys to and from Delhi in the time of Emperor Jahangir, including the period around his release from Gwalior Fort with 52 princes, the release Sikhs celebrate as Bandi Chhor Divas. One Delhi retelling links the freeing of the princes' kingdoms to this very halting place. Ram Rai, the elder son of Guru Har Rai Ji, the seventh Guru, also stayed here when he was sent to Aurangzeb's court, and a well in the compound is associated in tradition with his stay. Between Guru Nanak's first visit and these later stays, the little mound accumulated a layered Sikh history out of proportion to its size.

1783, Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the building of 1950

Sardar Baghel Singh, who entered Delhi in 1783 and camped at Majnu ka Tilla, raised the first small structure here to keep the memory of the Gurus' stays. Maharaja Ranjit Singh later built the small marble gurdwara that can still be seen, and endowed the shrine with a jagir whose income paid for its upkeep. In 1950 the sangat of Delhi built the large gurdwara building that serves today, in white marble, on the same mound above the river. The shrine thus holds three layers in one place: the tiny old marble gurdwara of the Ranjit Singh years, the estate he donated around it, and the spacious modern hall raised by Delhi's own congregation.

Baisakhi at Majnu ka Tilla: what happens here?

The shrine's great day is Baisakhi, the birthday of the Khalsa. Delhi's Sikhs gather here in large numbers, pilgrims come in from the surrounding areas, and people of different faiths, castes and stations join the celebration. A special langar on an enormous scale is served, open to everyone, in the spirit of the ferryman who once carried all comers across the river for nothing. Through the year the gurdwara keeps the daily rhythm of kirtan and prayer, and its visitors often continue into the lanes of the Tibetan quarter that shares its name, making this one of the few places in Delhi where a Sikh shrine, a Buddhist monastery and a refugee market stand within a short walk of each other.

Visiting Majnu ka Tilla Sahib: how to reach

The gurdwara stands on the right bank of the Yamuna on the Grand Trunk Road (National Highway 1), by Magazine Road in Civil Lines, opposite Timarpur, with the postcode 110054. The closest metro stations are Vidhan Sabha on the Yellow Line, about 1.5 km away, and Kashmere Gate, a short walk from the ISBT bus terminal. Visitors cover their heads and remove their shoes, as at any gurdwara. The historic well in the compound is worth seeking out, and the small old marble shrine beside the main hall is the piece of the complex most visitors miss.