Gurdwara Manji Sahib, Alamgirਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਮੰਜੀ ਸਾਹਿਬ, ਆਲਮਗੀਰ

Gurdwara Manji Sahib, also called Alamgir Sahib, stands in the village of Alamgir about 11 kilometres south of Ludhiana in Punjab, and it marks the turning point of one of the hardest journeys in Sikh history. In the winter of 1704 to 1705, days after the evacuation of Anandpur and the fighting at Chamkaur, Guru Gobind Singh Ji was carried into this village on a bed, a manji, disguised as the Pir of Uch. At Alamgir the disguise ended: the bearers were sent back, a horse was presented, and the Guru rode on as himself. The shrine also keeps the Tirsar, the spring said to have risen where his arrow struck the dry ground.

Why is it called Manji Sahib?

A manji is a light bed or cot, and the name remembers the litter on which the Guru travelled. Escaping the pursuit after Chamkaur, he had been carried through the Machhiwara forest in the blue robes of a Muslim pir, the Pir of Uch, borne by the Pathan brothers Ghani Khan and Nabi Khan with Bhai Daya Singh, Bhai Dharam Singh and Bhai Man Singh in attendance. The spot where that bed was set down at Alamgir became Manji Sahib. Accounts of the shrine say the original palanquin is still preserved here, in the Bhora Sahib, the underground chamber of the present building, so the name is not a metaphor: the very object that gives the shrine its name is kept within it.

The halt at Alamgir: horse, bearers and a change of road

The district history of Ludhiana dates the arrival to 14 Poh of the Bikrami year 1761, in the closing days of 1704. The Guru had lost his mother and all four of his sons in the weeks before, and he reached Alamgir still hunted. Here the journey changed its character. A horse was presented to him, and with a mount of his own he no longer needed the litter or its bearers. Ghani Khan and Nabi Khan, who had risked their lives carrying him through the cordon, were sent back with the bed. Accounts differ on the donor's name: the district account calls him Bhai Nigahia Singh, a horse trader of the village, while the Sikh Encyclopedia's account of Alamgir names Bhai Naudha, an old disciple. Both agree on the gift and its meaning: from Alamgir, the Guru rode openly towards Raikot and the Malwa country. The halt is one of the fixed points of the Guru Gobind Singh Marg, the route of that winter journey.

What is the Tirsar at Alamgir?

The Tirsar is the shrine's holy pool, and its story is the one every pilgrim hears first. The Guru, the tradition tells, asked an old woman gathering cow dung where he might bathe, and she answered that the place was a ruin with no water: the only well stood far off, and a great python lived in it, so no one went near. He shot the python with an arrow and gave it mukti, release. But the dead snake fouled the well water, so close to where he sat he shot a second arrow into the ground, and a spring of clean water rose where it struck. Tir means arrow, and the pool formed from that spring is the Tir Sar, the Arrow Pool. The old woman, who suffered from leprosy, bathed in the new water at his word and, in the telling, was cured, and went back to the village to spread the news. The sarovar today is a square tank of about 63 metres, and its water is still held to heal those who bathe in faith. The story is told here as the shrine's own tradition, which is how its sources present it.

The building and the Bhora Sahib

The present complex covers more than three acres. A four storeyed gateway crowned by a small lotus dome opens onto a wide paved courtyard. Across it stands the divan hall, ringed by a verandah, and adjoining it the prakash asthan, the sanctum, whose basement marks the original site of the Manji Sahib and holds the preserved palanquin. Above the sanctum rises a three storeyed domed tower with smaller domed turrets at its corners. For the great gatherings a vast reinforced concrete shelter was added in 1969, the 500th anniversary year of Guru Nanak Dev Ji's birth. The dining hall is one of the largest among Sikh shrines and can seat some 2,000 people at a time, and there are blocks of rooms for pilgrims and staff. The gurdwara is run by a local committee under the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.

The December fair at Alamgir

Alamgir's great days come with the cold that matches its story. A three day fair is held here every year from 14 to 16 Poh, in the last days of December, drawing pilgrims who walk the whole winter route of 1704 to 1705 in memory. Through the year the shrine keeps the daily round of a working gurdwara, and its langar serves hundreds daily without charge. Many visitors pair Alamgir with the other Ludhiana district shrines of the same journey, among them Mehdiana Sahib near Jagraon, where the sangat pressed the Guru to answer the emperor in writing.

How do I reach Gurdwara Manji Sahib, Alamgir?

Alamgir village lies about a kilometre off the Grand Trunk Road side of Ludhiana, roughly 11 kilometres from Ludhiana bus stand and 13 kilometres from Ludhiana railway station, with the small airport at Sahnewal about 15 kilometres away, according to the district administration. Auto rickshaws and taxis from Ludhiana cover the last stretch easily. The shrine is one of the Ludhiana district stops listed in Jugti's guide to Gurdwaras in India.