Gurdwara Bhatha Sahibਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਭੱਠਾ ਸਾਹਿਬ

Gurdwara Bhatha Sahib stands at Kotla Nihang Khan, on the edge of Rupnagar town in Punjab. It marks the kiln, the bhatha, where Guru Gobind Singh Ji halted on his travels from Anandpur Sahib and where, in the Sikh telling, the fire of a burning kiln went cold as the Guru approached it. The shrine built over that kiln site is today a white domed gurdwara and a well loved halt on the Guru Gobind Singh Marg.

What is Bhatha Sahib?

Bhatha Sahib is a historic gurdwara named after a kiln. Bhatha is the Punjabi word for a kiln, the kind used to burn bricks or lime, and the whole identity of this place rests on one such kiln and one night of shelter. Guru Gobind Singh Ji came to Kotla Nihang Khan, was pointed to the kiln as the only lodging on offer, and the fire in it is remembered to have gone out at his coming. The gurdwara that rose later on the spot keeps both the story and the name.

Today the shrine is a handsome white building with a large central dome, set in a paved courtyard with its Nishan Sahib, visited by pilgrims travelling between Anandpur Sahib and Chamkaur Sahib, and by the people of Rupnagar, for whom it is the town's own Guru Gobind Singh shrine.

Kotla Nihang Khan and Nihang Khan

Kotla Nihang Khan is now a suburb of Rupnagar, the town long known as Ropar. In the seventeenth century it was the seat of Nihang Khan, a Pathan zamindar whose fort stood here and who ruled over some eighty villages of the area. Nihang Khan was no enemy of the Sikhs: he was a friend and admirer of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, and historians date a meeting between the Guru and Nihang Khan here to 1688, in the month of Maghar of Bikrami 1745. That friendship explains why a hunted Guru could hope for shelter at Kotla Nihang at all.

The ground itself is far older than the gurdwara. Kotla Nihang Khan is also an archaeological site of the Indus Valley world, with settlement remains dated to about 2200 BCE, a reminder that this crossing country on the Sutlej has been lived in for thousands of years.

Why did the kiln go cold?

The account preserved in the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism tells the sakhi this way. Travelling from Anandpur Sahib with pursuers behind him, Guru Gobind Singh Ji reached Kotla Nihang and asked the Pathans of the place for shelter. The answer came half in jest: the only fit lodging they could point to was the burning kiln. The Guru took the answer at face value and led his horse straight towards the kiln, and as he approached it, the fire in the kiln went out.

The hosts, hearing what had happened at the kiln, invited the Guru into their house with honour. Before leaving, the Guru gave them gifts, weapons that the family treasured, and the next day he slipped away towards Chamkaur Sahib without his pursuers learning of it. Accounts describe the bhatha slightly differently, some calling it a brick kiln and some a lime kiln, but the heart of the story is the same in every telling: a burning kiln offered in jest became, for one night, a cool shelter for the Guru.

The shrine and what is preserved there

The gurdwara stands on the site of the kiln itself. The Encyclopaedia account records that it was built at the kiln site by Baba Jiwan Singh in 1914, and the present complex has grown around that first shrine: a white domed darbar hall, rooms for pilgrims, and the open courtyard where the sangat gathers. The Guru Gobind Singh Marg, the pilgrimage highway inaugurated on 10 April 1973, carries travellers past the town, and Bhatha Sahib is one of its listed landmarks, along with Parivar Vichora and Chamkaur Sahib.

Inside, the shrine preserves the memory of the Guru's gifts: a silver sword, a dagger and a shield, remembered as the weapons Guru Gobind Singh Ji gave to his Pathan hosts after the night at the kiln. They are shown to visitors as the tangible link between the sakhi and the family that sheltered the Guru.

Fairs and gatherings

Two gatherings anchor the shrine's year. A fair is held on 11 Bhadon, in August, on the death anniversary of Baba Jiwan Singh, who built the gurdwara. A larger gathering follows on 2 to 4 Poh, in December, in the very season when Sikhs retrace the Guru's leaving of Anandpur, his halt here and the battle of Chamkaur, so that a December visit to Bhatha Sahib is often one stop in a longer remembrance journey that also takes in Parivar Vichora and Chamkaur Sahib. Through the rest of the year the gurdwara keeps the ordinary round of darbar, kirtan and langar, open to everyone.

How to reach Bhatha Sahib

Bhatha Sahib stands at Kotla Nihang Khan, Rupnagar, Punjab 140001, at the outskirts of Rupnagar town, a short drive from the town centre and from Anandpur Sahib. It pairs naturally with Parivar Vichora at Majri and with Chamkaur Sahib, following the Guru's own order of travel on the Guru Gobind Singh Marg. For the full list of shrines on this route and across the country, see Gurdwaras in India.