Gurdwara Mata Sundriਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਮਾਤਾ ਸੁੰਦਰੀ

Gurdwara Mata Sundri is one of the nine historic gurdwaras of Delhi, standing on Mata Sundri Road behind Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital, near Turkman Gate in the heart of the old city. It marks the haveli where Mata Sundri Ji, wife of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, lived for much of the last forty years of her life and guided the Khalsa after the Guru passed away in 1708, until her own death on this ground in 1747.

What is Gurdwara Mata Sundri?

Gurdwara Mata Sundri is the Delhi shrine raised on the site of Mata Sundri Ji's haveli, the house she occupied from 1727 onwards. The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee administers the shrine and built the present imposing building where the haveli stood. Sangat tradition also remembers the shrine as one the public raised in loving memory of Mata Ji, on the spot where she had lived for half of her life.

Who was Mata Sundri Ji?

Mata Sundri Ji was the daughter of Bhai Ram Saran, a Kumarav Khatri of Bijwara, in the present day Hoshiarpur district of Punjab. She is also remembered by the name Mata Jito Ji. Accounts differ on whether Jito and Sundri were the same person, but the Delhi tradition and this shrine remember her as one. She married Guru Gobind Singh Ji at Anandpur on 4 April 1684, and on 26 January 1687, at Paonta, she gave birth to Sahibzada Ajit Singh, the Guru's eldest son, who later met a martyr's death at Chamkaur.

After the evacuation of Anandpur Sahib in 1705, Mata Sundri Ji and Mata Sahib Kaur Ji came to Delhi and stayed for some time at the haveli of Bhai Jawahar Singh near Turkman Gate. Mata Sundri Ji later rejoined Guru Gobind Singh Ji at Talwandi Sabo and returned to Delhi after his departure for the Deccan. From 1727 she lived in a newly built house on this site, known then as Mata Sundri's Haveli and now as her gurdwara.

How did Mata Sundri Ji guide the Khalsa?

When Guru Gobind Singh Ji passed away at Nanded in October 1708, the Khalsa looked to Mata Sundri Ji for guidance, and she nurtured and guided the community for forty years. The clearest evidence is the series of hukamnamas, written orders issued with her seal and authority between 1717 and 1730, which the sangats received and obeyed. From this haveli she appointed Bhai Mani Singh Ji as head granthi of Sri Darbar Sahib at Amritsar. She also raised the young Jassa Singh Ahluwalia in her household and later sent him to Punjab to serve under Nawab Kapur Singh, the leader of the Dal Khalsa.

Mata Sundri Ji adopted a son, a goldsmith's child from Delhi, because he strikingly resembled her martyred son Sahibzada Ajit Singh, and she named him Ajit Singh after him. Mata Sundri Ji passed away at this haveli in 1747, and her last rites were performed on the ground where Gurdwara Bala Sahib now stands, where her samadhi also lies. Some of the weapons Guru Gobind Singh Ji gave to the two Mata Jis are preserved and displayed at Gurdwara Mata Sundri today.

The shrine and its architecture

The gurdwara is built in brick and lime mortar, in the traditional Sikh manner. At the far end of the hall is a marble paved gallery, and the carved wooden beam of the gallery carries an inscription in Gurmukhi script in bold letters. A marble slab in the centre of the hall is surrounded by the inscribed sacred emblem of the Sikhs. The square domed sanctum, arched copings and traditional entrance give the building its settled, dignified character.

How do you reach Gurdwara Mata Sundri?

The shrine stands on Mata Sundri Road in central Delhi, behind Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital and adjoining the Ghalib Urdu Academy, on the Turkman Gate and Ajmeri Gate side of the old city. Most visitors combine it with Gurdwara Bala Sahib, where Mata Ji was cremated, and with the other historic shrines in the Delhi guide.

Why does this gurdwara matter?

Among Delhi's historic gurdwaras, this is the one centred on a woman's leadership. For forty years, through the most dangerous decades of the eighteenth century, the Khalsa's steadiest authority sat in this lane in Delhi, and the shrine keeps that memory alive. Delhi's Sikhs observe the martyrdom days of Guru Gobind Singh Ji's sons here every year with great devotion, and the gurdwara serves the whole neighbourhood, without distinction, as a place of learning and of moral and spiritual teaching.