Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahibਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਰਕਾਬ ਗੰਜ ਸਾਹਿਬ

Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib is a historic gurdwara on Pandit Pant Marg in New Delhi, a short walk from Parliament House. It marks the spot where the body of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, the ninth Guru of the Sikhs, was cremated in secret in November 1675 after his martyrdom in Chandni Chowk. A devotee, Bhai Lakhi Shah Banjara, burned his own house to perform the cremation without drawing the attention of the Mughal authorities. The gurdwara first raised here in 1783 by Sardar Baghel Singh is today also the headquarters of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee.

What is Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib?

Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib is the Delhi shrine that marks the cremation site of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji. The Guru was beheaded at Chandni Chowk on 11 November 1675, at the place now marked by Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib, on the orders of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. His body was carried away under cover of a dust storm and cremated at the village of Raisina, where this gurdwara stands. Pilgrims read the two Delhi shrines as one story: Sis Ganj marks the martyrdom, Rakab Ganj marks the cremation.

The night of the cremation, 1675

After the execution, the Guru's body lay at Chandni Chowk under guard. Bhai Lakhi Shah Banjara and his son Bhai Naghaiya reached it with a convoy of ox carts loaded with cotton and foodstuffs, using a fierce dust storm as cover. They hid the body under the cotton bales and drove to their home in Raisina village. There, to avoid any suspicion, Lakhi Shah laid the body on a bed inside his own house and set the whole house on fire, so that the cremation looked like an accidental blaze. The ashes were buried at the spot, inside what had been his home. In a parallel act of devotion, Bhai Jaita, later known as Bhai Jiwan Singh, carried the Guru's head to Anandpur Sahib, where the young Gobind Rai cremated it.

Baghel Singh and the gurdwara of 1783

For more than a century the site was remembered but not built upon, and a mosque later stood near the spot. In 1707 Guru Gobind Singh Ji, in Delhi to meet Prince Muazzam, the future emperor Bahadur Shah I, identified the cremation place with the help of local Sikhs and raised a simple memorial. The lasting shrine came in 1783, when Sardar Baghel Singh entered Delhi on 11 March 1783 with a large Sikh force and set about marking the city's sacred Sikh sites. The claim to this land was contested, and tradition records that the Sikhs offered to rebuild the mosque at their own cost if the Guru's ashes were not found beneath it. Excavation in the presence of Mughal officials found the urn of ashes, and Emperor Shah Alam II gave permission for the gurdwara, along with a grant of land. Building the early gurdwara is said to have taken 12 years.

Architecture: white marble by Parliament House

The building a visitor sees today is mostly a post 1947 structure: construction of the present building began in 1960 and was completed in 1967 to 1968, and one account of the Panth's decision in the early 1950s credits the Delhi businessman Harnam Singh Suri, who had come from Rawalpindi in 1947, with taking on the whole seva of building it, completed around 1969. The gurdwara is built mainly of white marble, stands in a large garden, and has entrances on four sides, a feature read as a sign that the house of the Guru is open to all, without distinction of caste or creed. Inside the complex stands the Wall of Truth, the memorial to those killed in the violence against Sikhs in 1984, on which the names of the victims are inscribed.

Why does Rakab Ganj matter to Sikhs?

Rakab Ganj matters because it holds the closing scene of one of the most revered martyrdoms in Sikh history. Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji is honoured for giving his life in defence of the freedom of others to practise their own faith, and the cremation here was itself an act of courage: a poor devotee gave up his own home, his family's shelter, to give his Guru a dignified farewell. The shrine also works as the administrative heart of Sikh Delhi, since the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, the elected body that manages Delhi's historic gurdwaras under the Delhi Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1971, is headquartered in Guru Gobind Singh Bhawan within this complex.

Visiting Rakab Ganj Sahib: how to reach

The gurdwara stands on Pandit Pant Marg, also signposted as Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Road, facing Parliament House and the North Block of the Central Secretariat. The nearest metro station is Central Secretariat, about 500 metres away according to the national monuments record, and New Delhi Railway Station is the closest main railhead. Visitors cover their heads, remove their shoes, and may join the sangat for kirtan and langar. Many pilgrims combine Rakab Ganj with Gurdwara Bangla Sahib and Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib in one Delhi circuit. See also Gurdwaras in India.