Kiratpur Sahibਕੀਰਤਪੁਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ

Kiratpur Sahib is a small holy town on the Sutlej river in Rupnagar district, Punjab, founded by the sixth Sikh Guru, Guru Hargobind Ji. It was home to three Sikh Gurus, Hargobind, Har Rai and Har Krishan, and holds Gurdwara Patal Puri, the most popular place in modern Sikhism for immersing the ashes of the dead.

Why is Kiratpur Sahib sacred?

Kiratpur, meaning the city of glory, was the headquarters of the Sikh faith for three decades, from 1635 to 1664. Guru Hargobind Ji moved here in May 1635 and died here on 3 March 1644, cremated on the Sutlej bank where Gurdwara Patal Puri now stands. His successor Guru Har Rai Ji was cremated at the same spot on 6 October 1661, and the ashes of the child Guru Har Krishan were brought from Delhi and dispersed into the river in 1664. Both Guru Har Rai and Guru Har Krishan were born in this town and received the Guruship here, so the place is woven into the lives of three Gurus in a way few towns in Punjab can match.

That is why, for many Sikh families, Kiratpur is where life ends as it should. The gurdwara on the riverbank is the most visited site in the faith for the final rite of committing a loved one's ashes to flowing water, drawing pilgrims from across Punjab and from the diaspora in Western countries.

History

The town's foundation is commonly dated to 1627, though the scholar Gurinder Singh Mann cites 1634, the year he says Guru Hargobind shifted the community's base here from Kartarpur. The land came from the hill state of Kehlur. In 1628 the Guru visited Raja Kalyan Chand at Kot-Kehloor, and the Raja gifted him the villages of Kiratpur and Kalyanpur as jagir. Some accounts name the donor as Raja Tara Chand of Kehlur instead. When the Mughal emperor Jahangir demanded that the Guru be expelled from Kehlur, Kalyan Chand refused and shifted his own capital from Kot-Kehloor to Sunhani.

The Guru's eldest son Baba Gurditta laid out the new settlement in 1624 on ground taken from the villages of Kalyanpur, Jiowal, Bhagwala and Bhatauli, and Guru Hargobind moved here in May 1635. Tradition says Guru Nanak Dev Ji had visited the spot centuries earlier, when it was little more than wilderness. The town also sheltered the Muslim saint Pir Buddan Shah, famed in local legend for an enormously long life; his mausoleum still stands on a hill near the town, and he died after the Guru had established Kiratpur.

After the death of Guru Har Krishan in 1664, Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji shifted the community to Anandpur Sahib, the town he had founded about 10 kilometres to the north. Kiratpur remained a place of pilgrimage, its gurdwaras maintained through the centuries that followed.

Where do Sikhs immerse the ashes of the dead?

At Gurdwara Patal Puri, on the left bank of the Sutlej about a quarter-mile south of the town. As per Sikh lore, Guru Hargobind commanded that a hut named Patalpuri be built on the riverbank; a Muslim pir named Pir Kaivan visited him there a week before his passing, and the 17th-century Persian text Dabistan-i-Mazahib mentions the spot as his cremation ground. The specific place where ashes are committed to the river is called the asth ghat. The Guru Granth Sahib is installed at the prakash asthan leading toward the water, and the building sits on a tall plinth with a large hall, two stories and a dome above the sanctum.

For centuries Sikhs dispersed ashes at Haridwar, where priests kept genealogical records, but that custom fell out of favour and Patal Puri became the most popular site instead. During the COVID-19 pandemic, long queues of families waiting to immerse ashes made national news. The place is so embedded in Punjabi life that the 2004 film Veer-Zaara made it the dying wish of a character to have her ashes immersed here.

The town's other gurdwaras

Gurdwara Baba Gurditta stands on a hill about a kilometre from the town, built in memory of Guru Hargobind's eldest son, who died there; it also commemorates Baba Sri Chand Ji. Gurdwara Shish Mahal was the first completed building of the new city: first the home of Baba Gurditta, then Guru Hargobind's own residence after his 1635 move, and the birthplace of both Guru Har Rai and Guru Har Krishan. The Guru's grandchildren Ram Rai and Bibi Rup Kaur were born here too.

Gurdwara Charan Kamal commemorates the spot where the Pir met Guru Nanak Dev Ji, whose mausoleum is on a nearby hill. Gurdwara Babangarh Sahib marks where Bhai Jaita, later known as Jiwan Singh, rested with the martyred head of Guru Tegh Bahadur after bringing it from Delhi in 1675; Guru Gobind Singh Ji took the sacred head in procession to Anandpur Sahib for cremation, and the Punjab Government has erected a memorial pillar at the spot.

The town also holds Gurdwara Manji Sahib and Gurdwara Sri Hargobindsar Sahib at the nearby village of Dadhi, about a kilometre away, along with the dargah of Baba Budhan Shah Ji.

Geography & people

Kiratpur Sahib sits at the foothills of the Shivalik range on the left bank of the Sutlej, about 10 kilometres south of Anandpur Sahib, 30 kilometres north of Rupnagar and 90 kilometres from Chandigarh, on the Nangal-Rupnagar-Chandigarh road (NH21). Its PIN is 140115. The 2011 census counted 2,348 residents, with Punjabi as the official language. It remains a small settlement whose life revolves around the gurdwaras and the steady flow of pilgrims who come to immerse ashes in the river.

How do I get to Kiratpur Sahib?

By road, Kiratpur lies on NH21, the Nangal-Rupnagar-Chandigarh highway: roughly 30 kilometres from Rupnagar, 10 from Anandpur Sahib and 90 from Chandigarh. The town is compact enough to cover on foot, with Gurdwara Patal Puri a short walk south of the main settlement, beside the railway tracks.

Notable people

Guru Hargobind Ji, the sixth Guru and proponent of miri-piri, founded Kiratpur and spent his last decade here. Guru Har Rai Ji and Guru Har Krishan, the seventh and eighth Gurus, were born here and installed to the Guruship here. Baba Gurditta, the Guru's eldest son, physically established the town in 1624. Pir Buddan Shah, the long-lived Muslim saint, is remembered with affection in Sikh tradition for his devotion to the Gurus. In modern public life, the town is the birthplace of Kanshi Ram, the former MP and Bahujan Samaj Party leader, and of the civil servant Dr. Rattan Chand.