Goindwalਗੋਇੰਦਵਾਲ

Where Goindwal sits

Goindwal, known everywhere as Goindwal Sahib, is a historic village in Khadur Sahib tehsil of Tarn Taran district, Punjab, standing on the bank of the Beas River. The census still counts it as a village, with its own gram panchayat, village code 038270, an area of 598 hectares and PIN code 143409, but in size and spirit it is a pilgrim town. The district's Census 2011 handbook lists only three statutory towns in Tarn Taran district, Tarn Taran, Patti and Khem Karan, plus one census town, Bhikhiwind; Goindwal appears only in the village directory. Since the census the settlement's status has risen: Goindwal Sahib is now a sub-tehsil headquarters and is administered by a nagar panchayat. Khadur Sahib, its tehsil town, is about 5 kilometres away, Tarn Taran about 22 kilometres, and the directory's nearest statutory town, Patti, about 12 kilometres. Villages recorded around it include Miani, Jhandher and Akbarpur.

A ferry crossing becomes a village

The site began as the head of a ferry where the old east-west highway between Delhi and Lahore crossed the Beas; the crossing grew busier after Sher Shah Suri rebuilt the highway in 1540 to 1545. A trader named Goinda, a Marvaha Khatri, tried to found a settlement at the ferry's western end, but his efforts were thwarted and he blamed evil spirits for keeping people away. He went to Khadur to seek the blessing of Guru Angad Dev Ji, who sent his devoted follower Bhai Amar Das to help. Amar Das knew the crossing well, for he had carried river water from it to Khadur every day for the Guru's morning bath, and he laid the foundation of the new village, which took the trader's name: Goindwal. The historian Gurinder Singh Mann dates the founding to 1551. In 1552 Guru Angad Dev Ji chose Amar Das as his successor, and Guru Amar Das moved the centre of the young Sikh community from Khadur to Goindwal, where he lived for 33 years.

The Baoli and the first centre of Sikhism

In the 1550s Guru Amar Das had a baoli dug at Goindwal: a covered stepwell whose divided staircase of 84 steps descends to the water, with resting places and a domed entrance painted with frescoes of his life. Sikh belief holds that a devotee who bathes in the baoli and recites Japji Sahib on each of its 84 steps is freed from the cycle of 84 lakh births and deaths. The gurdwara built over it, Gurdwara Baoli Sahib, is regarded as the first pilgrimage centre of the Sikhs, and Goindwal is often called the axis of Sikhism, its first centre.

From Goindwal, Guru Amar Das organised the community: he started its Vaisakhi gathering, set up the Manji system of preaching seats and composed the Anand Sahib here. He made langar the rule of the house: no one met the Guru without first eating in the pangat, a rule summed up in the saying pehle pangat, pichhon sangat. He preached against sati and purdah and in favour of the remarriage of widows. In 1569, historians record, the emperor Akbar stopped at Goindwal on his way from Delhi to Lahore, ate in the langar like everyone else, and granted land in the name of the Guru's daughter Bibi Bhani; on that land the next Guru founded Amritsar.

Guru Ram Das, Guru Arjan Dev and Bhai Gurdas

Bhai Jetha, a young man from Lahore, came to Goindwal to be near Guru Amar Das. He earned a little by selling cooked beans and gave his time to the baoli works and the langar. In 1554 he married Bibi Bhani and stayed on in the Guru's service. Chosen in time as the fourth Guru and invested here, at the Guriai Asthan, he took the name Guru Ram Das Ji. He later founded Ramdaspur, today's Amritsar, but Goindwal remained his home ground: his youngest son Arjan, the future Guru Arjan Dev Ji, was born at Goindwal on 15 April 1563, and Guru Ram Das himself breathed his last here, in the house remembered as Chaubara Sahib. Bhai Gurdas, the scribe of the Adi Granth, was born at Goindwal in 1551 and died here too; years later, Guru Arjan returned to collect the hymns of the first Gurus from Baba Mohan for compiling the Adi Granth. Later Gurus kept returning: Guru Hargobind Ji brought his family here, the infant Guru Tegh Bahadur was bathed in the baoli, and Guru Har Rai Ji met the Mughal prince Dara Shikoh here during the war of succession.

The shrines of Goindwal today

The Baoli Sahib gurdwara, crowned with a gold-plated dome, stands at the heart of a complex of shrines. Chaubara Sahib was the residence of Guru Amar Das and Guru Ram Das, and a palanquin said to be of Guru Arjan's time is preserved there. Khuh Sri Guru Ram Das Ji is the well Guru Ram Das had made, and where Bhai Gurdas breathed his last. The Guriai Asthan marks Guru Ram Das's investiture; the Joti Jot Asthan and its Manji Sahib mark where Guru Amar Das breathed his last; Thara Sahib is where he sat to supervise the baoli's digging. A separate gurdwara marks Guru Arjan Dev Ji's birthplace, and Gurdwara Damdama Sahib, a few kilometres away, marks where Guru Amar Das rested on his daily water walk for Guru Angad Dev Ji. Many Sikh families bring the ashes of their dead for immersion in the baoli, and the langar still feeds pilgrims through the year.

People and work

The 2011 census counted 9,095 people in Goindwal, up from 6,845 in 2001, a rise of a third in a decade: 4,756 men and 4,339 women living in 1,912 households, only about 4.8 people to a household. Packed into 598 hectares, the density is about 1,521 people per square kilometre. The sex ratio was 912 women for every 1,000 men. Children up to the age of six numbered 988, about 11 per cent of the village. Scheduled Castes made up 4,029 people, about 44 per cent of the population, and no Scheduled Tribe population was recorded.

Literacy in 2011 stood at 77.92 per cent among residents aged seven and above, with men at 83.01 per cent and women at 72.48 per cent. The census recorded 3,723 workers, about 41 per cent of the village. Of the 2,316 main workers, the largest group, 1,468 people, were other workers in trade, transport and services, the workforce of a pilgrim town; cultivators numbered 462 and household industry 223. A further 1,407 people were marginal workers, employed for only part of the year.

Land, schools, health and services

Only 364 of Goindwal's 598 hectares were net sown in 2011, all of it irrigated, 306 hectares from wells and tube-wells against 58 from canals; the crops are wheat, paddy and maize. About 234 hectares, nearly two-fifths of the village, were under non-agricultural uses, the built-up footprint of the pilgrim town. Education runs through one government school at each level, primary, middle, secondary and senior secondary, so children can study in the village up to Class 12. Health facilities recorded inside the village in 2011 were a dispensary and a veterinary hospital, and the census detail adds a mobile health centre; the nearest degree college is at Tarn Taran. Both treated and untreated tap water were recorded. The village has a sub post office, an ATM, a commercial bank and a cooperative bank, agricultural credit and marketing societies, a PDS ration shop, an anganwadi centre and an ASHA worker, and the census even recorded a garbage collection system and drainage to a sewer plant, rarities in a village record. Domestic power supply was 12 hours a day.

Getting there

Goindwal Sahib station (GWSB), in the village on the Tarn Taran to Beas branch line, is served by rail buses linking it with Khadur Sahib, about six kilometres by rail, Beas junction, about 27 kilometres, and Tarn Taran, about 21 kilometres. Both public and private buses run in the village, and a district road passes through.

Why is Goindwal Sahib important in Sikh history?

Goindwal was the first centre of Sikhism. Guru Amar Das Ji lived here for 33 years, built the Baoli of 84 steps, organised the community through the Manji system and made langar its rule; Guru Ram Das Ji was invested here, and Guru Arjan Dev Ji was born here in 1563.

How many steps does the Baoli at Goindwal have?

The Baoli at Goindwal has 84 steps. Sikh belief holds that a devotee who bathes in its water and recites Japji Sahib on each of the 84 steps is freed from the cycle of 84 lakh births and deaths.

What is the population of Goindwal?

The population of Goindwal was 9,095 at the 2011 census, living in 1,912 households in Khadur Sahib tehsil of Tarn Taran district. It had grown from 6,845 in 2001.

Is Goindwal a town or a village?

In the 2011 census Goindwal was counted as a village, with its own gram panchayat, village code 038270 and a population of 9,095. It has since become a sub-tehsil headquarters administered by a nagar panchayat, which is why it is often described as a town; the census record itself is a village record.