ਸ੍ਰੀ ਹਰਗੋਬਿੰਦਪੁਰਸ੍ਰੀ ਹਰਗੋਬਿੰਦਪੁਰ

Sri Hargobindpur is a historic town in Gurdaspur district of Punjab, India, on the right bank of the Beas River. Founded and named by the sixth Sikh Guru, Guru Hargobind Sahib, it is home to the 17th-century Guru Ki Maseet, a mosque the Guru built for local Muslims, and it later served as the capital of the Ramgarhia Misl.

Where is Sri Hargobindpur?

Sri Hargobindpur sits on the right bank of the Beas River in Batala tehsil of Gurdaspur district, in the Majha region of Punjab. By road it is about 30 km southeast of Batala, 40 km from the district headquarters at Gurdaspur, and 60 km from Amritsar. The town covers roughly 6 square km at about 31.69 degrees north and 75.47 degrees east, and the flat, fertile land around it grows wheat and rice.

The Beas is the town's defining feature: the riverbank is what drew Guru Hargobind to the spot, and the old town still looks toward the riverbed from its eastern edge.

Who founded Sri Hargobindpur?

Sri Hargobindpur was rebuilt by the sixth Sikh Guru, Guru Hargobind Sahib, in the 1620s, though the site had an earlier settlement called Gobindpur raised by his father, Guru Arjan Dev. The spot was the ruined mound of a village called Ruhela on the Beas bank. Some accounts say Guru Arjan Dev established a village there named Gobindpur in 1587; after his martyrdom the area fell under Chandu Shah's control and declined into ruin.

Guru Hargobind came here from Kartarpur in the rainy season, liked the view the site commanded, and had a town laid out on the open ground by the river. He first named it Sri Gobindpur after his father, but because of his own association with the place it came to be known as Sri Hargobindpur, the town that carries his name.

The founding was not peaceful. Bhagwan Das, a rich Khatri chaudhari of the Gherar clan, objected to the Guru taking possession of the land and was killed in a scuffle. His son Ratan Chand, together with Karam Chand, son of Chandu, incited the Mughal faujdar (governor) of Jalandhar, who sent an armed force to drive the Guru out. The clash fought near the Beas ended with the Mughal force defeated and its commander killed; accounts date the battle to 1621 in some versions and to around 1630 in others. Gurdwara Damdama Sahib now stands at the battle site.

A century later the town entered Sikh history again. In 1758, after the death of Adina Beg, Jassa Singh Ramgarhia joined Jai Singh Kanhaiya to capture Sri Hargobindpur and Miani, and made the town his headquarters. It later became the capital of the Ramgarhia Misl.

What is Guru Ki Maseet?

Guru Ki Maseet, the Guru's Mosque, is the oldest standing monument in Sri Hargobindpur: a 17th-century mosque built by Guru Hargobind for the town's Muslims. Sikh accounts say the Muslim settlers and artisans who were helping build the new town asked the Guru for a place of worship, and he had the mosque constructed for them; it was larger than the gurdwara he built for the Sikhs. He also built a dharamsala in the town for Hindu settlers.

The mosque stands in the eastern part of the town overlooking the riverbed, in Indo-Islamic style with three domes and outer walls about 1.8 metres thick. A photograph of the building taken in 1933 survives. After the Partition in 1947 the local Muslims left and the mosque fell into disrepair; Nihangs of the Tarna Dal took over the complex and installed a gurdwara there. In 2003 the Nihang caretakers signed an agreement with the Punjab Waqf Board, and in 2010 local Sikhs began restoring the structure, with conservation led by Gurmeet Rai's team. The mosque remains the town's best-known symbol of the Guru's egalitarian outlook.

Places of interest

Gurdwara Damdama Sahib marks the site of the battle between Guru Hargobind's Sikhs and the Mughal forces. Guru Ki Haveli, formerly called Guru ke Mahal, is a ruined compound in the centre of the town; it is the private property of a branch of the Sodhi family of Kartarpur, and the Nihangs have set up a small gurdwara there. Gurdwara Granthian and the Hanuman Mandir are other surviving buildings from the period of the Sikh Gurus. The Beas riverbank, the reason the town exists at all, is worth a walk in itself.

Notable people

Guru Hargobind Sahib, the sixth Sikh Guru, founded the town and gave it his name; his history is the town's history. Jassa Singh Ramgarhia, the misl chief who captured Sri Hargobindpur in 1758, made it his headquarters and later his capital, putting the small Beas-side town on the map of 18th-century Punjab.

Getting there

Sri Hargobindpur is connected by road with Batala, Gurdaspur and Amritsar, and buses pass through the town. The nearest railway station is Tanda, about 20 km away. Allow roughly an hour from Amritsar and about half an hour from Batala by road.

Today

The 2011 census counted 8,241 people in about 1,587 households, and civic affairs run through the Sri Hargobindpur Municipal Council. The town lends its name to the Sri Hargobindpur Assembly constituency, reserved for Scheduled Castes; the sitting MLA is Amarpal Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party, elected in 2022. The surrounding belt grows wheat and rice, handloom is reported as a local commodity, and the town serves as a market centre for nearby villages. The old mosque, the battle-site gurdwara and the Beas bank still draw visitors with an interest in Sikh history.