ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਬੰਗਲਾ ਸਾਹਿਬਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਬੰਗਲਾ ਸਾਹਿਬ

Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in New Delhi is one of Sikhism's most loved shrines. It grew out of the bungalow of Raja Jai Singh of Amber, where Guru Har Krishan Ji, the eighth Sikh Guru, stayed in 1664, served the sick through a Delhi epidemic, and died still a child of seven. Its healing sarovar and golden dome draw millions of devotees to this landmark among the historic gurdwaras of India.

The bungalow of Raja Jai Singh

In the seventeenth century the site was a bangla, a bungalow, belonging to Raja Jai Singh of Amber (Jai Singh I), a Rajput ruler and a general in the Mughal court. It stood in Jaisinghpura, an old Delhi neighbourhood later cleared to make way for Connaught Place, and some accounts remember it as the Jaisinghpura Palace. The bangla gave the future gurdwara its name: Bangla Sahib, the revered bungalow.

Guru Har Krishan Ji had been summoned to Delhi by Emperor Aurangzeb after his succession as Guru was challenged by his elder brother Ram Rai, who had carried the dispute to the emperor. Raja Jai Singh and his son Raja Ram Singh, both men of standing at the Mughal court, persuaded the Guru to come to Delhi and stood surety for him, keeping him as their guest in the bungalow until the matter was settled.

The child Guru's healing seva

Delhi was in the grip of a smallpox and cholera epidemic in 1664. From the bungalow, the child Guru tended the suffering of the city. He gave charity to the sick with his own hands and instructed his diwan, Dargah Mal, to spend every rupee of the daily offerings made to the Guru on the poor and the downtrodden.

The Guru himself caught smallpox. He died in the bungalow on 30 March 1664, still a child of seven. Before the end he uttered the words “Baba Bakala”, which the Sikhs understood to mean that his successor waited at Bakala. The search that followed led to ਗੁਰੂ ਤੇਗ਼ ਬਹਾਦਰ ਜੀ, the ninth Sikh Guru.

The healing sarovar

After the Guru's death, Raja Jai Singh had a small tank built over the well from which the Guru had drawn water while he served the sick. That tank grew into the sarovar, the holy pool at the heart of the complex: about 225 feet by 235 feet, ringed by an 18-foot-wide parkarma and a 12-foot veranda along three sides. These dimensions are recorded in the Government of India's Sikh Shrines in India.

Because the water comes from the Guru's own well, Sikhs revere it for its healing properties and carry it home as amrit. On the Guru's Parkash Purab, his birth anniversary, which the Nanakshahi calendar marks on 4 Sawan, the gurdwara fills for a special congregation.

A shrine rises, and is rebuilt

The bungalow was dedicated as a gurdwara in the Guru's memory. In 1783, during the reign of Shah Alam II, the Sikh general Sardar Baghel Singh built a small shrine here, one of the nine historic shrines of Delhi raised or rebuilt that year. The present buildings, with the white-marble facade and the gilded dome, are mostly the work of the twentieth century, built after 1947.

The shrine has stood through Delhi's hardest days. In November 1984, during the anti-Sikh riots, about 150 Sikhs took shelter inside the gurdwara. A mob carrying cans of gasoline tried to storm the building and was driven back, an episode reported at the time by the Washington Post. Sis Ganj Sahib, another of Baghel Singh's nine shrines, stands as its sister memorial in Old Delhi.

Langar and seva beyond the shrine

Continuous Gurbani kirtan fills the darbar hall through the day, and Guru-ka-langar feeds tens of thousands daily: some 25,000 to 30,000 on ordinary weekdays, about 45,000 on weekends, and well over 100,000 at festivals.

The shrine's seva reaches far beyond its walls. In 2017, when drought-hit farmers from Tamil Nadu were protesting at Jantar Mantar, the gurdwara sent them langar twice a day, and when the sevadars realised the farmers preferred rice to wheat, the chapati packets were switched to rice. During the 2020 COVID lockdown, the DSGMC kitchen at Bangla Sahib fed 40,000 people a day, reaching 4.5 lakh people in twelve days.

The gurdwara today

Bangla Sahib is instantly recognisable by its golden dome and tall Nishan Sahib, on Baba Kharak Singh Marg, with the Sacred Heart Cathedral as its near neighbour. The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), the statutory body under the Delhi Gurdwara Act of 1971 that looks after Delhi's historic gurdwaras, runs the shrine.

The complex houses the Baba Baghel Singh Sikh Heritage Multimedia Museum, opened on 26 July 2014 and founded by Vikramjit Singh Sahney: a DSGMC-owned museum of Sikh history that stays open from 9:30 in the morning to 7:30 in the evening. Beside it stand a Khalsa girls' school and a charitable hospital. In March 2021 the gurdwara added a low-cost diagnostic centre, where an MRI scan costs Rs 50, along with a kidney-dialysis hospital.

Why is it called Bangla Sahib?

Because the shrine grew out of Raja Jai Singh's bangla, a bungalow. “Bangla Sahib” simply means the revered bungalow, and the name keeps alive the memory of the house where Guru Har Krishan Ji stayed.

How do I reach Gurdwara Bangla Sahib?

The gurdwara sits on Baba Kharak Singh Marg near Connaught Place and is open round the clock, every day of the year. The nearest metro is Shivaji Stadium on the Airport Express (Orange) Line, a few hundred metres away. Patel Chowk on the Yellow Line and Rajiv Chowk on the Yellow and Blue Lines are also close by. Cover your head before entering (scarves are provided free at the entrance), leave your shoes at the jora ghar, and respect the photography rules inside the prayer hall. October to March brings Delhi's best weather.