Gurdwara Manikaran Sahib

History

1. A place sacred before the gurdwara

   Manikaran lies on the Parvati river in the Kullu district. It was a Hindu pilgrimage place, and Hindu tradition connects its springs with Shiva and Parvati. The Kangra District Gazetteer of 1897 describes seven or eight Hindu temples, and it explains the name by the small polished pebbles, or manis, thrown up by a jet in the temple of Ram Chandar. It also records steam rising along the river bank, and streams measured at 182 degrees Fahrenheit. Its description of the village names no gurdwara.[Arch][Web]

2. Date uncertain

   The tradition of Guru Ji's visit

   The link with Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji rests on tradition and modern writing. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism has no entry on this gurdwara. Surindar Singh Kohli places the visit on a journey through the hills, between Triloknath and Mandi. Fauja Singh and Kirpal Singh, in their atlas of Guru Ji's travels, place it on the way to Kulu and mention an old gurdwara marking the visit. Neither passage names an early narrative source for the stop.

   Fauja Singh and Kirpal Singh report a local tradition that the hot springs themselves came into being through Guru Ji's blessing. Wikipedia gives a fuller version as Sikh belief. In that telling Guru Ji came with Bhai Mardana on 15 Asu 1574 Bikrami. Flour was collected for langar, but there was no fire. Bhai Mardana lifted a stone and a spring appeared, and the rolled bread sank and then rose cooked once he had prayed. This page reports these accounts as tradition. Neither the date nor the story has been traced to an older text.[Kohli][Singh][Web]

3. Today

   The gurdwara

   Kohli describes the gurdwara as standing close to the spring on the bank of the river, at the foot of a mountain he calls Harendragiri, with two or three tanks for bathing. The building's founding date has not been confirmed.[Kohli]

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