Historic gurdwara
Gurdwara Panja Sahib
A gurdwara at Hasan Abdal built around a rock said to bear the handprint of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
History
The tradition
Bhai Santokh Singh tells how Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji and Bhai Mardana stopped here on the way back from the western journey. Bhai Mardana was thirsty and climbed the hill to the recluse Vali Qandhari, who refused him water and rolled a boulder down at the travellers. Guru Ji raised a hand, and the rock stopped on touching the palm.[EoS]
- 1800s to 1920
The gurdwara
A gurdwara was built here in the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who endowed it with land and visited more than once. Mahants ran it until Jathedar Kartar Singh Jhabbar and 25 Akali reformers took it over for the Shiromani Committee on 17 and 18 November 1920.[EoS]
What the sources disagree on
- The handprint story
The story comes from a 19th-century Sikh poem and is given as tradition. It is a story about how the place came to be revered, and it should be read as such.[EoS]
Images
The pool at Panja Sahib, Hasan Abdal, in a watercolour by Charlotte Canning dated 3 March 1860.
Charlotte Canning, 3 March 1860. Public domain. Source
