Mecca, Medina and Baghdad
The Chola Sahib
Bedi family tradition says Guru Ji received a robe inscribed with Quranic writing on the western journey. The robe is kept today at Dera Baba Nanak, and accounts of its origin differ.
According to the booklet of the Chola Sahib's custodian, Guru Ji met a descendant of Pir Dastgir in Arabia and there received the robe, which it calls the Akal Chola. It says a ruler named King Lajward objected that this was a garment of Muslim faqirs, and told Guru Ji to take it off. Guru Ji replied that they had not put it on themselves and would not take it off.
The booklet says the ruler's vizier tried to remove it by force, but it had become one with Guru Ji's body. Harsh treatment did Guru Ji no harm, and the ruler finally bowed at Guru Ji's feet. The booklet points to the Bala Janamsakhi and the Suraj Prakash for this story.
It adds that the robe later passed through the Gurus to Bhai Tota Ram of Balkh-Bukhara, and that Baba Kabli Mal Ji brought it to Dera Baba Nanak, where the sangat still has darshan of it each March.
How do we know?
The sources conflict on this story, or scholars doubt it.
The object exists and can be seen. What is disputed is its origin, and no independent dating of the cloth has been found.
- Later traditionGives the Bedi family's account: the robe received in Arabia, the story of King Lajward, and its later journey to Balkh-Bukhara and Dera Baba Nanak.[Src]
- ScholarshipSays a devotee at Baghdad gave the robe, and dates its arrival at Dera Baba Nanak to 1 March 1828.[EoS]
- Later traditionReports the belief that it was given at Mecca, and that the family still displays it.[Web]
