Amritsar's Rampura village honours legacy of Bairagi saints

Rampura, a border village, is closely associated with the Bairagi saints. Locals continue to hold Baba Dandu Ram Bairagi in deep reverence, and the village is home to Dera Baba Dandu Ram Ji.

Gagandeep Kaur, a resident, said Baba Dandu Ram was a contemporary of Guru Hargobind Sahib. The dera houses a Gurdwara and more than 12 samadhs of Bairagi saints. Newly married couples visit the site to seek blessings.

The present head of the dera is Mahant Baldev Raj Bairagi. Each year, a fair is held at the dera eight days after Janmashtami, drawing large crowds from distant areas. He noted that references to the Bairagi tradition are found in centuries-old Punjabi literature and relics of their deras are scattered across both Indian and Pakistani Punjab. He lamented that the partition of the country deprived the community of the opportunity to document its sites, history, and literature.

Samadhs of Bairagi saints also exist at Dera Shah Jamal village in Gujranwala district, now in Pakistan.