Guru’s relics shifted from Qila Mubarak after 3 years

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 28

Almost three years after being kept in a dingy room at Qila Mubarak, eight relics belonging to Guru Gobind Singh were today shifted to Gurdwara Dukhniwaran Sahib in Patiala, where they will be kept till May 6. The relics will then be taken across the state in a religious procession from May 6 to May 20, after which they will finally be kept at Takht Kesgarh Sahib in Anandpur Sahib.

Sources said senior state leaders, including Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and cabinet ministers, and Sikh priests from across the country will be present during the event on May 6. “The relics would be put on display in a special bus designed for the purpose. Followers will be allowed to pay homage to these belongings of the tenth Guru,” said a source.

These relics of Guru Gobind Singh are the “choga” (cloak) given to Baba Triloka, “bani” (manuscript) or handwritten script of the Guru, comb with hair and turban given to Syed Pir Budhu Shah of Sadhaura after the battle of Bhangani in appreciation of his loyal services and three swords with inscriptions in Punjabi. The relics were today shifted under heavy police protection and those present on the occasion were Cabinet ministers Daljit Singh Cheema, Surjit Singh Rakhra and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Avtar Singh Makkar.

Makkar said the relics would be put on display in a special bus, which would tour across Punjab so that people could pay their respect to these. “The entire Punjab leadership and many other religious leaders will also be present on May 6 in Patiala, when these relics are shifted,” he told The Tribune.

The state government had initially decided to shift these to Virasat-e-Khalsa, at Sri Anandpur Sahib for public display, but Nabha residents and some NGOs had opposed the decision and instead wanted that these be kept in Nabha. An NGO had approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, but later the SGPC apprised the court and decided to shift these relics to Takht Kesgarh Sahib after the state government concluded that Nabha was “not an ideal location to display the over 300-year-old relics of the 10th Sikh Guru”.

Four of the 12 relics are lying with the ruling family of Nabha in Delhi, while eight were locked away in Qila Mubarak in Patiala. Before this, these were kept at Hira Mahal in Nabha for over 240 years.