Historian gives insight into Guru Nanak's Odisha visit

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, November 30

Noted historian Anil Dhir (60) gave a presentation on the topic ‘Guru Nanak Dev’s visit to Jagannath Puri and its impact on Odisha’ at Virsa Vihar here recently.

The historian showed a presentation in which he had put up photographs of various items that he used and places visited during his stay there. He showed pictures of historic gurdwaras in Puri and Cuttack associated with him.

Hailing from Cuttack, he laid stress on popularising these places so that the community could come together and keep all these places safe from any demolition. He said he had only visited 2% of the stretch travelled by Guru Nanak in his life and felt much enlightened about his thoughts and ideas.

“While the guru covered 28,000 km in his four Udasis in those difficult days with no roads and means of transport, I have so far managed to cover only 512 km on those routes,” he said.

A fellow of Philatelic Congress of India, Dhir said he had put up the videos and still pictures of his findings about the guru on his YouTube channel ‘Anil Dhir on Sikh History’ for anyone to see. He said he would also come up with a book on his findings about the first Sikh guru soon. “It is in final stages,” he told the gathering adding that it was for the guru that Jagannath Puri became popular even in the northern India in those days.

On the occasion, students from Apeejay College of Fine Arts gave an impressive music concert. They enthralled the audience with the play of sitar by Sehajdeep Singh, tabla by Amandeep Singh and folk orchestra by Sumit Padam. Gurdev Kaur from the LPU gave her performance on flute and Jaskaran played tabla. The event was organised by Maj Gen Balwinder Singh, vice-chairman of Virsa Vihar.

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