INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

local community fame in the Sikh world. 230
Although the hukam-namas of Guru Tegh
Bahadur do not bear any dates, Fauja Singh
(1996) suggests that the letters can be dated
to 1667 ‒ 1668; 231 the years following the
Guru’s supposed visit to Varanasi. Several
letters of Guru Tegh Bahadur are directed to
Bhai Kalyan Das, who apparently operated
as a representative for the local community.
The remaining handwritten letters ascribed
to Guru Gobind Singh are dated at the beginning
of the eighteenth century and one
single letter from Mata Sahib is of the
1730s. 232 Though it is important to notify that
hukam-namas are not regarded as museum
specimen that people contemplate merely
because of historical interest; the letters are
treated as religious relics that sanctify the
place and evoke powerful responses owing
A letter by Guru Tegh Bahadur
to their believed physical contact with the
Gurus, being penned by their own hands. To obtain the auspicious sight (darshan) of
these documents is an act of worship and veneration that will grant blessings to the
viewer. It is the corporeality of the objects ‒ the Gurus’ bodily contact and touch ‒
that provides the status of relics in the first place and engages worshippers in a direct
way.
Comprised in the category of Sikh relics are also articles which the Gurus more
accidentally dropped or left at particular places, or things that they intentionally sent
or presented to congregations. These things may have served social functions in the
past, such as being cloths, sandals, and weapon the Gurus wore. The local story in
Varanasi reiterates that Guru Tegh Bahadur intentionally selected a shirt to be a remnant
of his visit. Even natural objects that the Guru conjured up by miraculous actions
are treated as relics which possess and transfer spiritual power. In Nichibagh
Gurdwara the holy well is a monument to Guru Tegh Bahadur’s marvelous deed of
submitting river Ganga to his order. People believe that river Ganga continues to
flow to this well. Local accounts bear witness of how the people have been relieved
from serious troubles and even fatal diseases after they have regularly ingested the
230
See Ganda Singh 1999, Anand 1970. In addition, there is also one letter containing Guru Tegh
Bahadur’s customarily invocation Ik Omkar Satguru, followed by a short note.
231
Fauja Singh 1996: 35.
232
Two hukam-namas ascribed to Guru Gobind Singh are dated to 1702 and 1708. See also Ganda
Singh 1999.
102
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008