INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

of nomenclature and the time for its incorporation in common parlance remain a
cloudy matter, although it appears reasonably that the term gurdwara successively
gained currency in the eighteenth century after the scripture had been invested spiritual
authority in the community and the concept of the devotional assembly of Sikhs
as an embodiment of the Guru’s presence was fully developed. 317 The new denomination
came to specify that the essential feature of Sikh sacred space is the presiding
presence of a Guru-scripture and mediation of gurbani.
Considering that a gurdwara can be erected practically at any house the primary
reason for constructing a public place of worship lies in the importance of keeping
sangat, or “congregation”, equally commonly referred to as sadhsang, “the congregation
of saintly persons” or satsang, “the congregation of true people”. In the North
Indian Bhakti traditions the notion of keeping satsang is regarded as an important
aspect of the devotional life: by being present and actively participate in gatherings of
likeminded devotees and saintly people (sadh), the spiritual qualities and virtues of
the corporate is believed to leave an impression on the individual person. From the
inception of Sikhism the discipline of sangat, either in presence of the Guru or in
company with co-disciples, has been a soteriological cornerstone in the Sikh teaching
and practices. Although the pursuits of spiritual merits ultimately depend upon the
individual seeker, the assembly of true people constitutes the most favorable environment
for praising God and safeguards the Gurus’ teaching from false doctrines
and misleadings. 318
When my respondents in Varanasi were inquired to explain the term gurdwara
in simple wordings, most preferred to describe it as the “house of the Guru” (Gurughar),
or the “place of God” (Bhagwan ka sthan). More circumstantial indigenous definitions
make it possible to distinguish between three basic institutional categories of
gurdwaras, of which the first category is defined by a relationship to the Sikh history,
the second is community-based gurdwaras only for congregational worship, and the
third identifies a space created at various spatio-temporal locations only for the performance
of ceremonies.
Contemporary Sikhs generally differentiate between buildings that have been
constructed on a site or location to commemorate the human Gurus and the Sikh
history, and gurdwaras that do not bear any particular relation to the past but are
constructed only for congregational worship. The first category, which claims to bear
some kind of reference to history, is labelled ”historical” (itihasik) and subsumes a
truth” (Jodh Singh, 1998: 63). The seventeenth century janam-sakhi literature, which traces the
geographical spread of Guru Nanak’s teaching, describes how followers of the Guru established
dharamsalas at various locations to congregate for devotional singing and reciting the divine
name (See McLeod 1980a).
317
See Mann 2005. As McLeod observes, the early rahitnama literature from the eighteenth century
used the terms dharamsala and gurdwara synonymously to a varying degree, and later
adopted the latter nomenclature for the Sikh places of worship (McLeod 2003: 227 ‒ 229).
318
As an elderly Sikh man said: “If ten people get together and start to gossip and condemn each
other it would not be a satsangat.”
154
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008