INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

O N E
THE SIKHS IN VARANASI
IN SEARCH OF HISTORY
As an ancient city of religious learning and pilgrimage, Varanasi ‒ also called Kashi
and Banaras ‒ is considered to be a microcosmos of the sacred landscape of India,
crammed with religious shrines and temples, sacred ponds and trees, and the river
Ganga framing the city on its eastern border. For centuries the picturesque city has
been reputed for preserving traditional Hinduism and ancient religious wisdom.
According to Kashi Khanda, a section of the Skanda Purana, Shiva and his consort
Parvati created Vishnu who performed austerities in Varanasi for 50000 years to construct
the universe. Shiva was so delighted by his work that in excitement he dropped
one of his earrings on the bank of river Ganga. From the boon Shiva gave to Vishnu
he promised that Varanasi would always bestow liberation, and this makes only one
of the many reasons as to why Hindu pilgrims flock to the city, especially at the time
of death. 83 In the ear of any person dying in Varanasi Shiva will whisper a salvific
spell which wards off the Messenger of Death (Yama) and grants release from the
cycle of birth and death.
Varanasi is also a destination of pilgrimage for the Sikhs but for quite different
reasons: the city has been blessed by the physical presence of the first, ninth and the
tenth Sikh Guru – Nanak, Tegh Bahadur and Gobind Singh ‒ and it is the place where
the saint poets Kabir and Ravidas, whose hymns are included in Guru Granth Sahib,
resided. Every Sikh tourist, trader or pilgrim who is visiting the city or just passing by
on the way to Patna Sahib in Bihar, Punjab or some other destination, will quickly
realize that the two main Sikh gurdwaras sheltered in the city ‒ Nichibagh and Gurubagh
‒ stand on historical ground. The gurdwaras are classified as “historical”
(itihasik) ‒ a fact that modern handbooks on Sikh shrines in India promptly will confirm.
84 As local Sikhs narrate their past, the history of the community begins with
Guru Nanak’s first travel eastwards from Sultanpur towards Dakkan. Accompanied
by his companion musician, Mardana, Guru Nanak reached Varanasi in 1506 CE
(samat 1563) during Shivratri, the festival celebrating lord Shiva’s wedding night with
Parvati. Upon seeing the beautiful scenery in the outskirts of Varanasi Guru Nanak
83
The mythology of Varanasi and the various social and religious aspects of death and dying in
the city, according to its dominating Hindu paradigm, have been thoroughly documented by
scholars. See Vidhyarthi 1979, Eck 1993, Parry 1994, Justice 1997.
84
Gurmukh Singh 1995: 319 ‒ 321, Randhir 1990: 72 ‒ 73.
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008