Gurdwara Shri Dukhniwaran Sahib

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Gurdwara Dukh Nivaran Sahib: —-This Sikh shrine is located in the small village of Lehal which is now a part of Patiala city. A local tradition says that one Bhag Ram, a villager of the jhivar caste from Lehal village, went to the nearby town of Saifabad (now Bahadurgarh) to meet the visiting Sikh Guru Teg Bahadur. He pleaded with the Guru to visit and bless Lehal village so that its inhabitants could get rid of a mysterious sickness which had been plaguing the village for a long time. Shortly thereafter, the Guru visited the village and often sat meditating and preaching under a banyan tree by the side of the village pond. The village was soon rid of the sickness. The place where the Guru sat came to be known as Dukh Nivaran, meaning the eradicator of suffering. Devotees visiting the shrine have great faith in the healing qualities of the water in the sacred tank (sarovar) by the gurdwara.

Raja Amar Singh of Patiala (1748-82) had a garden laid out on the site as a memorial to the Guru’s stay which he entrusted to Nihang Sikhs. A committee of local people began collecting funds and started construction of the shrine. On completion, the gurdwara passed under the control of the state. Decades later, its control was finally passed on to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.

Apart from the shrine and the sacred tank, there is huge building complex spread over several acres. It now also has a big multistoried rest house where devotees can stay overnight for a few days. The shrine now has a two-storey gateway with beautiful mirror work on its inner walls and a black and white marble floor. On the left of the pathway leading to the main building of the shrine is a small ornate glass case marking the site where Guru Tegh Bahadur once sat under the banyan tree. The central two-storey building has a domed pavilion on its top, and is built on a raised base with a domed chamber at each of its four corners. The lotus dome on the top is pinnacled and has a round sun window on each side. There are domed pavilions at the corners. The floor in interior of the hall is paved with marble slabs in grey and white. The ceiling has stucco work in floral design while the walls are covered with white marble. The sacred book of the Sikhs, the Guru Granth Sahib is placed under a richly decorated cloth canopy at the end of the main hall. To the right is the sacred tank for the pilgrims to bathe in. Just before sunset, the main building of the shrine with its gold-plated domes and the water of the sacred tank reflecting the changing colours of the evening sky in the backdrop, present an unforgettable sight. Devotees can be seen sitting here for hours listening to the soft sounds of ‘kirtan’ (hymns) being played on the loudspeakers.

On the left of the shrine is a massive hall called the Guru ka Langar (the Guru’s community kitchen), where visitors of all castes and religions can enjoy free meals several times a day. The shrine now has underground as well as overground parking lots for the vehicles of the visitors which can even accommodate buses and trucks. On the fifth day of the light half of each lunar month, a large number of devotees throng the shrine to pay obeisance and have a dip in the sacred tank for the festival of Basant Panchami which is held every year to mark the visit of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji.

The shrine is being administered by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, a mini-parliament of the Sikhs based in Amritsar in Punjab.