LAKKHU, BHAI 2

Discover Naluchhi village's historic Gurudwara in Kashmir, visited by Guru Hargobind. Explore its cultural significance before the 1947 invasion.

MORINDA (SOWN, 76°29`E), also called Baganvala, an old village in Ropardistrict of the Punjab, has a historical shrine called Gurdwara Shahidgarij. On 7 December 1705, as Guru Gobind Singh along with his two elder sons and a handful of disciples, was locked in an unequal battle with the besieging hordes at Chamkaur, his aged mother, Mata Gujan, and the two younger sons, betrayed by their domestic servant, Garigu, were taken into custody at Kheri (now Saheri) and brought to Morinda byJani Khan and Mani Khan, the Rarighar headmen. They were despatched the next day to Sirhind where they were bricked alive in a wall and then executed on 13 Poh 1762 Bk/ 12 December 1705 (27 December now according to new calendar). The place where they were interned at Morinda is now marked by Gurdwara Shahid Garij. At the end of 1763, the Dal Khalsa, before advancing on Sirhind, attacked and destroyed Morinda. Jani Khan and Mani Khan and their entire male progeny were killed. The Gurdwara, in the western part of the town, is said to have been built by Raja Bhup Singh of Ropar, who also donated a plot of gardenland to it. The present buildings are in a walled compound entered through a doublestoreyed gateway. The divan hall, with a square sanctum in the middle, stands on a raised base. Buildings for the langar and for residential accommodation are in a separate enclosure. The Gurdwara is administered by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.

MADHO SINGHANA is a village 15 km south of Sirsa in Haryana. Guru Gobind Singh after leaving Sirsa towards the South made his first halt here. As the village was totally populated by Muslims, no memorial shrine existed until a lone Nihang Singh established a gurdwara during the 1970\'s along the road leading to Ellenabad.

KOTKAPURA (30°35`N, 74°49`E), town in FarTdkot district of the Punjab, was founded by Ghaudhari Kzpura (d. 1708), a Brar chief in the country south of the River Sutlej and an ancestor of the Faridkot family. When after evacuating Anandpur Guru Gobind Singh arrived here in December 1705 pursued by the fuujddr of Sirhind, Kapura met him with presents and provided him with a guide to lead him to the pool of Khidrana, now Muktsar, across a waterless waste. Chaudhari Kapura, who subsequently had himself initiated into the Khalsa fold receiving the name of Kapur Singh, wa.s assassinated in 1708 by Tsa Khan, Marijii Rajput chief of Kol Tse Khan in Firozpur district. His grandson, Jodh Singh, built a fort near Kot Kapura in 1766, but fell the following year in a battle with Raja Amar Singh of Patiala. Kot Kapura eventually came under the control of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and was restored to tlie Faridkot family only in 1847. Gurdwara Sahib Patshahl Dasviri, in the middle of the town, marks the site where Guru Gobind Singh had put up camp on reaching here in 1705. The present building, the cornerstone of which was laid by Raja Harindar Singh of Faridkot on 30 January 1937, comprises an octagonal sanctum in the centre of a highceilingcd, marblefloored hall which has an octagonal interior but looks squareshaped from the outside with only its corners slightly slashed to give it four additional sides. A large semiglobular dome covers the entire sanctum and a verandah encircles the hall. The sarovarat the back is also octagonal in shape. The Gurdwara is managed by Niharigs of the Buddha Dal.