RANVAN

RANVAN, village in Fatehgarh Sahib district, 15 km east of Samrala (30° 48`N, 76°12`E) in Ludhiana district, is celebrated for the historical shrine, Gurdwara Gobindgarh Sahib Patshahi VI and X. Patshahi VI has been added to the name of the Gurdwara only recently by inhabitants of the village in the belief that Guru Hargobind also passed through here while travelling after the battle ofMehraj in 1634. Older accounts relate the shrine only to Guru Gobind Singh who made a brief halt in the course of his journey back from Kurukshetra to Anandpur during 1702-03.

Tara Singh Narotam relates it to the Tenth Guru`s outwards journey towards Kurukshetra and locates it at Sarighol, a larger and older village a few kilometres to the east. The Gurdwara was constructed by Maharaja Karam Singh of Patiala (1798-1845), who also made an endowment of 300 bighds of land. A line of hereditary mahants managed the shrine until it was acquired by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. The reconstruction of the Gurdwara was commenced in the early sixties by Sant Piara Singh of Jhar Sahib, who died in 1965.

Since then Sant Surjit Singh has been supervising the work. The present building is a magnificent sixstoreyed structure. The main hall is 31metre square with an eightmetre square sanctum in the middle of it. Above it on the first floor are octagonal domed pavilions at the corners and a square hall over the sanctum. There are three more storeys, with a dome at the top. The domes are surfaced with white glazed tile chips. The management of the shrine is in the hands of Sant Surjit Singh. The first of each Bikrami month is observed as a festival.

References :

1. Tara Singh, Sri Gur Tirath Sangrahi. Amritsar, n.d.
2. Gian Singh, Giani Twarikh Guru Khalsa [Reprint]. Patiala, 1970