Place · Sikh gurdwara · India
Bangla Sahib, New Delhi
Also known as Bangla Sahib, Bangla Sahib — Delhi, Delhi, Guru Har Krishan, New Delhi
The gurudwara at Bangla Sahib in central New Delhi — the site where the eighth Guru, Guru Har Krishan (1656-1664), tended to smallpox and cholera patients during a 1664 epidemic that struck Delhi, before dying of smallpox himself at age 8 on 30 March 1664. The Guru had been invited to Delhi by Raja Jai Singh I of Amber (Akbar's descendant) who had been accused by Aurangzeb of concealing a Sikh renegade. During his short Delhi stay the Guru opened his bungalow (hence Bangla Sahib) to disease victims. The sacred pool (sarovar) at the gurdwara is believed to have miraculous healing properties. The current structure is 1783 with major 1947 and 2000s expansions. The gurdwara draws over 100,000 daily visitors, including non-Sikhs seeking the sarovar's healing waters.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 28.626, 77.210
Connections (3)
- Delhi gurdwarasSisganj Sahib, Old Delhi
Bangla Sahib marks the house where Guru Har Krishan, the eighth Guru, tended smallpox and cholera patients during a Delhi epidemic and died of smallpox himself at eight years old; Sisganj marks where the ninth Guru was beheaded eleven years later. Two of Delhi's principal gurdwaras, three kilometres apart, commemorating a child who died nursing and a man executed for defending somebody else's right to worship.
- Site withinDelhi
Bangla Sahib, New Delhi sits inside Delhi and forms one piece of its layered sacred, royal or civic landscape. The city carries this entry as one of the sites that make its urban fabric legible — a shrine, monument, institution or craft tradition specifically anchored at this location — and the city's broader history reads better when the stop is seen in its context rather than in isolation. The surrounding streets, markets and other heritage ensembles around it belong to the same single city.
- Samadhi atGuru Har Krishan
Guru Har Krishan died at Bangla Sahib (then the bungalow of Mirza Raja Jai Singh I of Amber in Delhi) on 30 March 1664 at age 7 from smallpox contracted while tending to disease victims during a Delhi epidemic. His last gesture pointing to Baba Bakala indicated Guru Tegh Bahadur as his successor. The 1783 Gurdwara Bangla Sahib was built at the site of his death.
Sources
Wikipedia, “Gurdwara Bangla Sahib”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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