Takht Sri Hazur Sahib Nanded

This place at Nanded is of utmost importance to the Sikhs, because this is where the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh left for his heavenly abode. As he was recovering from severe stab wounds suffered from the hands of his enemies, the Guru's life left from his body to join the Paramatma in the year 1708AD. The Gurudwara here is one of the five main places of worship for the Sikhs. The other four are Akal Takht, Amritsar, Takht Keshgarh Sahib, Anandpur, Takht Patna Sahib, Bihar and Takht Damdama Sahib, Punjab.

Hazur Sahib means "Presence of the Master" and Sachkhand means "Land of Truth". Sachkhand is the name of the Gurudwara that is inside the campus of the Hazur Sahib area. This is situated in the city of Nanded in the Maharashtra State, on the banks of the river Godavari. The main room of the Gurudwara is also known as Angitha Sahib and is built upon the place where the Guru was cremated in 1708. It took around 5 years to construct this Gurudwara (from 1832 to 1837) and the main reason for the successful completion of this Gurudwara was the ruling emperor then, Maharaja Ranjit Singh. During the year 2008, in the month of October, this place saw thousands of devotees flocking together, on the occasion of the 300th death anniversary of the Guru. There were lots of cultural activities in the place during that time.

History

Gul Khan was the one who stabbed Guru Gobind Singh. The irony was that, Gul Khan was brought up by the Guru himself. When Khan stabbed him, the Guru gave back one strong stroke, which killed Khan Right in the first stroke. However, the Guru suffered deep wounds from the attack. Though it looked like it was going to heal, it started reopening and the pain got aggravated. This time, the Guru, being the saint that he is, knew that his time had come to leave for his heavenly abode. Therefore he asked his disciples to construct the Angitha Sahib for him, so that he could join God. As per the order, the fellow Sikhs constructed a room and installed the holy book, Guru Granth Sahib on it. The Guru entered into the room and never came back again. He was cremated there and the Gurudwara was built on top of this, which is why, this considered as a very holy place of worship by the Sikhs. One can find both the Guru Granth Sahib and the Sri Dasam Granth (Sikh scriptures dedicated exclusively to Guru Gobind Singh) in this Takht.

Attractions

There have been many changes done to this ancient structure and the recent attraction is the introduction of the laser light show here. Every day, between 7.30 and 8.30 in the evening, a laser light show is being organized here to depict the lives and teachings of all the ten Sikh Gurus. This not attracts non Sikhs, but also makes them aware of the great lives of these gurus. These Takhts are different from other Gurudwaras because their management, roles and responsibilities, exercise of power, financial management etc. are governed by a special 17 member Gurudwaras Board and a five member Managing Committee.

Since this is one of the primary places of worship for the Sikhs, it is crowded all the times. However, once inside the Gurudwaras, the devotees maintain extreme silence as a respect to the Great Guru on whose cemetery, the place is built. Like in the case of the all the other Gurudwaras, this is also open to non-Sikhs and exhibits complete open mindedness to all religions.

How to Reach

By Air - Nanded is the nearby airport to reach this place. The Hyderabad and Mumbai airports are 250 and 480 km away from this place.

By Rail - The Sachkhand Express is the most comfortable train to reach this place as it has direct services from Amritsar to Nanded. Even otherwise, the Nanded railway station is well connected to trains from all the major cities in the country.

By Road - There are lots buses that ply from various parts of Maharashtra to Nanded. These are both government owned and private. By bus, it is about 650 km from Mumbai, 4-5 hours from Aurangabad and 11 hours from Pune.

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