Islamabad [Pakistan], July 18 (ANI): The historical Gurdwara Rori Sahib in the Jahman village in Pakistan near its border with India on the Bedia Road has collapsed after the recent heavy rains, Pakistan-based Dawn reported.
The Gurdwara, most likely constructed during Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s era, was related to Guru Nanak as he visited this place thrice.
The concerned authorities’ negligence and illegal occupation of the land left behind by the Sikhs after the partition in 1947 were most likely the reasons behind furthering its fall and the recent heavy rains proved the last nail in its coffin, according to Dawn report.
The Gurdwara was once surrounded by about 500 Kanal of dedicated land in the Sikh-majority village of Jahman. The Gurdwara had a pond on its front, which still exists and is the only piece of land not occupied by land-grabbers.
Constructed with red Nanak Shahi bricks, the Gurdwara had a two-storey structure with a big golden dome on its top. Now only the back wall and a small portion of a side wall have survived while the dome, the central part and the whole front have completely collapsed, as per the Dawn report.
Muhammad Sadiq, who was herding his buffaloes on the dirt road near the collapsed structure, said, “The gurdwara collapsed in the first big rain about 20 days back,” the report said. He complained against the powerful land-grabber who occupied the land of Gurdwara and also stopped the way to it by digging a four feet wide ditch along the road to block the passage to the Gurdwara.
Sadiq said he does not know much about the man but only that he belongs to the village Lidhar. Iqbal Qaiser, the Punjabi writer and researcher of Sikh and Jain holy sites in Pakistan and author of two books on the subject has said that the Gurdwara is related to Guru Nanak and he had visited it many times.
Speaking to Dawn, Qaiser said, “The visits are mentioned in the Janam Sakhis (biographies) of Baba Nanak. Baba Ji’s maternal grandparents lived in the nearby village of Dera Chahal where his elder sister Nanki was born. It was the village of Malik Meraj Khalid (former caretaker prime minister) that’s why the gurdwara there was repaired by the government but nobody took care of the main gurdwara of village Jahman,” says Qaiser while talking to Dawn.
In his book, Iqbal Qaiser wrote the holy place is about 25 kilometres from Lahore and metalled roads lead to the village. He wrote, “The sacred shrine of Guru Dev Ji is located about half a kilometre outside the village. The place where Guru Dev Ji had stayed came to be known as Rori Sahib,” the report said.
Qaiser said that Guru Nanak Dev visited the place thrice as his maternal grandparents were settled in the nearby village called Dera Chahal. He said that there was a small pool at that time which was later expanded into a tank by one of his followers, Dawn reported.
He said that the construction of the holy site was started by Bhai Wadhawa Singh and a beautiful darbar was built. He said, “Fairs used to be held on Vaisakhi and 20th of Jaith at the site. There is an endowment of 100 bigha land in the name of the gurdwara.”
He wrote, “The tank has since again depleted into a small pool and the dome of Rori Sahib is in need of repairs. In case no repairs are carried out within a short time it will become a heap of dust.” The book was published in 1998 and it took only 20 years for the structure to collapse since the prediction of Iqbal Qaiser.
As per the news report, Pakistani Rangers had occupied the Gurdwara after 1947 and used it as a frontier post to keep an eye on the border. Qaiser said that Pakistani Rangers kept using the Gurdwara till 1995 and left it when it developed cracks and it was risky to use it further.
Abdul Sattar, an old resident of Jahman, who had seen the Gurdwara in its magnificence, said that it was a proper complete structure until about 15 years back and wondered how the building decayed so quickly, Dawn reported.
Pointing out an outhouse near the Gurdwara, Sattar said that the powerful man had built that house and taken the land surrounding the Gurdwara. He further said that the village people were not happy with the Rangers as they were needlessly suppressive and would peep into villagers’ homes, mounted on top of the Gurdwara.
The villagers had complained over the issue and the post was shifted near the border. However, it appears that the decision gave a free hand to land-grabbers to grab the property and quickened the decay of the site. (ANI)
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