Goindwal Sahib

01Guru Amar Das’s town

Goindwal stood at a ferry on the old Delhi–Lahore road, where a trader named Goinda wanted to found a village. Amar Das, who carried water each morning from the Beas to Khadur for Guru Angad, was sent to settle it. When he became the third Guru in 1552 he moved here. He had the baoli dug, a stepwell of 84 steps; devotees bathe in it and recite the Japji at each step. He made it a rule that whoever came to see him, king or peasant, first ate in the langar sitting in one line, pehle pangat, phir sangat. He set up the manji system of preachers, spoke against sati and here composed the Anand Sahib.

02Birthplace of Guru Arjan

At Goindwal Bhai Jetha served at the baoli and the langar, married the Guru’s daughter Bibi Bhani in 1554 and later became Guru Ram Das. Their youngest son Arjan was born here on 15 April 1563. The Goindwal pothis, the hymn books of the first Gurus kept by Guru Amar Das’s family, were drawn on when Guru Arjan compiled the Adi Granth. Abu’l Fazl records that on 4 November 1598 Akbar crossed the Beas on an elephant near Gobindwal, and that the house of Arjan Guru received fresh lustre when he alighted there. Goindwal remained a place of pilgrimage after the Gurus moved to Amritsar.

The life of this place