Gurdwara Dukhnivaran Sahib, Patiala

This Sikh shrine is located in the small village of Lehal which is now a part of Patiala city. A local tradition says that one Bhag Ram, a villager of the jhivar caste from Lehal village, went to the nearby town of Saifabad (now Bahadurgarh) to meet the visiting Sikh Guru Teg Bahadur. He pleaded with the Guru to visit and bless Lehal village so that its inhabitants could get rid of a mysterious sickness which had been plaguing the village for a long time. Shortly thereafter, the Guru visited the village and often sat meditating and preaching under a banyan tree by the side of the village pond. The village was soon rid



of the sickness. The place where the Guru sat came to be known as Dukh Nivaran, meaning the eradicator of suffering. Devotees visiting the shrine have great faith in the healing qualities of the water in the sacred tank (sarovar) by the gurdwara.

Raja Amar Singh of Patiala (1748-82) had a garden laid out on the site as a memorial to the Guru’s stay which he entrusted to Nihang Sikhs. A committee of local people began collecting funds and started construction of the shrine. On completion, the gurdwara passed under the control of the state. Decades later, its control was finally passed on to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.