sikhpride

Coming to Karnataka a Gurudwara named Gurudwara Sri Nanak Jhira Sahib is situated in a place called Bidar in Karnataka. Gurudwara Shri Mai Bhago Sahib is located in Janawada village, near about 10 km away from the city of Bidar. Although all these Gurudwara’s are being visited by the tourists, Gurudwara Nanak Jhira Sahib attracts the maximum tourists, sometimes more than five lakhs in a year. During the three melas (main events/festivities) held during Holi in the month of March, Dussehra in October and Guru Nanak’s birthday in November, the numbers of visitors swells to about 30,000 a day. It is believed that when Guru Nanak visited this place, there used to be acute shortage of drinking water in Bidar. All efforts of the people to dig wells were of no avail. Even when wells produced water the water was found to be unfit for drinking. The Guru was greatly moved by the miserable condition of the people. With divine name on his lips and the mercy in his heart he touched the hillside with his toe and removed some rubble from the place. To the utter surprise of all, a fountain of sweet, cool water gushed out of the hillside. The place soon came to be known as ‘Nanak-Jhira’. Now this water fountain has been named as an Amrit Kund and a big Gurudwara has been built around it. The management of Gurdwara Sri Nanak Jhira Sahib now runs a free hospital, an engineering college (Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College), a Polytechnic, a college and two schools, one of them being in Hyderabad. A number of students, particularly Sikh students, come for doing engineering and other courses to these institutions. There are a number of rooms available for the stay of the devotees. Free kitchen (Langar) is available all the time. S. Balbir Singh (9844001500) is the President of the Gurdwara Management Committee. The Contact details of the Gurdwara Sahib are: Email : nanakjhirabidar@gmail. com. Contact numbers are: 08482228274, 9880966845 and 9945483601.