Gurdwara Sri Nanak Jhira Sahib
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.
