Guru Gobind Singh at Damdama Sahib: the Damdami Bir and the origins of the Damdami Taksal

Who: Guru Gobind Singh; Bhai Mani Singh, scholar and scribe; Baba Deep Singh, who stayed on as custodian; and Mata Sundari and Mata Sahib Devan, who lived at Talwandi Sabo in 1706.

What: Documented, as the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism records it. The Guru reached Talwandi Sabo on 20 January 1706 and stayed over nine months, and a number of Sikhs rejoined him. He prepared a fresh recension of the Guru Granth Sahib with Bhai Mani Singh writing it out. The place became known as the Guru's Kashi, a seat of learning. He left for the south on 30 October 1706. Baba Deep Singh, who had taken amrit at Anandpur and studied there under Mani Singh, rejoined the Guru here in 1706 and stayed on to look after the shrine. In 1726 he had four copies of the Guru Granth Sahib made from Mani Singh's recension. Separately, the Encyclopaedia's entry on the Dasam Granth says Guru Gobind Singh added the Ninth Guru's hymns to the Adi Granth and none of his own, which went into another volume; it does not say where. Tradition and claims. The Damdami Taksal's own account says the Guru founded it to teach the correct reading and meaning of Gurbani (santhia), after a Sikh mispronounced a word in the Baavan Akhri. It says that when Dhir Mal refused to hand over the original volume the Guru dictated the Granth from memory, with Mani Singh as scribe, in nine months and nine days, and that before leaving he sent Mani Singh to Amritsar and Baba Deep Singh to Damdama Sahib to go on teaching. The recension is known as the Damdami Bir, also called the Damdama Wali Bir. The Encyclopaedia instead names Baba Deep Singh as the founder of the Damdami Taksal, the Damdama school of learning.

Where: Talwandi Sabo, also called Damdama Sahib, 28 km south-east of Bathinda in Punjab. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee recognised Takht Sri Damdama Sahib as one of the five takhts by a resolution of 18 November 1966.

Why it mattered: The Encyclopaedia calls Damdama a place of repose where the Guru had some respite after a period of continuous turmoil. It is also the earliest anchor for the Taksal's claim to lineage. In the eighteenth century, the Encyclopaedia says, the place was both a cantonment and a seat of learning under Baba Deep Singh. The Taksal's later history, including the Jathedarship of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale from 1977, has its own entry.