Gujranwala

Gujranwala is a city in Pakistan’s Punjab. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism records that Maharaja Ranjit Singh was born there on 13 November 1780, the son of Mahan Singh Sukerchakia, and that his general Hari Singh Nalwa was born there in April 1791. A study by Pakistani architects says Ranjit Singh’s grandfather Charat Singh established his stronghold at Gujranwala in the 1760s and laid out the old walled city.

Eminabad, in Gujranwala district, was called Saidpur in Guru Nanak’s day. The Encyclopaedia says that after leaving Sultanpur he came here, that Bhai Lalo, a carpenter, became his Sikh, and that a hymn in the Guru Granth Sahib suggests he was in the town when Babar sacked it in 1521. Gurdwara Rori Sahib marks where, by tradition, he stayed with Lalo on a hard bed of small stones.

Key moments

• 1521: Babar’s sack of Saidpur, now Eminabad, with Guru Nanak in the town.
• 1760s: Charat Singh Sukerchakia takes Eminabad and builds up Gujranwala.
• 13 November 1780: Ranjit Singh is born. On 12 April 1801 Sahib Singh Bedi proclaims him Maharaja of the Punjab.
• 1922 to 1947: the SGPC administers the historic shrines of Eminabad.
• August 1947: soon after Partition on 15 August a mob sets fire to the multi-storeyed Rori Sahib, the town’s premier gurdwara (the Encyclopaedia).

What it means today. The haveli revered as Ranjit Singh’s birthplace stands in the walled city, with the samadhi of his father Mahan Singh nearby. Studies by Pakistani scholars, one published in 2024, describe the haveli as in severe decay, with shops crowding its front, a broken floor, a ruined stair roof and a large tree growing on its wall. The sources opened do not describe the present state of Rori Sahib.