Pir Bhikhan Shah

Pir Bhikhan Shah (also written Bhikhan Shah or Bhikan Shah) was a Sufi saint of the seventeenth century. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says he was the son of Sayyid Muhammad Yusaf and was born at Siadha, about 5 km from Pehowa in what is now Kurukshetra district, Haryana. He lived for a time at Ghuram in present-day Patiala district of Punjab, and later settled at Thaska in Kurukshetra district. He was a disciple of Abul Muali Shah, a Sufi divine at Ambhita near Saharanpur, and became a respected pir in his own right.

He enters Sikh history through two meetings with Guru Gobind Singh, born at Patna in 1666. The Encyclopaedia gives the first as tradition, and cites Bhai Santokh Singh’s Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth among its sources.

Key moments

• The day Gobind Rai was born at Patna, the pir is said to have sensed the birth by intuition and turned in prayer towards the east instead of the west. His disciples questioned him about it.
• He travelled to Patna to see the child. He set two small pots in front of the infant, one standing in his own mind for Hindus and the other for Muslims. The child covered both pots, which the pir read as a sign that the boy would treat the two communities alike.
• 1672: Sikh chronicles record another meeting at Lakhnaur near Ambala, where the young Guru was halting on the way from Patna to Kiratpur.

What he is remembered for: In Sikh memory he is a Muslim holy man who, by tradition, recognised the infant Guru Gobind Singh. The Encyclopaedia presents the Patna story as devotion handed down by tradition rather than a dated record, so the pots and the change of direction in prayer should be told that way. What the entry does fix are his place of origin, his discipleship and his later settlement at Thaska.