Takht Sri Hazur Sahib

Takht Sri Hazur Sahib, Sachkhand Sri Hazur Abchalnagar Sahib, is in Nanded on the Godavari in Maharashtra. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism counts it among the Sikhs’ five takhts. It marks where Guru Gobind Singh spent his last weeks in 1708 and passed the Guruship to the Guru Granth Sahib.

Key moments

• Late August 1708: the Guru reached Nanded travelling with Emperor Bahadur Shah and stayed when the emperor went on south. He met the recluse Madho Das, who took the vows of the Khalsa as Banda Singh and was sent to Punjab on 5 October.
• Two Pathans hired by Wazir Khan of Sirhind stabbed the Guru in his chamber one evening. He killed one and the Sikhs killed the other; the wound later reopened.
• 6 and 7 October 1708: the Encyclopaedia quotes a Bhatt Vahi entry saying that on Wednesday 6 October the Guru had Bhai Daya Singh bring Sri Granth Sahib, bowed before it and told the sangat to own it in his place. He died on 7 October.
• 1832: Maharaja Ranjit Singh built a two-storeyed gurdwara with a golden dome on the site.
• 20 September 1956: the Hyderabad legislature passed the Nanded Sikh Gurdwaras Act, creating a 17-member board.
• February 2024: Maharashtra amended the Act so the government could nominate 12 of the 17 members, cut the SGPC’s nominees from four to two, and dropped the Chief Khalsa Diwan, the Hazuri Sachkhand Diwan and the two Sikh MPs. Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh called it a deliberate attempt to take direct control of the shrine, and Sikhs led by the Panj Pyare marched in Nanded (The Tribune).
• June 2026: the Maharashtra cabinet approved replacing the 1956 Act with a new law. The Takht’s caretakers pronounced a gurmata against it, and the SGPC president, the Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal and others objected. On 30 June the state put the bill on hold and set up a committee to consult Sikh bodies. Revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said Sikhs alone would manage the gurdwara.

What it means today. Hazur Sahib is where Sikhs mark the end of the line of human Gurus. The Tribune, carrying a PTI report of 10 February 2024, says its board has an annual budget of around Rs 100 crore, and the board is where the state government and the Panth’s institutions repeatedly meet. The 2026 hold is a pause for consultation, not a withdrawal.