Kartarpur: Village on the right bank of the River Ravi in the present Sialkot district of Pakistan, usually called Kartarpur Ravi to distinguish it from another town of the same name in Jalandhar district of Indian Punjab. It is sacred to Guru Nanak (1469-1539) to whom it owed its origin and who settled here at the end of his long peregrinations in India and abroad to preach the word of God. Guru Nanak spent the last two decades of his life with his wife and children at Kartarpur, which became the principal seat of the Sikh faith. It was here that Bhai Lahina, later Guru Angad, came to receive instruction and it was here that, after nominating Guru Angad his spiritual successor, he passed away on Assu vadi 10, 1596 Bk/7 September 1539. Most of the habitation was washed away by the ever-encroaching Ravi whereupon the Guru’s descendants and followers moved to Dera Baba Nanak, a new town they had raised on the other side of the river. The three-storeyed tall building of Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib Ravi Patshahi erected later at Kartarpur can still be seen from the high embankment marking the Indo-Pakistan boundary north of Dera Baba Nanak, but it has been inaccessible to visitors and pilgrims from India since the partition of 1947.
References:
- Kohli, Surindar Singh, ed., Janam Sakhi Bhai Bala. Chandigarh, 1975
- Vir Singh, Bhai, ed., Puranjanam Sakhi. Amritsar, 1982
- Gian Singh, Giani, Twankh Gurduarian. Amritsar, n.d.
- Tara Singh, Sri Gur Tirath Sangrah. Amritsar, n.d.
- Harbans Singh, Guru Nanak and Origins of the Sikh Faith. Bombay, 1969
