SIANA SAYYIDAN

SIANA SAYYIDAN, a village in Kurukshetra district of Haryana 5 km from Pehowa (29″59`N, 76″35`E), is the birthplace of Sayyid Shah Bhikh or Bhikhan Shah, a Muslim saint, who guided by intuition and divine inspiration, had gone to pay obeisance to the child Gobind at Lakhnaur in 1670. There are two historical gurdwa.ras in this village. GURDWARA DAMDAMA SAHIB. Guru Gobind Singh had not forgotten this elderly devotee, and, when he visited Kurukshetra and Pehowa in 1702, he detoured into this village and halted there for a night.

The site where he had encamped is now marked by Gurdwara Damdama Sahib. The present building was raised during the 1960`s by Sant BabaJIvan Singh. It is located inside a walled compound and has a hall, with a white marble canopied platform for the Guru Granth Sahib in the middle of it. The facade of the hall is covered with marble dies and the entire compound has a marble floor. The ribbed lotus dome above the central pavilion on the first floor has also a white marble pinnacle.

The khan da on top of the flagmast is goldplated. Another walled compound near by has rooms for the granthi and for the Guru ka Langar. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee manages the shrine through the committee which looks after Gurdwara Baoli Sahib at Pehowa. GURDWARA JORA SAHIB. The descendants of Bhai Jhanda, one of Guru Nanak`s disciples, were also living in this village following a carpenter`s trade. They came to pay homage and took the Guru to their house. One of them presented him with a pair of wooden sandals.

The Guru was pleased and not only accepted the present but also left his own pair of shoes (jora, in Punjabi) in the house. This family is no longer living in Siana, but the Guru`s shoes, embriodered in red and white silk thread, are still kept reverentially in a glass case at the Gurdwara inside the village known as Gurdwara Jora (lit. pair; pair of shoes) Sahib.It is a single flatroofed room, housing the holy relic as well as the Guru Granth Sahib. The Gurdwara is administered by the village sangat.

References :

1. Narotam, Tara Singh, Sri Guru Tirath Sangrahi. Kankhal, 1975
2. Gian Singh, Giani, Twarikh Gurduarian. Amritsar, n.d
3. Harbans Singh, Guru Gobind Singh. Chandigarh, 1966