Discover how Sardar Swaran Singh's wisdom and linguistic prowess shaped India's diplomacy and governance over his 23-year ministerial career.
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BECHINT SINGH, BHAI (1872-1921), one of the Nankana Sahib martyrs, was the son of Bhai Sundar Singh and Mat Sahib Kaur, a peasant couple of the village of Pharala in Jalandhar district. The family migrated to Chakk No. 258 Pharala in the newly colonized district of Lyallpur in 1892. In 1907, while returning from Haridvar after immersing in the River Ganga the ashes of his deceased wife, Bechint Singh stayed for a couple of months at Amritsar where he came in contact with a holy man, Sant Kirpal Singh, at whose hands he took the pahul of the Khalsa.
BIBIPUR KHURD, locally called Bipur, is a small village in Patiala district, 8 km southeast of Ghuram (30° 7`N, 76° 28`E). It has a historical shrine, Gurdwara Patshahi Nauvin, sacred to Guru Tegh Bahadur, who visited the site during one of his travels through Malva and Bangar regions. The Gurdwara, out in the fields, is a single rectangular room, with a 4metre wide verandah in front, built in 1964. It is managed by a village committee. Special divans take place on the first of every Bikrami month, and an annual festival is held on the occasion of Hola Mohalla, recalling the Festival of Procession at Anandpur Sahib in the month of March.
CHAHAL, 15 km southeast of Lahore, was the ancestral village of Mata Tripta, mother of Guru Nanak. This was the birthplace of Bibi Nanaki, Guru Nanak`s sister. Guru Nanak visited the village on several occasions. Gurdwara Dera Chahal, which marked the house of the Guru`s maternal grandfather, Rama, was under the management of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, but had to be abandoned at the time of the partition of the Punjab in 1947.
DAMODARI, MATA (1597-1631), daughter of Narain Das, aJulka Khatri of the village of Dalla, 6 km southeast of Sultanpur Lodhi in Kapurthala district of the Punjab, was married to Guru Hargobind (1595-1644) on 15 February 1605. She gave birth to a son, Baba Gurditta (b. 1613), and a daughter, Bibi Viro (b. 1615). She died at Darauli Bhai now in Faridkot district on 13 July 1631. A small shrine on the outskirts of the village marks the site where the cremation took place.
GHULAL, an old village in Ludhiana district, 8 km west of Samrala (30°50`N, 76°ll`E), claims a historical shrine dedicated to Guru Gobind Singh. This Gurdwara is not included in older lists of Sikh historical shrines, but local tradition indicates that Guru Gobind Singh, on his way from Machhivara to the interior ofMalva country, stopped in this village for a while before proceeding to Lall. The Gurdwara stands on a mound inside the village said to be the site of an older shrine.
