AKBARPUR KHUDAL

AKBARPUR KHUDAL, village 6 km northeast of Bareta (29°52\’N. 75°42\’E), in Mansa district of the Punjab, is sacred to Guru Gobind Singh, who came here in November 1706 to rescue a Sikh from captivity. According to Giani Gian Singh, Twaiikh Guru Khalsa, Gulab Singh, a goldsmith of Akbarpur Khudal, had been imprisoned by the village chief in a basement of his house on a false charge. The news of the Sikh in distress reached Guru Gobind Singh while he was at Sirsa, 80 km away, as the crow flies, already on his way to the South. But he turned his footsteps immediately with five of his Sikhs and, reaching Khudal by a forced march, rescued Gulab Singh and instructed the chief, Nabi Bakhsh, in the path of virtue and justice. Guru Gobind Singh then returned to Sirsa. A gurdwara was later established outside the village. The Maharaja of Patiala endowed it with 50 acres of land. The house of the chief inside the village was acquired after Independence, and Gurdwara Bhora Sahib Patshahi 10 was constructed on the site in February 1951 by a Sikh landlord of the area, Harchand Singh Jeji, who also made an endowment. The Gurdwara, handed over to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee in 1977, has a domed sanctum, within a hall, on the first floor. The bhora or underground cell, in which Gulab Singh is believed to have been kept, is a small square cellar in the basement.