New Delhi, Oct 15: The sacred footwear of Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh Guru, and his wife, Mata Sahib Kaur, will embark on their final 1,500-kilometre journey from Delhi to Patna Sahib Gurdwara after Diwali, marking the culmination of what Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri described as a “300-year-old journey coming full circle.”
Puri, whose family has preserved the relics for nearly three centuries, said the Yatra will span nine days and pass through four states — Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. “A 300-year-old Yatra of the last Sikh Guru’s belongings is going to reach its conclusion. The journey from Delhi to Patna Sahib will take nine days and cover 1,500 km,” Puri said on Monday.
He added that the holy relics will broadly travel from Delhi to Faridabad, Agra, Bareilly, Madnapur, Lakhimpur, Kanpur, and Prayagraj before reaching Patna. “We are finalising the exact route, but the Yatra will begin right after Diwali,” he noted.
The pair of footwear, known as Jore Sahib, will be permanently established at the Patna Sahib Gurdwara, the birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh, in Bihar’s capital. In Sikh tradition, these relics are deeply revered, believed to embody a divine presence due to their direct association with the Guru and Mata Sahib Kaur.
Professor Simrat Kaur, Principal of Shri Ram College of Commerce and a member of the committee formed to chart the way forward, said the decision to enshrine the relics at Patna Sahib came after wide consultations within the Sikh community. “We deliberated extensively and it became clear that while both Shri Anandpur Sahib and Patna Sahib hold immense significance, the Guru’s spiritual journey began at Patna. We wanted to complete that circle,” she said.
Earlier this month, Puri announced that after consultations with the Sikh Sangat, the consensus was that the relics should be entrusted to the Patna Sahib Gurdwara Management Committee for sewa (service).
Last month, Puri, along with members of the Sikh Sangat, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek guidance on the future placement of the relics. The sacred articles, which have been passed down through generations in Puri’s family, were until recently kept at the Karol Bagh residence of his late cousin in Delhi.
PM Modi, while acknowledging the spiritual importance of the relics, reportedly said they are “as much a part of the glorious Sikh history as they are of the cultural ethos of our nation.”
Guru Gobind Singh, the last of the ten Sikh Gurus, founded the Khalsa Panth — the order of the pure — and declared the Guru Granth Sahib as the eternal Guru of the Sikhs. He instituted the five symbols of faith — Kesh (uncut hair), Kangha (wooden comb), Kada (iron bracelet), Kirpan (sword), and Kachera (short breeches) — which continue to define Sikh identity to this day.
