Bhagat Namdev

A Maharashtrian Who made Punjab his Home

Bhagat Namdev, also transliterated as Namdeo (1270 – 1350) was a Hindu poet-saint from Maharashtra, India who is venerated in Sikhism and his poetry is enshrined in Sri Guru Granth Sahib. He was born into a low Shudra caste as shimpi (tailor) in the Marathi language and as chimba (calico-printer) in northern India. Shudra is the lowest-ranked of the four castes in Hinduism.

Bhagat Namdev

Poetry of Bhagat Namdev

Sixty-one of his hymns in fact came to be included in Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib. These hymns or sabdas share the common characteristic of lauding the One Supreme God distinct from his earlier verse which carries traces of idolatry and saguna bhakti. In the course of his spiritual quest, Namdev had, from being a worshiper of the Divine in the concrete form, become a devotee of the attribute-less ( nirguna) Absolute.

Ghuman Village

GHUMAN, village 10 km west of Sri Hargobindpur in Gurdaspur district of the Punjab. Namdev, the revered saint of Maharashtra lived in this village for a considerable time. He journeyed extensively through north India and made Ghuman his seat of residence. The temple at Ghuman which, according to local tradition, has existed since the fourteenth century was renovated by Jassa Singh Ramgarhia (d. 1802), and the tank attached to it repaired by Sada Kaur (d. 1832), head of the Kanhaiya misland mother-in-law of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The main shrine, called Darbar Sahib Baba Namdev Ji, is an octagonal domed room, with marble floor and projecting windows and balconies. In the center of it is a stone fixed on a marble platform under a marble pavilion, hexagonal in shape.

Surjit Patar, Punjabi poet with Marathi poets

Every year, devotees come from Maharashtra and get together with his devotees from Punjab at the Ghuman village. The gurdwara is unique in more ways than one. It also houses a temple within the sanctum sanctorum, where the Granth Sahib is placed. Two beautiful idols of Radha and Krishna are happily sharing this space along with a tiny Shivalaya. The devotees do not discriminate, they bow their head before the Granth Sahib and the idols too. The cave-like rooms within the gurdwara are housing the guests these days. This example of unpretentious secularism makes room for gods and humans alike.

Social activist Anna Hazare at Ghuman village

 The gurdwara is called dehura, because of the presence of the idols. A brass sheet shows the embossed figure of Bhagat Namdev in a sitting posture reviving a dead cow. Next to this shrine is the samddh of Baba Bahur Das, the principal disciple of Namdev in the Punjab. The Guru Granth Sahib is seated in a separate rectangular room commemorating Guru Hargobind`s visit to the shrine. The temple is managed by Sri Namdev Darbar Committee of Ghuman. An annual fair is held on 1 and 2 Magh (mid-January) in the belief that Namdev died here at Ghuman on 2 Magh 1406 Bk.