Talwandi Sabo

ਤਲਵੰਡੀ ਸਾਬੋ

Takht Sri Damdama Sahib at Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda district is one of the five takhts. Guru Gobind Singh Ji stayed here in 1706 and the recension of the Guru Granth Sahib Ji prepared here carries the name Damdami Bir.

It functions as a Nihang centre. Buddha Dal is the senior order.

Baba Deep Singh Ji founded the Damdami Taksal here, the seminary that trains readers and interpreters of the scripture and which continues at Mehta Chowk near Amritsar.

Talwandi Sabo is called Guru ki Kashi, the Guru's Benares, meaning a place of learning rather than of arms, and the Guru stayed about nine months after Khidrana.

It was recognised as the fifth takht in 1966, which was contested at the time. The Vaisakhi fair there is one of the largest gatherings in the Malwa and the town sits in dry cotton country in Bathinda district.

The final recension of the Guru Granth Sahib Ji, with the hymns of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji added, was dictated here by Guru Gobind Singh Ji to Bhai Mani Singh Ji in 1705 and 1706.

The Guru stayed about nine months after Muktsar. It is the only settled period in the last years of his life.

The dispute over its recognition as a takht was about whether a takht can be created by resolution. The SGPC recognised it, the jathedars of the other takhts differed, and the question has never been formally closed.

What we don't know

  • Everyday Nihang chhawni life outside the festival calendar is almost entirely undocumented.

Where to check this

Named but not linked. These are real, findable documents. This project has not consulted them for this page.

  • Outlook Traveller, on Damdama Sahib and the Nihangs.

This page has not yet been read through by the editor. Treat it with more caution than the rest.

How this page was written. The text is compiled from the standard published histories and reference works, not from a document held in hand. Nobody from this project has visited the place or read the archive. The list above is where a reader can go to check it, not a record of what was consulted line by line. Dates and figures are the received account. If you hold something better, write in and it will be corrected.

This is one of 122 accounts in Under the Company, the chapter of this site covering British Punjab, from annexation to the canal colonies.