AdminPANJA SAHIB, GURDWARA, at Hasan Abdal in Attock (or Campbellpore) district of Pakistan Punjab, is sacred to Guru Nanak, who briefly stopped here on his way back to the Punjab from his western uddsi or journey which took him as far West as Mecca and Baghdad. According to tradition popularized by Bhai Santokh Singh, Sri […]
PANJA SAHIB, GURDWARA, at Hasan Abdal in Attock (or Campbellpore) district of Pakistan Punjab, is sacred to Guru Nanak, who briefly stopped here on his way back to the Punjab from his western uddsi or journey which took him as far West as Mecca and Baghdad. According to tradition popularized by Bhai Santokh Singh, Sri Guru Nanak Prakash, Guru Nanak and his Muslim companion of long travels, Mardana, halted at the foot of a hill. On the top of the hill lived a Muslim recluse known in those parts as Wall Kandhari.
Feeling fatigue and thirsty and seeing no water in the vicinity, Mardana climbed up to the Wall`s hut and begged him for water to quench his thirst. Questioned as to who he was and what had brought him to that place, Mardana said that he was professionally a musician and had come in the train of a great saint, Baba Nanak. Wall Kandhari refused to give him water and quipped instead that if his master was so accomplished a saint, he should not let his follower go thirsty.
Mardana walked back disappointed and told the Guru what the Wall had said. Guru Nanak asked Mardana to go once again and supplicate the Wali with humility. Mardana obeyed, but returned only to report the failure of his mission. Guru Nanak there upon touched the hillside with the tip of the stick he was holding. Instantly, water spouted forth from that point and Mardana drank his fill. But simultaneously Wali Kandhari`s reservoir on top of the hill began to ebb and soon dried up. The Wali, blind with rage, rolled down a big boulder towards the travelers.
Guru Nanak gently raised his arm and the rocky mass, as goes the tradition, stopped in its downward career as it came in touch with his palm, {panja, in Punjabi). The impression of his palm was left on the stone which is still shown to the visitors to the place, now famous as Panja Sahib, the Holy Palm. A Gurudwara was built at the site during the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh to which he made a handsome land endowment and which he visited more than once during his lifetime.