A Gurudwara that looks like a mosque. Guru Ram Rai Darbar Sahib. (Jhanda Sahib) Dehradun, India.

Namaste 🙏

Hope you all are doing great.

While living in Dehradoon a few days back, I wanted to explore the most historical places in the town and got to know about this place from which the city of Dehradun got its name. This place is of great historical, spiritual and cultural significance but is not that famous nowadays and is not highlighted as the famous tourist spot in the city.

While you’re walking in the famous Paltan Bazar of Dehradun, it’s around the midway of the market when walking towards the clock tower, you come across this beautiful building. From outside you could see much but as soon as you enter from the main gate, you got to see the magic that this place has to offer.

Main entry

Guru Ram Rai Darbar Sahib also knows as Jhanda Sahib is a gurudwara or place of worship of Sikh people but it’s made like a mosque due to the Muslim influence in India during 17-18th century. That’s the one reason this place is very special. There are many other reasons this place is special, you’ll come to know as we proceed with the blog.

There is also a pole outside the gurudwara where flags are tied that’s why it’s called Jhanda Sahib too as Jahanda means flag. The colony around this area is also named after this Jhanda Sahib and the name of the colony is Jahnda Colony, Paltan Bazar.

Cloths (Jhanda’s) tied on the pole outside the Gurudwara

People do Parikrama, around this Jhanda that is people revolve around this pole and pray. This place is about 300-400 years old, you cannot just tell that by looking at it. It’s so well maintained and preserved that you’ll never know it’s this old.

There are Kangri style artworks made everywhere on the walls. It was an old art style founded in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh and was in practice around 18th-20th century in northern India. You can see the glimpses of those artwork around here in the photos below.

Art made on the walls

These artworks were recently restored by the government and there are nowadays many new buildings building next to this old building. The artworks are protected by the glass structure that’s made outside of them.

Now let me tell you the story of the Dehradoon city and how it got the name Dehradoon and how it’s interlinked with this place. So it was around 17th century, Baba Ram Rai settled a religious camp here called as Dera and that’s how the name Dehradoon.

Nowadays there are many new constructions that are built nearby this building mostly for the residence of the people who are coming here. You can see them in the photographs below.

New buildings constructed around the gurudwara

The gurudwara that looks like a mosque—

This was during 17th century when Aurangzeb was the Mughal rural ruling this region, he provided the lands and funds to Baba Ram Rai ji and that why the Islamic influence can greatly be seen in this building. Baba Ram Ji mistranslated some scripture in Aurangzebs darbar and that’s how he got banished from there and after that he settled here at Dehradun.

The central temple was made by taking influence from the Jahangir’s Tomb and you won’t know if it’s a mosque or a gurudwara. The moment you come near to this beautiful temple, you will surely feel the positive vibrations resonating with your spirit.

This usually happens with me all the times that whenever I visit any holy place like a temple, church or gurudwara, I feel something really special and positive about each place. It a kind of feeling that’s different for each place and you will surely feel it if you sit still for a while in such places.

Islamic influence on the Sikh architecture

We spent around an hour there now and the weather started to get really good. It was a perfect time of the day and also the perfect temperature to visit there. Clouds slowly covering up the sky to make everything more chilly and tranquil.

Just sitting outside of this building was so peaceful that you’ll get lost in it. I got to know that there is a yearly fare that happens here every year and at that time it’s completely full of people. I saw some pictures online about this fare and got really amazed.

Now it was time to move inside of the gurudwara, as we moved inside, we were amazed to see the details in the walls. Even the ceiling was properly decorated in the same way as you’ll see in other buildings of 17th century throughout India. It clearly shows the Islamic influence on everything around that era.

Detailing done in the walls and ceiling

We bowed down and prayed there. We also did Parikrama around the gurudwara. It was really a great spiritual as well as historical journey. It’s a must visit place whenever you’re at Dehradun.

Guru Ram Rai

That’s all for today.

Thanks for passing by.

Peace ☮️