Moti bagh gurudwara in patiala

Moti Bagh Gurdwara

Gurdwara Motibagh is an old Sikh shrine located near the Old Motibagh Palace, the old residence of the former Maharajas of Patiala. According to the historians, Guru Teg Bahadur, the ninth guru of the Sikhs, stayed at this place for sometime in 1675, before proceeding to Delhi to meet the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. The place was thickly forested and almost forgotten till Maharaja Narinder Singh of Patiala (1823-62), who had built his residential palace, the Motibagh Palace nearby, decided to raise a memorial to the Sikh Guru who had been martyred by the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.
The maharaja built the gurdwara at its present site in 1852. The shrine, made of marble, is erected on a high plinth, and the visitor approaches it by a flight of marble steps that lead to a porch. The sanctum is a square room with a verandah on its four sides. The room has four doors, but three of the four doors are closed with screens of perforated red sandstone. The entrance has a door with a frame of white marble and wooden panels covered with brass sheets. The inner walls and the ceiling of the sanctum are adorned with coloured glass pieces and filigree work. On the first floor is another square room with a pinnacled lotus dome on the top.

The shrine is affiliated to Gurdwara Dukh Nivaran Sahib (about 4 kms away) for administrative purposes. Every year, special religious gatherings and a community kitchen (Guru ka Langar) mark the anniversaries of the birth and martyrdom day of Guru Tegh Bahadur. On these days, a grand procession is taken out from the gurdwara, which, proceeding through the streets of the city, ends at Gurdwara Dukh Nivaran Sahib