Paonta Sahib
On the eastern end of Himachal Pradesh and surrounded by thick Sal forests Paonta Sahib town (1,276 feet) is located on the banks of the river Yamuna, the river being the boundary between the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. It is situated near the towns of Nahan in Himachal Pradesh, Yamuna Nagar in Haryana and Dehradun in Uttarakhand.
Paonta Sahib houses the famous Gurdwara of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth guru of Sikhs. Every year, the town is visited by a large number of Sikhs and Hindu pilgrims.
Its original name was Paontika. Paon in Hindi means "feet” and tika in Hindi means "became stable". It is believed that Guru Gobind Singh and his horse stopped at this place and he decided to stay here. He lived here for four and a half years, having never stayed so long at any other place in his entire life. He wrote many Sikh religious books here and then went to Anandpur Sahib to establish the Khalsa Panth.
He composed his “Dasam Granth” sitting on the banks of the river. Legend says that the mighty Yamuna was flowing very fiercely while the Guru was writing his Granth. So he requested mother Yamuna to slow down so that it does not disturb him. The Yamuna followed his advice and one can notice the mildness of the river near Paonta Sahib.
A Gurudwara was later constructed, and one can see some of the belongings of Guru ji here even today. Within the walls of the Gurudwara, there is a famous museum, which exhibits various priced possessions of Sikh Guru's like antiques and weapons.
Within the precincts of the Gurudwara are the Sri Talab Asthan where he disbursed salaries and the Sri Dastar Asthan where he judged the turban tying competitions. At Kavi Darbar Asthan, poetic symposia were held.
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