The Guru Nanak trail goes cold

There was no paneer masala at weddings or salwar kameezes on streets. So the sight of a mutt set up by followers of a Sikh denomination founded by Guru Nanak's son Sri Chand in Ulsoor baffled young IAS officer Chiranjiv Singh in the 1970s.
Does this mean that Guru Nanak, the founder-prophet of Sikhism whose birth anniversary was celebrated on November 25, might have visited Bengaluru during one of his lengthy treks across the globe? Did he or did he not? If there is an enduring mystery in the minds of Bengaluru's Sikh population, it remains the story of the prophet's probable visit in the 1500s to the area that was still being developed by enterprising chieftain Kempegowda.“Some accounts of his travel show that he might have passed through the city, either on his way to Sri Lanka or on his return,“ says Singh, the senior civil servant who has made Bengaluru his home.
There is proof of Nanak's stopovers in Sri Lanka, Bidar and Rameswaram in the form of hymns, inscriptions or memorials. But no such evidence is here. However, a probable travel route put together by community websites show that he could've gone past what is now Bengaluru. To add to the mystery, the city has the long-forgotten mutt, which is supposed to have been established by Udasis, the Hindu monastic sect that follows Sri Chand's teachings and had guarded gurudwaras till the 1920s. “Wherever he (Nanak) stayed, the Udasis built deras or shrines,“ says Singh. It is this connection that drew the Bedi family to the `Udaseen Matha and Gaushala' inside the MEG campus ever since patriarch Daya Singh Bedi came to Karnataka as the Commissioner of Coorg in the late 1950s. “I used to go to the mutt with granddad (Daya Singh) and dad.It is rather surp r i s i n g t h at Baba Sri Chand saab's mutt is here,“ says Baba PS Bedi, whose family he says draws its lineage from Guru Nanak. There were restrictions on entry earlier due to the mutt’s location inside the military headquarters but not now.
One can easily enter the leafy premises after making an entry with the sentry at the MEG main gate. The mutt is guarded by a Nandi bull at the entrance, and has shrines of Siva, Mahavir and other Hindu deities, a cow shelter and a noisy dovecote. “It is an old mutt but there is a big renovation plan,” says Suman Joshi, daughter of priest Bhairav Joshi. A recent paint job has all but obliterated a plaque stating that the mutt came up in the 1900s. Suman Joshi helpfully brings out a booklet printed in 1958 from inside an old building with a havan kund and idols. The booklet says that the mutt was established by a Baba J a g annathdasji Nirvan of Udaseen Barha Akha ra (Allahabad) in 1909. He settled down i n t h i s t wo a c r e “mango tope“ belong ing to Arcot Narainswami Mudali ar near Kalpalli village in the late 1800s. There were territorial issues with the military in the 1920s that seem to have been sorted out. The mutt authorities also thank a host of city residents: “bankers and others of the Sindhi communities, the Hindustanis, the Gujaratis, the Marwaris, the Punjabis and the Maharashtrians“ for helping run the place.
Though the Bedi family drops in on birth anniversaries of Sri Chand and Guru Nanak at the mutt, the rest of the community heads to the Gurudwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha (SGSS) in another part of Ulsoor.“There are 5,000 Sikhs here. But if you include the floating population, especially those in Air Force, there are around 25,000 Sikh people,“ says Gursharan Singh, president of SGSS.
Chiranjiv Singh says the community came to Karnataka in three waves. The first set were the soldiers brought in by Hyder Ali in the 1700s, and they settled down in Mandya and Hassan. “Their descendants are well assimilated and don’t have much connection to Punjab. Some of them have names like Nagoji Singh and Balaji Singh,” he laughs. The next set came during the Partition. “By and large, they form the nucleus of the community here,” says Singh.
Industrialisation and the IT boom have drawn in many youngsters.
To Bedi’s mother, Avinash Bedi, the city is home. She is upset about the congested roads that prevent a senior citizen like her from walking up to Brigade Road to do some shopping and enjoying a cup of coffee at Koshy’s. She too has heard the Guru Nanak story but is guarded about the stories around Guru Nanak. Then there are others like Dr Harminder Singh, who came here in the 1980s and went about looking for clues.
“We didn’t get any confirmation.
Maybe, we should’ve searched some more,” he says.
Looks like the mystery is yet to unfold.