The Oldest Sikh Art In Existence

In the Himalayan foothills of Dehradun stands one of the most fascinatingly hybrid places in India.

Ram Rai Darbar Sahib was founded by the son of the seventh Sikh Guru. It is built like a Mughal Emperor’s tomb, with a domed mausoleum on a raised platform, flanked by four minarets.

On closer inspection, however, the shrine is covered with Hindu imagery. Above one doorway, Vishnu reclines on the coils of the world-serpent while Lakshmi presses his feet. Above another, a goddess charges into battle on her tiger while Shiva and Parvati ride past on their bull.

On the southern gate, meanwhile, eight faded panels hold the oldest wall paintings of the Sikh gurus anywhere in India, dressed in Mughal attire.

This is the oldest building in Dehradun and it remains the centre of worship for the Ramraiyya sect, deemed a heretic sect by mainstream Sikhs for centuries.

Ram Rai was the eldest son of the seventh guru, Har Rai. In 1661 his father sent him to Delhi as an emissary to the newly enthroned Aurangzeb. But when the emperor demanded an explanation of a scriptural verse that seemed to insult Muslims, Ram Rai quietly altered the sacred text, reading beiman, 'faithless', in place of musalman, 'Muslim'.

The word of the gurus was held to be unalterable, and for tampering with it Ram Rai was excommunicated by his father.

Emperor Aurangzeb subsequently offered him land in the Roon valley, and Ram Rai's camp, or ‘dera’ there eventually grew into the town of Dehradun.

Ram Rai wife Mata Punjab Kaur later built him a shrine. The earliest decoration was paid for by Emperor Aurangzeb himself, and a Persian language plaque from the emperor survives in one of the gates.

The images of the Sikh Gurus here are the oldest extant images of the Gurus anywhere. The 17th century outfits that they wear are closer to what they would have actually worn than 90% of the images we see today.

Over the next two centuries the walls kept accumulating. Hindu gods appear beside Sikh gurus, Persian legends beside Mughal emperors.

Some 500 paintings survive, spanning 350 years, and some of them are wonderfully bonkers. I know of no other place where British memsahibs are depicted worshipping the Hindu god Vishnu at a heretical Sikh gurdwara paid for by a Muslim emperor.

All this is alien to modern gurudwaras, but its closer to how 18th century Sikh shrines looked than we might think.

I've just written a full article on the subject, and the destruction of early Sikh Art in my ✨️Substack✨️ Do have a read!