Shahdara Sharief

A religious site visited by people of all religions, the Shahdara Shareif was built by Maharaja Gulab Singh in the 19th century to pay tribute to Baba Ghulam Shah. It is believed that Pir Ghulam Shah, who was born at Saidian (now Rawalpindi, in Pakistan), made Shahdara his home for life. Legend has it that Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab in 1820 AD, sent his army general, Gulab Singh, to conquer his adversary. However, the general lost most of his soldiers and when he was camping at Thanna-Mandi, he found out about Baba Ghulam Shah and went to see him. When the baba saw him, he smiled. On being asked the reason, he said that he was smiling at the good future of Gulab Singh. Then, baba asked the general to climb on top of a mountain and look around. He said that all the places he saw with his naked eye would be a part of his territory someday. The general saw Jammu, Kashmir, Tibet and Kishtwar and as thanks asked the baba to take some land from him, who asked him for the land of Shahdra Sharief in Jammu. Later, Gulab Singh became the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir and went on to express his gratitude to the baba. However, baba had left his abode and Gulab Singh got a shrine constructed for him. The shrine lies at a distance of about 177 km from Jammu.