As many as 127 families in the country are heir to the Guru’s priceless relics and the tercentenary celebrations would have afforded lakhs of pilgrims an opportunity to see these.
While one exhibition of relics the collection of one individual, the other has limited exhibits sent by three families from their collection.
Mr Harvinder Singh Khalsa, who singlehandedly collected hundreds of items, including the Standard of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, which flew for 40 years atop the Lahore Fort, said that he went all over the country and secured the approval of more than 35 families to send their collections for the benefit of the people. When he approached the present government for help, he was told to submit a list of those who wanted to participate in the exhibition.
At the eleventh hour, only three families came forward with their collections and he had to bring a part of his collection and hold a separate show.
The largest ever display of this kind was put up by Maharaja Yadvindra Singh of Patiala in 1949, on the eve of the Sarv Hind Vidyapak Conference, he informed.
Some of his prized collections include signatures of Guru Ramdass, Guru Hargobind, Guru Har Rai, Guru Arjan Dev, Guru Teg Bahadur and Guru Gobind Singh from various documents written by them, besides hand-written hukamnamas issued by Mata Sundri Ji, Mata Sahib Kaur ji and Sahib Singh Bedi.{pagebreak}
Mr Harvinder Singh said his collection included two hand-written Dasam Granths and "patther chappa" treatises, hand-written religious books and assorted ‘pothis’, all more than 200 years old. Besides, he has an enviable collection of Nanakshahi and Mughal era coins, some exquisitely carved ‘rakabs’ (stirrups) of the noblemen of yore and a huge collection of some "never seen before" photographs of the shaheedi jathas that took part in various morchas. One of the photographs shows the capturing of some buildings of the Golden Temple in July 1955, at the height of the Punjabi Suba Morcha.
The rare photographs also include the ones of the damaged Guru Granth Sahib during the Nankana Sahib Saka in 1921, of the Shaheedi Jathas that came to participate in the Guru Ka Bag Morcha in 1922 from Canada, Sumatra, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Similarly, there are photographs of the protesters of the morcha being beaten up by the police and the cremation of the Nanakana Sahib martyrs.
He also has a large collection of the Gadri babas and important figures of the freedom struggle dating from 1849 to 1947.
He also possesses the original Re 1 Panth Azad Fund notes floated by Master Tara Singh in 1954 to collect money to reportedly fund the Punjabi Suba movement. The original draft constitution of the Shiromani Akali Dal, signed by then Secretary Ajmer Singh (not on display) and some well-preserved wall paintings were also shown to TNS.
He also has the complete collection of all the stamps released by the government on Sikh personalities and institutions.
While awaiting official recognition and funds to preserve this priceless legacy, he is presently working on bringing out a catalogue of his collection. Next in line, is a complete history of the places visited by the Guru.