Mandir Tomari Sahib is among the largest and most ancient temples in Pakistan. According to traditions, this temple is about 500 years old. Located in Baduki Gosaian village of Gujranwala district of Punjab province, Pakistan, this temple is built in the memory of Baba Ramanand, who was considered a very virtuous saint in Hindu religion. Baba Ji was born in 1504 in the village “Targari” located 6 km from the temple.
The place where the temple now stands was once a forest and a few fields. He used to come here to graze his cows and that is how he started preaching his religion.
At one time, a canal also passed through here, which disappeared with the passage of time and its traces are no longer visible.
There used to be a pond in the place where the temple is now. In the middle of the pond, there was a small earthen mound on which they would sit with their samadhi and worship their idols. Since the mud mound is called “Tibi” or “Toba” in Punjabi language, its name was corrupted to “Tomri” and that’s why this temple came to be called “Mandir Tomri Sahib”.
The present building of this temple was built in the 19th century by Kirpa Ramchand, the minister of Kashmir and Dewan of Aymanabad.
During that period, every year on 14 Baisakh, a very grand fair was held at this temple in which famous singers of the subcontinent came from far and wide to participate and this fair was held under the patronage of the government. It was a public holiday on that day.
This fair continued for a long time after independence. But with time, people’s attention towards it decreased and this fair ended completely.
The village in which the temple is now located was also named after Baba Ramananda and his special disciple.
Gosai was the offspring of Ramananda and Badu was the offspring of his disciple.
The village was named Baduki Gosaiyan by combination of Gosai + Badu.
Till 1947, the heir of this temple was Ram Narayan Gosai who was a descendant of Baba Ramananda who migrated to India.
Even after partition, puja continued here for a long time, but with the passage of time, the number of people decreased and the temple became deserted.
After that the temple was taken over by the government and the temple pond was converted into a fish farm and if a person wanted to catch fish here, he had to get permission from the government but gradually the interest of the government also decreased. And the fish farm also completely disappeared and the temple turned into ruins.
The descendant of Baba Ramanand and the present heir of the temple “Surendra Gosai” resides in Karnal Tehsil of Haryana District, India, and there he regularly built a temple called Mandir Tomri Sahib where he used to perform religious activities.
The condition of this temple has now become very dilapidated and weak. There was a small wall around his pond, but now that too has been completely demolished. There are some traces of this wall only on one side. There was a door in the entrance. The traces of this door have also disappeared. On one side, a separate four-wall was built for women, in which they would bathe.
