Gurbani Printing Press: where Guru Granth Sahib ji was printed

Once while coming from Delhi to Ludhiana by road, we took the car to service road, where I noticed a billboard – ‘Gurbani Printing Press.’ The building with this board was almost 10ft down the road and there was no visible approach route. But we went there and met Sardar Gurpreet Singh, who made us stand in front of a machine for a moment and said that in the past Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji was printed on this machine.

The machine, which is almost 100 years old, was installed by Inder Singh Gulati, resident of Ambala Cantt. On this machine, Gajjan Lal Sharma of Himachal Pradesh worked for his whole life. Gurpreet Singh said that he had joined as a compositor and now takes care of the press

In this printing press no one used to wear shoes. Even if one had to climb on the machine for repair, it was done only after proper ardas (prayer) and covering the machine with cloth in a proper way.

This printing press was established in the middle of a premises for Gurudwara, quite away from the main road. The printed Sri Guru Granth Sahib from this press was sent all over by Shri Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) Amritsar.

A few years ago, this press was closed after new high-quality machines were installed in Amritsar. Gajjan Lal Sharma also retired and went to his native Himachal. Nowadays stationery related to SGPC is printed in this printing press.

–Prof Kamal Chopra