Originally, the locality was founded by a Hindu ruler named Raja Vairat and was originally named Raipur but it was destroyed during the
Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent. A town on the site of the first settlement was founded during the
Delhi Sultanate rule by
Rai Bhoi, a
Rajput of
Bhati stock whose Hindu ancestor had converted to Islam under the influence of
Sufism, and thus was known as Rai-Bhoi-Di-Talwandi. His great-grand son Rai Bular Bhatti, renamed it as 'Nankana Sahib' after the birth of Guru Nanak. The
Gurdwara Nankana Sahib, originally constructed by the Sikhs during the
Mughal-era in around 1600 CE was renovated in 1819–20 CE by the Sikh
Maharaja Ranjit Singh. During the
Akali movement, on 20 February 1921, Narain Das, the
Udasi mahant (clergy) of the gurdwara at Nankana Sahib, ordered his men to fire on
Akali protesters, leading to the
Nankana massacre. The firing was widely condemned, and an agitation was launched until the control of this historic Janam Asthan Gurdwara was restored to the Sikhs. Again in the 1930s and 1940s the Sikhs added more buildings and more architectural design. ==Geography==