The land of village Johal has a typical and interesting history. During the Mughal Empire, this area was under the control of a cruel and pitiless Subedar. Whenever a girl in his area was married, the palanquin of the married girl was kept in his palace for the first night.
Once a marriage party from village Jandiala came to village Bolina. The daughter of a landlord popularly known as Qila wale Sardar ji was getting married. After the marriage the bride was given a send off with her husband. When the DOLI (palanquin) of the newly wedded girl reached village Kaki Pind, the girl came to know that she would be staying for a night at the place of the ruler in Jamsher. She did not want to put herself to disgrace and immediately thought of a plan. She told the palanquin bearers, “I have forgotten something important at my house and it is with my mother. Please take me back home so that I can collect it.”
The husband on coming to know about the request agreed to go back with the palanquin to the parental house of his wife. The palanquin was brought back to Bolina village. Everyone was astonished to see the newly wedded girl back at her home. The husband was also with her.
She went inside the house and met her mother. She told her, “There is nothing serious and there is no cause for worry. It is just that I do not want to go to my husband’s village at Jandiala after being disgraced and put to shame by the ruler at Jamsher. I will instead stay here with my husband.”
The mother said, “You are right but every girl has to go and live with her husband in her in laws house.”
The daughter gave her explanation to her mother by saying, “You have a son and a daughter as your children. In case you had two sons, then I would have stayed here. The land and property would have been divided in two equal shares and I would have received one share. I request that I be considered as a son. Please give me my share of land and permit me to live here with my husband.”
The mother discussed this with the father of the girl. The landlord father liked the reasoning of his daughter. He was the owner of 1500 acres of land. He announced, “My daughter will sit on an elephant in the morning. Before sunset the portion of land covered by the moving elephant would be given to her as her share.”
Next day the girl covered an area of 500 acres on the elephant. She became the owner of 500 acres of agricultural land. She started living there and named the village as JOHAL after the surname of her husband.
The family was blessed with two sons. One became an ascetic and did not marry. The other son was married and his family lived in the village, now popularly known as Johal.
The one who had turned into a saint was Sadhu Sher Singh. He made his dwelling outside the village Johal. Sadhu Sher Singh was a very kind soul. He led a simple life. He went to the village to collect food as alms and spent the rest of the time in the worship of the Lord.
At the place where he stayed, he used a spade to dig earth and filled a bucket with the mud to throw the same away. With the passage of time it took the shape of a small pond. People drank water from this pond and utilized the water for good purposes.
Whenever an ascetic is involved in the worship and continuous recitation of Name of God, normally the limbs of his body do not perform any kind of task. Therefore in order that the body remains in good shape and does not lose its strength, some exercise is required to be done with the limbs. Sadhu Sher Singh performed this exercise by digging the land and giving it a shape of a small pond.
The villagers, with the passage of time, considered this pond sacred. Sant Baba Harnam Singh ji Maharaj of Jiyan instructed for the filling of the pond. A beautiful building known as SACHKHAND now adorns the place in Nirmal Kutiya Johalan.
Sadhu Sher Singh dug another pond. This dry pond still exists. It is at a little distance from the Kutiya.
When Sant Baba Basant Singh ji Maharaj came to this place no one could imagine that this place would get converted into a Center of Sikhism and that the name of the village Johal would be known to the world at large. The word Johal was linked to Nirmal Kutiya and the the name of the Kutiya became to be known as 'Nirmal Kutiya Johalan'.