Gurdwara Nankana Sahib was managed by Mahant Narayan Das in early 20th century. They started treating the Gurdwara properties as if they were their personal fiefs. As the times rolled by, the Gurdwara incomes swelled enormously and the enormous money corrupted and degenerated the later-time Mahants into loose lived individuals.

The earlier Mahants were devoted Sikhs and true missionaries who did a lot for the spread of Sikhism. For the sustenance of the Mahants, Maharaja Ranjit Singh had attached handsome landed properties with many of these Gurdwaras. Maharaja Ranjit Singh reconstructed the Gurdwaras earlier destroyed by the Moghuls and also raised many new ones at the sacred places connected with the Sikh Gurus. After a long and continuous resistance of several decades against the tyrannies of Mughal rule, the brave Sikhs finally emerged victorious and succeeded in carving out 12 Khalsa principalities in Punjab which soon led to the creation of a unified Khalsa kingdom with Ranjit Singh at the helms. The peaceful and non-political budding Sikh brotherhood was transformed into a proud and fiercely martial nation through the baptismic process of Amrit-pan. Later, they assumed wider dimensions by transforming into religio-political organisation. Congregations in Gurdwaras had played crucial roles in the religious and social affairs of the early Sikhs. The concepts of Sangat, Pangat, Dharamshala (Gurdwara) and Kirtan took firm roots during this period and became important constituents of Sikhism. The Sikh faith was founded by Guru Nanak in fifteenth century and his divine torch was carried on by nine gurus who had followed in succession.

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