The Triennial Conference of the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India (later renamed the United Evangelical Lutheran Churches in India - UELCI), which met at Guntur in 1926, felt the need for a theological college for the Lutheran Churches in India. On 6 July 1927 when such a college started, only students from TELC enrolled for the first divinity class. A summer palace bought in 1859 by the Leipzig Evangelical Lutheran Mission from an Indian Raja, became the Centre firstly. Bishop Johannes Sandegren, the first Principal of the college, named it Gurukul, meaning a Guru (teacher) living together with his Sishyas (disciples).