Tourist Places

Amritsar Guide

Amritsar is an institution by itself. And the Golden Temple is the cradle of Amritsar with the city growing around it nurtured by its divine sanctity. Amritsar is one of the most sacred sikh religious sites in India.

Oral tradition dictates that the Muslim divine Pir Mian Mir of Lahore, at the request of the fifth Sikh Guru Arjan Dev, laid the temple's foundation stone. However, there is no record supporting this, not even in the biographies of Pir. The recorded account says that Guru Arjun Dev laid the foundation in 1588. The Guru's followers settled down in the neighborhood and a small town called Ramdaspur quickly came up, deriving its later name, Amritsar, from the holy tank that encircles the Hari Mandir, or the Darbar Sahib, now known as the Golden Temple.

The flourishing town that grew around the temple during Guru Arjan Dev's lifetime grew further in stature as the followers of Sikhism grew in number. Things moved fast. The first Sikh Maharaja, Ranjit Singh, made Amritsar his spiritual capital while Lahore was the temporal seat of his newly founded expanding kingdom. Ranjit Singh oversaw the temple's further development, gilding the embossed plates, renewing the pietra dura and embellishing the interior with floral designed, mirrored ceilings.

The Golden Temple is not only a religious building important to Sikhs, it is an eclectic monument that has grown as much of people's devotion as from the guild craftsmen's skills to become Sikmost sacred of the sikh religious sites. Generation after generation has lavished praise on the art and architecture of the golden temple and it is widely regarded as being amongst the most tastefully decorated shrines anywhere.

Places of Interest in Amritsar

The Golden Temple
Situated at the other end of the causeway connected to the Harmandir Sahib is the Akal Takht. Literally, it means the eternal throne and its building opposite the temple has a significance. While the temple stands for the spiritual guidance, the Akal Takht symbolizes the dispensing of justice and temporal activities. During the day, the Guru Granth Sahib is kept in the temple and at night at the Akal Takht. Traditionally all Sikh warriors sought blessings here before going for war.

As it has done for several centuries, the temple mirrors many images that are dear to the devout. One sees the beautiful golden dome shimmering in the water. One sees thousands of devotees praying and kneeling before the holy book. One sees them touch the holy water and pour it over their foreheads. One sees people streaming into the langar hall to partake of the common meal served lovingly to all. Forming a soothing and beautiful soundtrack to all these activities is the continuous kirtan (devotional) recitation that has provided solace to so many.

If you take a short walk around the Golden Temple, you can visit several other Gurdwaras that trace their links with the Gurus. Gurdwara Baba Atal Sahib and the Shahidi martyr's shrine are important religious centers, each with its own history. Amritsar played a pivotal role in India's quest for independence, and no national monument has more significance than Jalianwala Bagh, a solemn, grim reminder of one of the bloodiest chapters of India's freedom movement.

The 2000 Indians killed and wounded here in the indiscriminate firing by the British on Baisakhi in 1919 was carnage that had nationwide ramifications, shaking and enraging the whole country. Jalianwala Bagh commemorates the martyrs, keeping the tragic episode in its historical context.