The Golden Temple and the Adi Granth
Guru Arjan compiles the Adi Granth, the Sikh scripture, and installs it in the newly built Harmandir Sahib at Amritsar.
- The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, revised edition) — J. S. Grewal, Cambridge University Press (1998)
- Golden Temple — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Sikhism — W. H. McLeod, Penguin (1997)
- The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies — Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech (eds.), Oxford University Press (2014)
The fourth Guru, Ram Das, founded the town that became Amritsar around a sacred pool. His son, Guru Arjan, built the Harmandir Sahib, “the temple of God”, in the middle of the pool, with doors on all four sides to show it was open to people of every caste and direction.
- Golden Temple — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, revised edition) — J. S. Grewal, Cambridge University Press (1998)
With rival claimants circulating hymns in the Gurus’ names, Arjan gathered the authentic compositions of the first four Gurus and his own, with the scribe Bhai Gurdas, and added verses by bhagats, holy men of other backgrounds, among them Kabir, the low-caste Ravidas and the Muslim Sufi Shaikh Farid. In 1604 this volume, the Adi Granth (“first book”), was installed in the Harmandir, with the elder Baba Buddha as its first custodian.
- The Sikhs of the Punjab (The New Cambridge History of India, revised edition) — J. S. Grewal, Cambridge University Press (1998)
- Sikhism — W. H. McLeod, Penguin (1997)
- The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies — Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech (eds.), Oxford University Press (2014)
The scripture is arranged not by author but by raga, the musical modes in which its hymns are to be sung, which is why music, kirtan, is at the heart of Sikh worship. In the standard printed form it runs to 1,430 pages, called ang, “limbs”. Its golden dome dates from Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s gilding in the early nineteenth century.
- Sikhism: A Very Short Introduction (2nd edition) — Eleanor Nesbitt, Oxford University Press (2016)
- Golden Temple — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Why it matters today
The Adi Granth became the Guru Granth Sahib, the living Guru at the heart of every gurdwara, and the Harmandir Sahib, the Golden Temple, is the spiritual centre of the Sikh world, where tens of thousands are fed free every day. Its inclusion of Hindu and Muslim saints is a point of pride for Sikhs who see their faith as open to all.