Empire of the Sikhs Read Online Free Page B

Beas and about a hundred miles east of Lahore. The first step Ram Das took was to buy the pool and much of the land around it for building the Harmandir, to which Sikhs from far and near were to travel for the great joy of seeing their beloved shrine in the middle of the immortal pool. Around this place rose a holy city, which eventually came to be known as Amritsar. The name derives from the words
amrit,
which in Sanskrit means the elixir of life or water sanctified by the touch of the sacred, and
sarowar,
which means a lake or pool.
    In the construction of the Harmandir and its surroundings Sikhism’s enduring principles of voluntary labour and self-reliance were considered sacrosanct, which is why Guru Ram Das declined Emperor Akbar’s offer to gift land for the Harmandir.

    The fifth Guru, Arjan Dev, succeeded Ram Das at the age of eighteen. What he achieved in the twenty-five years of his stewardship proved of fundamental importance for the course of Sikhism. In keeping with the basic Sikh belief that there are no Hindus or Muslims, all being one in the eyes of God, he invited an eminentQadirite Muslim saint from Lahore to lay the foundation stone of the Harmandir, probably in 1588.
    The siting, scale, design and construction of the Harmandir were strikingly at odds with the trends of those times. While the design and scale of the religious and secular Renaissance buildings of Europe were meant to reflect the power and wealth of a particular faith, or to glorify the monarchs and merchant princes who helped build them, the Harmandir, a single-storeyed structure, was built lower than the surrounding land so that its modest size would stress the faith’s enduring ability, strength and confidence, not through extravagant architectural grandeur but by allowing the appeal of that faith irresistibly to draw people to it – the nobility of the idea it enunciated, that all human beings are equal in the eyes of God.
    The Harmandir was to have four entrances to demonstrate the fact that its doors would be open to all four castes, Kshatriyas, Brahmins, Sudras and Vaisyas, equal partners in divine instruction. Its location in the centre of the pool, or
sarowar,
was to symbolize the synthesis of
nirgun
and
sargun,
the spiritual and temporal realms of human existence. The
sarowar
was lined with steps for the devout to enter the immortal pool, in which they would come over long distances to bathe.
    The materials used for the Harmandir’s construction were simple: a solid brick and lime foundation and on it supporting walls of burnt bricks and lime. The gold, marble inlays, mirror work and other embellishments came much later as generations of Sikhs lavished their wealth on increasing the magnificence of their place of worship. The nineteenth century was the ‘golden’ era thanks to the spectacular rise of the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh and his patronage of artists and craftsmen.
    As more sites of sublime significance were developed around the Harmandir, the complex came to be known as the Darbar Sahib. In time the Harmandir or Golden Temple itself was identified as theDarbar Sahib, until the two became indistinguishable from each other, although the magnetic draw the Harmandir proper exercises on the minds of the devout has not been equalled by any other building in the complex. With the development of the Darbar Sahib and its environs, the city of Amritsar grew in importance to become more than a pilgrimage centre; it became the rallying point for Sikhs everywhere, a complete realization of Guru Arjan Dev’s vision of a place of permanence and self-renewal for the community.
    In addition to the creation of the Darbar Sahib and the holy city of Amritsar, Guru Arjan Dev’s unique contribution to the faith was in compiling the Sikh scriptures in the form of the Adi Granth 8 – later known as the Granth Sahib. This anthology of the thoughts, verses, hymns and teachings of the first five Sikh Gurus and