Foundation stone of Sri Harmandir Sahib: Sai Mian Mir and the Golden Temple

This day remembers the laying of the foundation of Sachkhand Sri Harmandir Sahib, the Golden Temple, in the middle of the sarovar at Amritsar, at the end of the 1580s. The SGPC's calendar for Nanakshahi 558 lists the anniversary on two dates, one in summer and one at the start of the month of Magh, the date most often given by tradition.

A temple in the pool

Sri Guru Ram Das Ji had founded the town of Ramdaspur and dug the sarovar, the pool of nectar that gave Amritsar its name. His son, Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji, completed the pool and resolved to build a house of the Guru in its centre. Tradition remembers that he invited his friend, the Sufi saint Hazrat Mian Mir of Lahore, to lay the foundation stone, a gesture of the respect the Gurus gave to people of every faith. Baba Budha Ji, Bhai Gurdas Ji and the sangat took part, and the building was completed in 1604, when the Adi Granth was installed in it.

Built to be open

The Guru made choices that still speak. Sri Harmandir Sahib was set lower than the ground around it, so that every visitor walks down to it in humility. It was given four doors, one on each side, as a sign that it is open to people of every caste, creed and direction. The walkway across the water joins it to the Darshani Deori, the gateway.

The temple through history

The temple was attacked and destroyed several times in the eighteenth century, and each time the Khalsa rebuilt it, the present building from 1764. In the early nineteenth century Maharaja Ranjit Singh covered its upper floors in gilded copper, which gave it the name the Golden Temple.

How the day is observed

Sangats gather at Sri Harmandir Sahib for kirtan and Ardas, and many bathe in the sarovar.