Origin from 1577
Fifty five years after Guru Nanak founded the Sikh community at Kartarpur between 1522 and 1539, already recorded here, and twenty seven years before Guru Arjan installed the Adi Granth at Harmandir Sahib in 1604, also recorded here, the fourth Guru gave the Sikh community its own sacred center. Around 1577, on land granted by the Mughal emperor Akbar, Guru Ram Das began excavating a great tank, later named Amritsar, the pool of nectar, and invited merchants, artisans and traders to settle around it, founding the town first called Ramdaspur. J.S. Grewal's academic history of the Sikhs, in the New Cambridge History of India series, reads the new town as Guru Ram Das's deliberate creation of an independent Sikh center distinct from the community's earlier reliance on Goindwal. W.H. McLeod's standard reference dictionary of Sikhism corroborates the founding and its date, noting that Guru Ram Das's son and successor, Guru Arjan, would complete the town's holy tank and build the Harmandir Sahib at its center, the building this map already records receiving the Adi Granth in 1604.
Facts
Dates
StatusEstablished marks Guru Ram Das founding the city of Amritsar around 1577 on land granted by the Mughal emperor Akbar, giving the Sikh community its own sacred center, a milestone between Guru Nanak founding the Sikh community at Kartarpur between 1522 and 1539, already recorded here, and Guru Arjan installing the Adi Granth at Harmandir Sahib in 1604, also recorded here. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Akbar directly: "Around 1577, on land granted by the Mughal emperor Akbar, Guru Ram Das began excavating a great tank, later named Amritsar, the pool of nectar, and invited merchants, artisans and traders to settle..."
This source names Guru Arjan directly: "here, and twenty seven years before Guru Arjan installed the Adi Granth at Harmandir Sahib in 1604, also recorded here, the fourth Guru gave the Sikh community its own sacred center."
This source names Guru Ram Das directly: "Around 1577, on land granted by the Mughal emperor Akbar, Guru Ram Das began excavating a great tank, later named Amritsar, the pool of nectar, and invited merchants, artisans and traders to settle..."
This source names Kartarpur directly: "Nanak founded the Sikh community at Kartarpur between 1522 and 1539, already recorded here, and twenty seven years before Guru Arjan installed the Adi Granth at Harmandir Sahib in 1604, also..."
Occurred In
Spread Event Of
Adds a milestone in Sikh history between Guru Nanak founding the Sikh community at Kartarpur between 1522 and 1539 and Guru Arjan installing the Adi Granth at Harmandir Sahib in 1604, both already recorded here: Guru Ram Das founding the city of Amritsar around 1577 on land granted by Akbar, giving the Sikh community its own sacred center.
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