History Of Golden Temple

When the Mughal emperor Akbar visited the third Sikh Guru, Amar Das, he was deeply impressed with the sage's wisdom and humility and insisted on gifting some land as a wedding gift to the Guru's daughter. The daughter, Bibi Bhani, was betrothed to a young man called Jetha, destined to become the fourth Guru, Ram Das (a responsibility he saw through from 1574-1581).
In 1574 AD, Guru Ram Das settled by a pool which was said to have miraculous healing powers. He further excavated it and named it Amrit-Sarovar (Pool of Nectar). In 1577, he bought the pool and another tract of land (to add to the gift of land) and secured Sikh ownership from the local Jats. As the land was strategically located on the silk route many merchants flocked to this region. Guru Ram Das encouraged them to settle and trade near and around the shrine. Many more followers soon settled near the temple and the village of Guru-ka-Chak grew. This soon developed into a small town called Ramdaspur. It was later renamed Amritsar after the holy tank or the Pool of Nectar-Immortality where the Golden Temple now stands.

Guru Ram Das' son-in-law and successor Guru Arjan Dev then built the Hari Mandir in the middle of this tank. He requested the great contemporary Muslim mystic, Mir Mohammed Muayinul Islam, popularly known as Hazrat Mian Mir of Lahore, to lay the foundation stone. The Temple was completed in 1601 and the Adi Granth was placed inside it. The pillage and plunder of this city began in 1757. In 1762 Ahmed Shah Abdali sacked the town and razed the temple to the ground. The Temple was rebuilt in 1764 with its domes plated in gold, which is when it was officially named the Golden Temple.

Amritsar played an important role in India's fight for independence against the British, with its residents providing active support to the freedom movement. Both the All India Congress Committee and the Muslim league held their sessions in Amritsar in 1919, the year of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

Amritsar, the city of the Golden Temple, was an important business centre. Its status was similar to a wazir, in charge of managing the king's finances. The city suffered terrible losses once again during the Partition of India in 1947 - communal riots broke out and refugees poured in from the other side of the border, while the city wept.

In the early 1980s Amritsar became centre of a violent political controversy when Sikh extremists tried to rid the state of Punjab of non-Sikhs and attempted to create an independent Sikh homeland called Khalistan. They made the Golden Temple their hideout and the centre for their activities. The government retaliated with Operation Bluestar. Amritsar has survived a calamitous past and is now a thriving industrial city.