Harmandir Sahib, the Golden Temple, Was Built Low With Four Doors in 1604, Gilded in Ranjit Singh's Reign, and Now Serves Free Meals to Tens of Thousands a Day

Harmandir Sahib, the Golden Temple, stands in the middle of a pool in Amritsar, joined to the shore by a marble causeway about 60 metres long, and Guru Arjan installed the Adi Granth in it on 16 August 1604. Its kitchen cooks free vegetarian meals for 80,000 to 90,000 people on an ordinary day, the shrine’s general manager told The Tribune in March 2026, and for more than a lakh (100,000) at weekends.

Harmandir means the Temple of God. Britannica lists Darbar Sahib, the Exalted Court, as another of its names, and the city takes its own name from the pool, the Amrit Sarovar or Pool of Nectar.

A pool, a town and a foundation in December 1588

Guru Ram Das, the fourth Guru, founded the place in 1577, Britannica says. A fuller account comes from the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), the elected body that manages the shrine. Guru Amar Das, the third Guru, planned the tank and Guru Ram Das dug it, it says. Work on the tank and on a town beside it started together in 1570 and finished in 1577.

Punjabi University’s Encyclopaedia of Sikhism adds that the settlement was first called Ramdaspur, or Chakk Guru, the Guru’s village. Two accounts of the land are recorded there, a purchase from the villagers of Tung and a gift from the Mughal emperor Akbar to Bibi Bhani, Guru Ram Das’s wife. Guru Arjan, who lived from 1563 to 1606, completed and lined the tank and raised the Harimandar in the middle of it, the Encyclopaedia says, with Sikhs giving the labour of their hands.

According to the SGPC, Guru Arjan had the foundation laid by the Muslim saint Hazrat Mian Mir of Lahore on 1 Magh 1645 of the Bikrami calendar, which it equates with December 1588.

Mian Mir, a Sufi saint from Lahore, laid the foundation stone, Britannica says as well. Punjabi University’s Encyclopaedia traces the account to its written sources: a manuscript that has Mian Mir putting down four bricks at the Guru’s request, a history printed at Lahore in 1885 that says Guru Arjan sought his help with the tank and buildings, and one printed at Amritsar in 1896 that states plainly that Mian Mir laid the foundation. The Encyclopaedia adds that, “according to the current tradition”, the date was 1 Magh 1645 Bikrami, or 28 December 1588.

On the completion date the sources part most visibly. The Encyclopaedia says the temple was completed with the installation of the Adi Granth on 1 Bhadon sudi 1661 Bikrami, which it converts to 16 August 1604, and Britannica also says 1604. The SGPC’s history page says the building work was completed in 1601 and gives, in the same sentence, the same Bikrami date, which it converts to August or September 1604. Guru Arjan made Baba Budha the first granthi, or reader, of the Guru Granth Sahib, the SGPC adds.

Built low, open on four sides

The SGPC says Guru Arjan designed the building himself, set it on a lower level than its surroundings and gave it a door on each side, unlike the raised, single-door temple pattern. Even the humblest had to step down to enter, Britannica explains, and the four entrances signified that worshippers of every caste and creed were welcome.

The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism gives measurements. The main building is a 12.25 metre square on a platform 19.7 metres square, in a pool 154.5 by 148.5 metres and 5.1 metres deep. A causeway 60 metres long, carried on 52 spans, ends at a gateway called Darshani Deori, and the SGPC gives its length as 202 feet, about 61.6 metres. Marble faces the ground floor, and the interior has painted and embossed floral designs with verses from the Guru Granth Sahib in gold letters. Both the Encyclopaedia and Britannica describe the style as a blend of Mughal and Rajput models.

Facing the causeway is the Akal Takht, the Sikhs’ seat of authority, which Guru Hargobind raised in 1606, the Encyclopaedia says. Each night, Britannica says, the Adi Granth rests there, and each early morning it is carried to the sanctum, with hymns sung through the day.

Blown up in 1762, rebuilt by 1776

The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism records that the shrine was a target throughout the eighteenth century. In 1757 the Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Durrani defiled the tank, and Baba Deep Singh fell fighting on 11 November 1757. In 1762 Ahmad Shah blew up the building with gunpowder. Sikhs came back and kept Diwali there a few months later.

After the conquest of Sirhind in January 1764, Jassa Singh Ahluwalia called for funds, and the Sikh chiefs set aside part of their booty. By 1776, the Encyclopaedia says, the Harimandar, the causeway and the Darshani Deori were rebuilt, and the terrace around the pool followed by 1784. UNESCO’s tentative-list text adds that 74 bungas, rest houses that Sikh chiefs built around the pool, went up between 1765 and 1833.

Operation Blue Star followed in June 1984. According to Britannica, the operation, ordered by the Prime Minister of the day, was an army action against armed separatists who had occupied the Akal Takht. The Akal Takht and other buildings were damaged. Government officials confirmed the deaths of more than 80 soldiers and at least hundreds of pilgrims, Britannica says, while Sikh sources suggest the toll may have exceeded 1,000. In the SGPC’s history, several hundred pilgrims were killed. Since then the Akal Takht has been repaired, and the complex has had a memorial since 2013. Punjab: Feeding India and Rebuilding After 1984 covers the wider record.

Gold from Ranjit Singh’s reign, and gold again in 1999

During the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, from 1801 to 1839, Britannica says, the lower storeys were faced with white marble inlaid with precious stones and the upper storeys were overlaid with gilded copper panels, which gave the shrine its English name. Giani Sant Singh, the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says, was put in charge of the ornamentation in 1806 with funds from the Maharaja and other nobles. His son Gurmukh Singh took over after Sant Singh died in 1832. Ranjit Singh, the Lion of Punjab tells the ruler’s own story.

Figures for that first gilding differ. Incredible India, the Ministry of Tourism’s site, says the Maharaja had the upper floors covered in 750 kilos of pure gold. A Tribune report of 17 April 1999 says the work took about 25 years, was finished in 1830 and cost about Rs 65 lakh. That 1832 handover to Sant Singh’s son suggests the ornamentation continued after that date.

Regilding is in the same Tribune report. The SGPC gave the job in June 1994 to the Guru Nanak Sewa Jatha, a Britain-based devotees’ organisation, and work began on 3 February 1995. The jatha’s deadline was 13 April 1999, the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Khalsa. That gilding used about 500 kilograms of gold in 24 layers of 24-carat leaf, against about 12 layers in the original, because the old domes and copper plates had deteriorated. Craftsmen pounded the gold into leaf by hand, and the project took four years.

The langar, and the rule of eating first

The kitchen is the Sri Guru Ram Das Langar Hall, on the east side of the pool, according to Britannica. Langar is the free communal meal, and at Harmandir Sahib it is vegetarian.

Punjabi University’s Encyclopaedia explains the practice under the word pangat, a row. Diners sit in a line on the ground, served by volunteers, whatever their caste, creed, sex, age or social standing. Bhai Gurdas, a poet who died in 1636, is the earliest writer to use the word, and Guru Amar Das expected every visitor to eat before seeing him. That gave rise to the saying pahile pangat pachhe sangat, which the Encyclopaedia renders as eating together taking precedence over meeting together. A 2023 report in The National attributes the idea of langar to Guru Nanak. Guru Nanak and the founding of Sikhism covers the first community at Kartarpur.

Reports of the daily count vary, and none is audited. About 100,000 a day is the figure in both Britannica and the Ministry of Tourism’s listing. In March 2026 The Tribune quoted the shrine’s general manager, Bhagwant Singh Dhangera, at 80,000 to 90,000 a day, above a lakh at weekends. Before 2019, the same report says, when about 60,000 people were served daily, the kitchen burned about 100 LPG cylinders and 50 to 60 quintals (5,000 to 6,000 kilograms) of wood a day. A 4.5 kilometre pipeline has run since 2019, and the kitchen now uses about 1,300 units of CNG in 24 hours. The National adds that it is open day and night all year.

Who has run the shrine, and how it passed to the SGPC

After Guru Hargobind left Amritsar in 1635, the Encyclopaedia says, the Harimandar passed to the Mina sect, which it calls schismatic, and Bhai Mani Singh took charge for the Khalsa after 1699. Later the misl chiefs, the Sikh war bands of the eighteenth century, managed it jointly, and Ranjit Singh claimed the exclusive right to manage it. After the British took the Punjab in 1849 a superintendent, the sarbarah, was appointed with the Deputy Commissioner’s approval, and that lasted until 1920.

The SGPC dates its reform to 12 October 1920, when a gathering at Jallianwala Bagh initiated many Sikhs from what it calls the backward classes into the Khalsa. Priests at Harmandir Sahib at first refused their offering of sacred food, and the group then took possession of the Akal Takht. On 15 November 1920 a 175-member committee was named the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. The Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925, in force from 1 November 1925, gave it legal footing, and the Encyclopaedia says the SGPC itself became the committee of management for the Harimandar.

Walking in: practical notes, checked 28 October 2026

Anyone may enter, whatever their religion, caste or race, Britannica says, provided they cover their heads, remove their shoes, and wash their hands and feet. UNESCO’s tentative-list text describes shoe-keeping rooms, the joda ghar, outside the gateways to the parikarma, the walkway around the pool, and places to wash the feet.

Opening hours on the Ministry of Tourism’s page are 4 am to 10 pm. Hymn-singing starts between 2 and 3 in the morning, depending on the season, the Encyclopaedia says, and runs till late evening, so the hours inside the sanctum may differ from the tourism listing. Check with the shrine before planning around either.

The Ministry’s page also names the airport as Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport (code ATQ) and the nearest railway station as Amritsar (code ASR). The queue for the inner sanctum is long, the page says, so late afternoon and early evening suit better, and Baisakhi and Diwali are the busiest festival times. An estimated 80,000 devotees visit daily, The Tribune reported in 2017, with more at Gurpurbs and Diwali. Visitors can also read the day’s hymn on the SGPC’s site; on 28 October 2026 it showed a hymn from the Guru Granth Sahib, in the Sorath measure by the ninth Guru (Mahala 9), at page 632.

A tentative World Heritage entry, and an anniversary

UNESCO’s website lists “Sri Harimandir Sahib, Amritsar, Punjab” on India’s Tentative List, with a submission dated 05/01/2004 by the Ministry of Environment of Forests, under cultural criteria (iii), (iv) and (vi). UNESCO’s page says each tentative list is the responsibility of the country that submits it. In June 2015 The Tribune reported that the Ministry of Culture said in a written reply that no proposal to seek inscription had been initiated, and that the SGPC opposes heritage status if it meant outside interference in the shrine’s affairs.

A special meeting on the 450th founding anniversary of Amritsar, counted from 1577, was listed on the SGPC’s home page when it was read on 28 October 2026.