01The Harmandir and the Granth
Born at Goindwal in 1563, the youngest son of Guru Ram Das, he became Guru in 1581. He finished the tank at Amritsar and built the Harmandir Sahib in its midst, with doors on all four sides. He founded Tarn Taran and Kartarpur near Jalandhar. With Bhai Gurdas as scribe he gathered the bani of the first four Gurus, his own, and the hymns of bhagats such as Kabir, Namdev, Ravidas, Farid and Jaidev, and in 1604 installed the Adi Granth in the Harmandir with Baba Buddha as its first granthi. His Sukhmani Sahib, the psalm of peace, is recited daily.
02Martyrdom at Lahore, 1606
In 1606 the prince Khusrau rebelled against his father Jahangir and passed by Goindwal. Jahangir writes in the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri that the Guru had many followers among Hindus and even Muslims, that he had long wished to put an end to this, and that he ordered the Guru brought to him, his property confiscated, and that he be put to death. The Guru was tortured at Lahore and died on 30 May 1606; Sikh tradition tells he was seated on a hot iron plate with burning sand poured over him, and was taken to the Ravi, where he was seen no more. Gurdwara Dera Sahib in Lahore marks the place.
