Cite
MLA
“Sri Akal Takht Sahib, Amritsar.” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/places/akal-takht/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Sri Akal Takht Sahib, Amritsar. Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/places/akal-takht/
01Two swords
Guru Arjan Dev was put to death at Lahore in 1606 on the orders of Jahangir. His son Guru Hargobind, then a boy of eleven, put on two swords at his installation, one for miri, worldly power, and one for piri, spiritual authority. In the same year, by Sikh tradition, he had a raised platform built opposite the Harmandir, with Baba Buddha and Bhai Gurdas laying the work. The Harmandir was for kirtan and prayer; from this platform the Guru heard disputes, received horses and weapons as offerings, and watched wrestling and the training of his men. It was called the Akal Bunga, the house of Akal, the One beyond time.
02Sarbat Khalsa in the eighteenth century
In the hard decades after Banda Singh Bahadur, the Sikh misls met at the Akal Bunga at Vaisakhi and Diwali, sat as the Sarbat Khalsa and passed gurmatas, resolutions taken in the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib. The Afghan king Ahmad Shah Abdali came for the place more than once; after the great killing of February 1762, the Vadda Ghallughara, he blew up the Harmandir and filled the sarovar. The Sikhs came back each time. In 1774, under Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, the first storey of the Takht was raised in brick. Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s reign took it to five storeys, and the mid-nineteenth century filled its rooms with murals. Every night the Guru Granth Sahib is carried here to rest.
03June 1984 and after
In 1983 the preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed followers moved into the Darbar Sahib complex and fortified the Akal Takht. Between 3 and 8 June 1984 the Indian Army attacked the complex in Operation Blue Star, ordered by the government of Indira Gandhi; the fighting killed many, pilgrims among them, and the Akal Takht was shattered by tank fire. The government had the building put up again within weeks through Baba Santa Singh, but the Sikh sangat refused it. On 26 January 1986 that structure was pulled down, and a new Akal Takht was raised by kar sewa, voluntary labour, finished in 1995. The old murals were lost.
The life of this place
- 1606 CEGuru Hargobind raised the platform of the Akal Bunga facing the Harmandir.
- 1762 CEAhmad Shah Abdali blew up the Harmandir after the Vadda Ghallughara.
- 1774 CEThe first storey of the Takht was rebuilt in brick under Jassa Singh Ahluwalia.
- 3–8 June 1984The Akal Takht was heavily damaged in Operation Blue Star.
- 26 January 1986The government-built structure was pulled down and kar sewa on a new Takht began.
- 1995 CEThe rebuilt Akal Takht was completed.
Inside the Darbar Sahib complex, Amritsar; head covered, shoes left at the gate. The palki of the Guru Granth Sahib arrives at night, after the Sukhasan ardas.
