Guru Ram Das founds Ramdaspur, later Amritsar

Who: Guru Ram Das, the fourth Guru. Born Jetha on 24 September 1534 at Chuna Mandi, Lahore, he lost both parents at seven and sold food in the market to earn his keep: "cooked beans" in the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, boiled, salted grams (ghunghnian) in SikhNet's account. He served Guru Amar Das at Goindwal and married the Guru's daughter, Bibi Bhani, on 18 February 1554. Guru Amar Das named him Guru before his own death on 1 September 1574. Baba Buddha supervised the digging of the pool, and the Sikhs Guru Ram Das sent out to gather offerings included Bhai Gurdas, whom he despatched to teach in Agra.

What: According to the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, Guru Amar Das had told him, before he became Guru, to found a new town and dig a pool as its centre. The site lay about 40 km north-west of Goindwal. The Encyclopaedia reports two accounts of how the land was acquired. The Amritsar District Gazetteer says 500 bighas were bought from the landowners of the village of Tung for 700 Akbari rupees. Another version says Emperor Akbar offered the land to Guru Amar Das, who refused, so it was given to Bibi Bhani, who gave it on to the growing Sikh community. The Encyclopaedia dates the foundation of the town to 1577, three years after Ram Das became Guru, when he began the digging of the holy tank, Amrit-sar, the Pool of Nectar. The settlement was first called Guru ka Chak, then Ramdaspur, and finally Amritsar, after the pool. Merchants and artisans were invited from distant places to settle there. To pay for the tank and the langar the Guru organised a network of Sikhs to collect offerings; the Encyclopaedia calls them masands, though its separate entry on masands says the first were appointed by Guru Arjan. He was also the composer of the Lavan, the wedding hymn sung at the Sikh marriage ceremony, the Anand Karaj.

Where: The ground now covered by the old city of Amritsar in Punjab, with the sarovar at its heart. Guru Arjan later described Ramdaspur in a hymn in the Guru Granth Sahib as unlike any other place he had seen.

Why it mattered: This is the founding of the Sikh holy city. Guru Arjan completed the tank and raised Sri Harmandir Sahib in its middle, and Guru Hargobind raised Sri Akal Takht Sahib opposite it. The town grew into a centre of commerce and pilgrimage. Guru Ram Das also chose the son who would carry the work forward: in the Encyclopaedia's account he named Arjan, his youngest son, as Guru, and the Guru died at Goindwal on 1 September 1581.