Building of Sri Harmandir Sahib begins

Who: Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru, who conceived the design. Sikhs gave the labour of their hands, and the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism names Baba Buddha, Bhai Gurdas, Bhai Sahlo, Bhai Bahilo, Bhai Bhagatu, Bhai Paira and Bhai Kalyana among those who helped dig the tank and raise the masonry. In tradition, the Sufi saint Hazrat Mian Mir of Lahore also has a part, described below.

What: The pool had been begun in 1577 by Guru Ram Das. Guru Arjan completed and lined it and raised the Harimandar, the House of God, in the middle. Unlike most temples of the time, which had one entrance facing east, it was given a door on each of the four sides, which the Encyclopaedia reads as a sign of welcome to people of every caste and creed. A community kitchen open to all ran alongside, and traders were invited to settle around the shrine. What is tradition: the foundation stone. The Encyclopaedia says that by current tradition Guru Arjan had the cornerstone laid by Mian Mir on 1 Magh 1645 Bk, which is 28 December 1588. The written accounts it cites for this are nineteenth-century histories, among them Ghulam Muhayy ud-Din (Buta Shah) and Giani Gian Singh, who writes that Mian Mir laid the foundation. Its own entry on Mian Mir reports the story only as something the Guru is said to have done. Wikipedia reports that traditional Sikh sources such as the Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth say Guru Arjan laid it himself, and, citing Louis Fenech and W. H. McLeod (2014), calls the Mian Mir story unsubstantiated. What is documented: the Encyclopaedia says the temple's completion was marked by the installation of the Adi Granth on 16 August 1604, with Baba Buddha as its first granthi.

Where: In the middle of the sarovar at Ramdaspur, now Amritsar, reached by a causeway. The Encyclopaedia says the city in fact grew around what began as the temple's portal.

Why it mattered: Sri Harmandir Sahib, also called Sri Darbar Sahib and known to the English-speaking world as the Golden Temple, became the centre of Sikh life and faith. That made it the main target when Mughal rulers and Afghan invaders moved against the Sikhs in the eighteenth century, as the Encyclopaedia records.