Guru Hargobind Sahib founds Sri Akal Takht Sahib and takes up miri and piri

Who: Guru Hargobind Sahib, the sixth Guru, born 19 June 1595, who was barely 11 when his father, Guru Arjan, was martyred. Baba Buddha and Bhai Gurdas, his two teachers, who built the platform with him; Baba Buddha performed the investiture. According to the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism, Baba Buddha taught him swordsmanship and archery and Bhai Gurdas the religious texts.

What: Guru Arjan had named his son successor on 25 May 1606. The Gurbilas Patshahi Chhevin, which the Encyclopaedia calls the oldest account of the Guru's life, says the platform that he named Akal Takht, the Throne of the Timeless One, was raised on 15 June 1606. The Guru laid the first stone and Baba Buddha and Bhai Gurdas completed it, no third person being allowed to help. The investiture took place on 24 June 1606, when the Guru wore two swords: one for miri, temporal authority, and one for piri, spiritual authority. From the Takht he issued hukamnamas asking the sangats to include horses and weapons in their offerings. He kept a retinue of fifty-two armed Sikhs, manly sports became popular and bards were engaged to recite heroic poetry. Bhai Gurdas was named the officiant in charge of the Takht. Later, Emperor Jahangir had the Guru held in the fort at Gwalior for a few months between 1617 and 1619. He is remembered as Bandi Chhor, the liberator, because he left only when the other prisoners were freed with him.

Where: Amritsar, in the precinct of Sri Darbar Sahib, opposite Sri Harmandir Sahib. A building later raised over the platform is called Akal Bunga, and the Takht is officially named Takht Sri Akal Bunga.

Why it mattered: The Encyclopaedia says the idea of miri-piri, the link between temporal and spiritual authority, is usually associated with Guru Hargobind, though it traces its roots to Guru Nanak's teaching that the world is real and must be engaged with, not renounced. It describes the armed force and the new seat as a practical measure to defend the community's freedom of faith against the state's discriminatory religious policy after Guru Arjan's death. The Akal Takht is the primary seat of Sikh religious authority and the oldest of the five takhts. Sarbat Khalsa assemblies are traditionally called there, and its hukamnamas bind Sikhs and institutions. The Guru left Amritsar in 1634, after the Battle of Amritsar of 14 April 1634, and settled at Kiratpur early in 1635. The shrines then passed to the line of Prithi Chand until 1696, and soon after the creation of the Khalsa in 1699 Guru Gobind Singh sent Bhai Mani Singh to manage them.