Guru Arjan Dev Ji

Guru Arjan Dev Ji was the fifth Guru of the Sikhs. He was born at Goindwal on 15 April 1563, the youngest son of Guru Ram Das Ji and Bibi Bhani, a daughter of Guru Amar Das Ji. He took up the Guruship on his father's death in 1581 and led the Panth for twenty-five years.

He gave the Panth its scripture and its central shrine, and, in his death, its first martyr. His work rested on three things.

• The Harimandar. Under him the shrine in the middle of the sacred pool at Amritsar took shape. Early chroniclers say the Sufi saint Mian Mir laid the foundation at his request. It had a door on each of its four sides.
• Towns and service. He founded Tarn Taran, where lepers were treated, and Kartarpur in the Jalandhar Doab, and rebuilt Ruhela as Sri Hargobindpur. The masands, who ran the sangats in distant regions, collected the dasvandh, one tenth of a Sikh's income, for the common good.
• The Adi Granth. He gathered the hymns of the earlier Gurus, took older compositions from Baba Mohan, and added his own, the largest part. Bhai Gurdas made the first transcription. The volume, in thirty ragas, carries the compositions of about fifteen saints and Sufis of different faiths and castes, among them Shaikh Farid, Kabir, Ravidas the shoemaker and Sain the barber. It was installed in the Harimandar on 16 August 1604, and Bhai Buddha opened it and read the first hukam.

Key moments

• 1581: becomes Guru.
• 16 August 1604: the Adi Granth is installed in the Harimandar.
• 30 May 1606: martyred at Lahore.

The arrest and martyrdom. Emperor Jahangir came to the throne in 1605. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism describes him as less tolerant than Akbar and alarmed by the Guru's rising popularity. When his rebel son Prince Khusrau met the Guru at Goindwal, Jahangir took the meeting as grounds to punish him. In his own memoirs he says he knew the Guru's "heresies" and ordered that his property be confiscated and that he be put to death with torture.

The Guru refused to pay the heavy fine and was arrested and taken to Lahore. He was tortured for several days: made to sit on red-hot iron plates, with burning sand poured over him. Mian Mir offered to intercede, but the Guru told him to accept God's will. He was taken to the Ravi, where he died near the Fort of Lahore on 30 May 1606 by the Encyclopaedia's reckoning (Jeth sudi 4, 1663 Bikrami).

Two dates for one day. His Shaheedi Purab is kept on different dates because of the dispute over the Nanakshahi calendar. In 2024 Gurdwara Dehra Sahib in Lahore, following the original calendar, marked it on 16 June, while the SGPC, following the amended calendar approved by the Akal Takht, marked it on 10 June. Both are observances of the same martyrdom.

Sources also differ on why he was arrested. Jahangir's memoir points to the Guru's teaching and the Khusrau meeting. One Sikh tradition blames the official Chandu, whose daughter the Guru had refused for Hargobind. The Encyclopaedia finds this unlikely and says the real cause was the Emperor's own attitude.

What he is remembered for. Guru Hargobind Ji, barely eleven, was named successor on 25 May 1606, and at his ceremony on 24 June 1606 sat before the Harimandar with two swords, one for spiritual and one for temporal authority. Sikhs remember Guru Arjan Dev Ji as the first martyr in Sikh history, and the Adi Granth he compiled as the foundation of Sri Guru Granth Sahib.