Amritsarਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ

History

The city of Amritsar was founded in 1577 by Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru, who had a tank dug here and called the settlement Ramdaspur. His successor Guru Arjan Dev completed the tank, named it Amritsar, the pool of nectar, and raised the Harmandir Sahib at its centre. The city that grew around the shrine became the spiritual capital of the Sikh faith.

The district has stood at the crossroads of empires. It saw the armies of the Mughals, the Afghans and the Sikh misls pass across its plains, and in 1919 its name became known around the world when British troops fired on a peaceful gathering at Jallianwala Bagh, killing hundreds. In 1947 the new border with Pakistan cut through the district's western edge, and Amritsar became a frontier city, absorbing refugees and rebuilding itself as a trading hub.

The Golden Temple and the old city

The Harmandir Sahib remains the reason most visitors come. Its gold-plated upper floors rise from the centre of the great sarovar, and the Akal Takht facing it is the highest seat of Sikh temporal authority. Around the temple complex runs the old walled city, a maze of bazaars selling Amritsari papad and warian, phulkari embroidery, juttis and kirpans.

Beyond the temple, the district holds the Durgiana Temple, the Ram Bagh gardens laid out around Maharaja Ranjit Singh's summer palace, and Gobindgarh Fort, built by the Maharaja and now a heritage museum. The Partition Museum in the old Town Hall tells the story of 1947 through the voices of those who lived it.

The district today

Amritsar district is Punjab's second most populous, with about 2.49 million people counted in the 2011 Census across roughly 2,683 square kilometres. Its economy rests on trade, tourism, agriculture and a growing food processing industry. Every evening, crowds gather at the Attari-Wagah border in the district's western corner for the flag-lowering ceremony between India and Pakistan, one of the country's great public spectacles.

The district's towns include Attari at the border, Ajnala, Baba Bakala, Majitha and Rayya, each with its own grain market and gurdwaras. Village-level pages for Amritsar district are being added to the Kosh.