Gurdwara Guru ke Mahal, Amritsarਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਗੁਰੂ ਕੇ ਮਹਲ, ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ

Gurdwara Guru ke Mahal in Amritsar's Guru Bazaar began in 1573 as the humble family home of Sri Guru Ram Das Ji, the fourth Sikh Guru. Three Gurus lived here, and it is most revered as the birthplace of the Ninth Guru, Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, born here in 1621, and of Baba Atal Rai.

Why is Guru ke Mahal important in Sikh history?

Very few places in the world hold the personal history of three Sikh Gurus within one building. Guru ke Mahal was the family residence of the fourth Guru, Sri Guru Ram Das Ji; the fifth Guru, Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji, lived here, married here and was entrusted with the Guruship here; and the sixth Guru, Sri Guru Hargobind Ji, also lived in this house and married here. For the Sangat, it is a home of the Gurus before it is a shrine, which is why many pilgrims walk here from the Golden Temple with the same reverence they bring to a family home.

The house also holds a tender daily memory from the time of Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji. Baba Budha Ji, the first Head Granthi of Sri Harmandir Sahib, is said to have walked here each evening after the evening prayer at the Harmandir, carrying the Pothi Sahib to place it in the Guru's own room. It is a small picture that says much about how this house was treated: not as an annexe, but as the Guru's home.

From a humble hut to the Gurus' family home

When Sri Guru Ram Das Ji founded the town of Ramdaspur, which the world now knows as Amritsar, he first needed a place to live. In 1573 he built a simple hut on this site as the residence of the Guru's family, while the excavation of the Amrit Sarovar and the raising of the new town went on around it. Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji and his son Sri Guru Hargobind Ji later enlarged and modified the building, and it gradually became a place of worship while keeping its character as the Gurus' home.

Today the building is a modest three-storeyed shrine. The Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji is placed on a raised platform inside its large rectangular hall, and a basement room is preserved as the meditation chamber where the Gurus sat in simran and composed sacred bani. Pilgrims who descend the narrow stairway find one of the quietest corners of Amritsar, a few minutes from the crowds around the Golden Temple.

Two holy births in one house

Baba Atal Rai, the elder son of Sri Guru Hargobind Ji and Mata Nanaki Ji, was born in this house in 1619. A boy of exceptional spiritual gifts, he is remembered for the well-known account in which he revived a friend's son, an act for which his father gently reproved him. Baba Atal Rai died young in 1628, and his memory is honoured at the towering Gurdwara Baba Atal near the Golden Temple.

On Vaisakh Vadi 5, Samvat 1678, the 1st of April 1621, the Ninth Guru was born in the same house and named Tyag Mal. He was the fifth and youngest son of Sri Guru Hargobind Ji and Mata Nanaki Ji, and he grew up in the company of the scholar Bhai Gurdas Ji and the elderly Baba Budha Ji, learning Gurbani, the arts and the warrior's craft of horse, sword and bow. He was still a young man when he fought beside his father at Kartarpur in 1635, and it was there that his skill with the sword earned him the name the Sikhs would call him forever: Tegh Bahadur. More than half a century later he gave his life in Delhi for the right of others to worship freely, and this house became the shrine of his birth.

The shrine today: worship and the yearly festival

Apart from the daily nitnem and kirtan, a special divan and Guru ka Langar are held here on the first Sunday of every Bikrami month. The principal festival of the gurdwara is the birth anniversary of Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, when the small courtyard fills with sangat from across the city. The shrine sits at 24, Guru Bazar Road in the Shastri Market, Katra Ahluwalia area of the old city, surrounded by the narrow lanes where the life of the early town of Ramdaspur once unfolded.

How do I reach Guru ke Mahal?

The gurdwara lies in the old walled city, a short walk west of the Golden Temple complex. From Amritsar Junction it is about one and a half kilometres, and Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport is roughly fourteen kilometres away. Because the old city lanes are narrow, visitors usually walk in from the Hall Bazaar side. As at every gurdwara, cover your head, remove your shoes before entering, and dress modestly. Many visitors combine the visit with Gurdwara Baba Atal and the nearby historic shrines of Guru Bazaar.

What should I keep in mind when I visit?

Guru ke Mahal is a working gurdwara and a place of deep reverence, not a museum. Photography should be respectful, and quiet is observed around the meditation chamber. If you can, sit for a short kirtan in the hall: the congregation's hymns rise through the same rooms where the Gurus once lived and taught.