Amritsarਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤਸਰ

Founding

Amritsar was founded in 1577 by Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru, on land around a natural pool. The settlement was first known as Ramdaspur or Guru ka Chakk. The Guru had the pool dug out and lined, and the city later took its name from it: Amritsar, the pool of nectar.

Traders and craftsmen were invited to settle around the pool, and the town grew quickly into a centre of both faith and commerce. That mix of pilgrimage and trade still defines the old walled city.

Harmandir Sahib

Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru, built Harmandir Sahib in the middle of the pool and installed the Adi Granth there in 1604. The temple has four entrances, one on each side, as a sign that it is open to everyone.

In 1606 Guru Hargobind established the Akal Takht facing the temple, the seat of Sikh temporal authority. In the early 19th century Maharaja Ranjit Singh had the upper floors of Harmandir Sahib covered in gilded copper, which gave it the name the Golden Temple.

Jallianwala Bagh

On 13 April 1919, the day of Vaisakhi, British Indian Army troops under Brigadier General Reginald Dyer opened fire on an unarmed crowd gathered in Jallianwala Bagh, a walled garden near Harmandir Sahib. The official British count was 379 dead; Indian estimates were far higher.

The massacre turned many Indians against British rule and became a turning point in the independence movement. The garden is now a national memorial, and the bullet marks are preserved in its walls.

Partition and the border

The Partition of 1947 placed the border between India and Pakistan about 28 km west of Amritsar. Lahore, the city Amritsar had traded with for centuries, was now in another country. The city received hundreds of thousands of refugees in the months that followed.

The Attari–Wagah crossing on the road to Lahore is the main land border between the two countries. Its daily flag-lowering ceremony draws large crowds from both sides.

The city today

Amritsar is the administrative centre of Amritsar district and one of Punjab’s largest cities, with a population of about 1.13 million at the 2011 census. Its economy rests on pilgrimage and tourism, textiles, food processing and trade.

The city is served by Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport and is home to Guru Nanak Dev University, founded in 1969. It is also known across Punjab for its food, especially Amritsari kulcha and fried fish.