Guru Arjan: scripture, Amritsar and martyrdom

A Guru rooted in central Punjab

Arjan was born at Goindval in 1563 to Ram Das and Bibi Bhani, Amar Das’s daughter. He became the fifth Guru in 1581. Gurbachan Singh Talib’s encyclopaedia account locates his leadership within central Punjab, connecting Goindval, Lahore, Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Kartarpur near Jalandhar. His work gave a growing community durable places of worship and organisation rather than depending only on movement between scattered congregations.[1]

The SGPC credits him with developing Tarn Taran and Kartarpur, completing the sacred pools at Amritsar and strengthening a network of offerings through masands. Its account also identifies the Harimandar as a central institution. These projects brought worship, settlement and material support together. They help explain why Arjan’s importance extends beyond one building: his leadership connected congregations and resources across a widening Sikh community.[2]

Compiling the Adi Granth

Arjan led the preparation of an authoritative Adi Granth in 1604. Pashaura Singh’s chapter abstract describes teamwork at Ramsar in Amritsar, and names Bhai Gurdas and Jagana Brahmin among those believed to have assisted. It notes different hands in the Kartarpur manuscript and work on earlier collections. This scholarly account presents compilation as an organised process of gathering and writing, with the Guru directing a shared undertaking. It does not treat the scripture as the work of a solitary copyist.[3]

The SGPC account identifies Baba Buddha as the first granthi when the volume was installed at the Harimandar. It also records Arjan’s own extensive contribution of verse. The book thus brought the earlier Gurus’ hymns together with his writing and compositions of other devotional figures.[2]

A poet within the scripture

Arjan’s own poetry forms a major part of the scripture. Talib singles out Sukhmani, arranged in twenty-four cantos, and its sustained attention to remembrance of the divine Name and the spiritually enlightened person. The account emphasises compassion without distinction of caste or status. This literary work places him among Punjab’s major devotional poets as well as its institutional leaders; his hymns remain a continuing part of Sikh religious life.[1]

Execution and the limits of the surviving accounts

Arjan was executed in Lahore in 1606. In Shireen Moosvi’s translation of Jahangir’s memoir, the emperor records his hostility to the Guru’s following, Arjan’s encounter with the rebel prince Khusrau, and his own order for confiscation and capital punishment. This is the ruler’s account, with an openly hostile description of the Guru. The translation’s introduction also notes differing Jesuit and Sikh narratives of the death. They support careful attribution rather than certainty about every stage of torture. Sikhs remember Arjan’s death as martyrdom.[4]