Guru from 1581 to 1606: the Harmandir Sahib raised, the Adi Granth compiled in 1604, 2,218 hymns of his own, and the first Sikh martyrdom.
Guru Arjan (1563 to 1606) was the fifth Sikh Guru and the first Sikh martyr, executed at Lahore in 1606 under the emperor Jahangir. He compiled the Adi Granth in 1604 with Bhai Gurdas as scribe and installed it in the Harmandir Sahib he had built at Amritsar, and he composed 2,218 hymns, more than any other Guru, including Sukhmani Sahib.
| Born | 1563 at Goindwal, Punjab |
|---|---|
| Died | 1606 at Lahore, executed under the emperor Jahangir; the first Sikh martyr |
| Guruship | 1581 to 1606 |
| Preceded by | Guru Ram Das, his father |
| Succeeded by | Guru Hargobind, his son |
| In the Guru Granth Sahib | 2,218 hymns, the largest contribution of any Guru, including Sukhmani Sahib. Counts vary, with 2,216 also cited |
| Gurpurab | His martyrdom is observed in May or June depending on the calendar a body follows. See the note on dates below |
| Known for | Compiling the Adi Granth in 1604, building the Harmandir Sahib, and the first Sikh martyrdom |
Guru Arjan was the youngest son of Guru Ram Das and the first Guru born into a Sikh family rather than converted to Sikhi. He received the Guruship in 1581 and spent much of the next twenty-five years on two projects that between them gave Sikhi a centre and a text.
The Harmandir Sahib was raised in the pool his father had excavated. He had it built lower than the surrounding ground, so a visitor descends to reach it rather than climbing, and opened it on four sides, so that no direction of approach is privileged. Both decisions are arguments in architecture: about humility, and about a door facing every caste and every people. Tradition holds the foundation stone was laid by the Sufi Mian Mir of Lahore, which is a claim historians treat with more caution than popular accounts do.
The compilation of 1604 is the greater act. Working from the collections his predecessors had assembled, Guru Arjan gathered the hymns of the first four Gurus and his own, and added the compositions of fifteen bhagats from outside the Sikh line altogether, among them Kabir, Ravidas, Namdev and the Muslim Sufi Farid. Including a low-caste leather-worker and a Muslim divine alongside the Gurus was a deliberate statement about where truth may be found. Bhai Gurdas wrote it out, and the finished volume was installed in the Harmandir Sahib with Baba Buddha as its first granthi. That book, expanded once more by Guru Gobind Singh, is the Guru Granth Sahib.
His own 2,218 hymns are the largest contribution in it, and Sukhmani Sahib, the Prayer of Peace, is the best known of them. In 1606 he was arrested on the orders of Jahangir, whose memoirs record his own decision, and died at Lahore under torture. The accounts describe him sitting on heated iron with burning sand poured over him. What followed from the killing was a change of posture: his son Guru Hargobind took the Guruship wearing two swords, and the community that had been contemplative became one that would also defend itself.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Compiled by | Guru Arjan, with Bhai Gurdas as scribe |
| Completed and installed | 1604, in the Harmandir Sahib at Amritsar |
| First granthi | Baba Buddha |
| Whose compositions | The first five Gurus, and fifteen bhagats from outside the Sikh line including Kabir, Ravidas, Namdev and Farid |
| What became of it | Expanded by Guru Gobind Singh with Guru Tegh Bahadur's hymns, and made the eternal Guru in 1708 |
| Decision | What it argues |
|---|---|
| Built below the surrounding ground | A visitor descends to reach it rather than climbing, against the convention that a shrine is raised up |
| Doors on all four sides | No direction of approach is privileged, and the building faces every caste and every people |
| Set within the sarovar | Raised in the pool excavated by Guru Ram Das, tying the building to his father's foundation |
Two claims around Guru Arjan are repeated more confidently than the evidence supports. The first is that the foundation stone of the Harmandir Sahib was laid by the Sufi saint Mian Mir of Lahore. The story is old and cherished, and it fits the building's argument, but it rests on later sources and a number of historians regard it as unproven. The second concerns the motive for the execution. Jahangir's own memoirs record his decision and give a religious and political rationale, while other accounts emphasise Guru Arjan's alleged support for the rebel prince Khusrau, and the two readings are still argued. The martyrdom itself is not in question. Its anniversary date moves with the calendar dispute described on the Guru Nanak page, so different Sikh bodies observe it on different days.
Sevahey sells nothing connected to Guru Arjan and publishes no image of him. Room booking at the Golden Temple runs through the SGPC's own accommodation system, not through Sevahey, and no Sevak can secure a room or a place at the langar on your behalf. Sevahey does not arrange an Akhand Path or a Sehaj Path of the volume he compiled; those run through a gurudwara directly.
Everything Guru Arjan built is in one place, and it is a place Sevahey covers. An ardas at the Golden Temple is spoken before the volume he compiled, inside the building he raised, in the pool his father excavated. A verified Sevak requests it in your name and gotra, receives the hukamnama read afterward, and sends you same-day proof. His Sukhmani Sahib is what families most often read at the same occasions they ask for an ardas: illness, bereavement, or thanksgiving.
Guru Arjan (1563 to 1606) was the fifth Sikh Guru and the first Sikh martyr, executed at Lahore in 1606 under the emperor Jahangir. He compiled the Adi Granth in 1604 and installed it in the Harmandir Sahib he had built at Amritsar, and he composed 2,218 hymns, more than any other Guru, including Sukhmani Sahib.
The Adi Granth, the volume that became the Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Arjan gathered the hymns of the first four Gurus and his own, added the compositions of fifteen bhagats from outside the Sikh line including Kabir, Ravidas, Namdev and the Sufi Farid, and had Bhai Gurdas write it out. It was installed in the Harmandir Sahib with Baba Buddha as first granthi.
Because no direction of approach is privileged, and the building is meant to face every caste and every people. Guru Arjan paired that decision with another: the Harmandir Sahib sits below the level of the surrounding ground, so a visitor descends to reach it rather than climbing, against the convention that a shrine should be raised up.
Guru Arjan was executed at Lahore in 1606, on the orders of the emperor Jahangir, whose own memoirs record the decision. The accounts describe him being made to sit on heated iron with burning sand poured over him. He was the first of the Sikh martyrs, and his son Guru Hargobind responded by taking the Guruship wearing two swords.
2,218 hymns stand under his name in the Guru Granth Sahib, the largest contribution of any of the Gurus, though counts vary between sources with 2,216 also cited. Sukhmani Sahib, the Prayer of Peace, is the best known of them, occupying angs 262 to 296 in twenty-four ashtpadis.
Guru Arjan included fifteen bhagats from outside the Sikh line, among them Kabir, Ravidas the low-caste leather-worker, Namdev, and the Muslim Sufi Farid. Placing their compositions alongside those of the Gurus was a deliberate statement that truth is not confined to one community, and it made the volume something other than a sectarian anthology.
Sikh tradition holds that the Sufi saint Mian Mir of Lahore laid the foundation stone, and the story is old and widely repeated. It rests on later sources, however, and a number of historians regard it as unproven rather than established. The account fits the building's own argument about openness, which is part of why it has been so readily retold.
No. Accommodation at the Golden Temple runs through the SGPC's own system, and no Sevak can secure a room or a place at the langar on your behalf. What a verified Sevak can do is request an ardas in your name and gotra before the Guru Granth Sahib there, receive the hukamnama read afterward, and send you same-day proof.
Choose the gurudwara, name your sankalp, receive the proof.
* Sevahey publishes no image of a Guru. A full seva is ₹899; sevas start from ₹251. Sevahey is a service platform and does not promise a spiritual, medical, financial, legal, or personal outcome from any prayer or ritual.