Gurudvāra

By Swami Harshananda

Gurudvāra literally means ‘gateway to the Guru’.

The place of worship of Sikhs is the gurudvāra.^[1]

Guru Gobind Singh (A. D. 1666-1708) the tenth and the last Guru, ordained that there would be no more human Gurus. The Book, Ādi Granth^[2] itself should be looked upon as the Guru after him.

A gurudvāra is the place where this book, the Ādi Granth, also called Guru Granth Sāhib, is kept in a hall with all the paraphernalia needed to honor it like a human Guru. The Book after being established, is looked after by the granthis (scripture-readers). It is also taken out in a procession like the utsava-vigraha, (processional deity) in a temple.

The Golden Temple^[3] at Amritsar in Punjab is the chief gurudvāra of the Sikhs. The other important ones are at Kapurthala, Anandpur (both in Punjab), Nanded (Maharashtra) and Patna (Bihar).

References[edit]

↑ It is also spelt as ‘gurdvāra’.
↑ It was compiled by the fifth Guru, Arjan.
↑ Golden temple is also called as Hari Mandir or Darbār Sāhib.

The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore

Contributors to this article

Krishna Maheshwari, Deval Sancheti

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[1] It is also spelt as ‘gurdvāra’.

[2] It was compiled by the fifth Guru, Arjan.

[3] Golden temple is also called as Hari Mandir or Darbār Sāhib.

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