Sangat and Pangat

Sangat means company or fellowship. In the time of the Gurus, it meant the Sikhs of a place. Hukamnamas are addressed, for example, to the whole sangat of Varanasi or of Patna. Today it usually means any assembly before Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, in a gurdwara, a home or elsewhere.

Sikh tradition values prayer in sangat above solitary practice, though it asks for both. Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji says on ang 72 that the true sangat is where the Name is cherished. Bhai Gurdas puts it in a saying often repeated: one Sikh is a Sikh, two make a sangat, and God is present among five. Sangat also provides the training ground for seva, such as looking after shoes, serving food and fanning the assembly.[EoS][EoS][EoS]

Pangat comes from a Sanskrit word for a row. It is the custom of eating seated on the ground, side by side, with food served by volunteers, regardless of caste, creed, sex, age or status. The word came to stand for the langar itself. It first appears in Sikh writing in Bhai Gurdas, Var 17, paired with sangat.

Sri Guru Amar Das Ji gave it particular force, and the popular saying pahile pangat pachhe sangat, first the row and then the assembly, is linked with him. Sharing a meal mattered because caste rules in the society of the time restricted who could eat with whom.[EoS][EoS][EoS]

The sangat has standing in Sikh practice. It accepts a child's name, chooses five Sikhs to set a penance and may be asked for permission before a wedding begins. A local decision may be taken on appeal to the Akal Takht. Larger gatherings of the whole community are described on the pages on Sarbat Khalsa and gurmata.[Src]