Building: the Harmandir Sahib, Tarn Taran and Kartarpur
Tarn Taran and the seized bricks
Guru Ji builds a tank at Tarn Taran, and a local official takes the bricks for an inn.
The Encyclopaedia says that on 13 April 1590 Guru Ji began to turn a natural pond by the Delhi-Lahore road into a square tank, buying the land from the people of Khara. Digging ended on 19 March 1596, and building started on Sri Darbar Sahib.
Then a local official, Nur ud-Din, claiming imperial authority for a new roadside inn, seized the bricks and the kilns that were making them and sent his son to carry them away. Sri Darbar Sahib stayed unbuilt for generations. In 1768 Sardar Budh Singh took the district, tore down the inn and carried the bricks back. Lepers are said to have come to the site, and Guru Ji is remembered as caring for them.
How do we know?
Several traditional accounts tell this story, without close independent support.
- ScholarshipGives the dates, the seizure by Nur ud-Din and the return of the bricks in 1768.[EoS]
- ScholarshipSays the land was acquired from Khara residents, and mentions care for lepers.[EoS]
- Later traditionGives the same bricks story and the date 1590, explaining the name as a raft across.[Macauliffe]
