India pays tribute to Guru Arjun Dev Ji on his Martyrdom Day.Guru Arjun Dev was born in April 1563 in Goindval, India. His father was to become Guru Ramdas and his mother’s name was Mata Bhani. Arjan Dev’s maternal grandfather was Guru Amardas and his father Guru Ramdas were respectively the third and fourth Gurus of the Sikhs. In 1581, he became the fifth Guru of the Sikhs after the death of his father.
Guru Arjun laid the foundation of the Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib) in Amritsar. He also designed the four doors in a gurdwara – the Sikh places of worship – proclaiming that “My faith is for the people of all castes and all creeds from whichever direction they come and to whichever direction they bow.”
He also declared that all Sikhs should donate a tenth of their earnings to charity.
His enduring legacy to the Sikh faith was to compile all of the past Gurus’ writings into one book – the holy scripture: the Guru Granth Sahib.
Guru Arjun Dev included the compositions of both Hindu and Muslim saints which he considered consistent with the teachings of Sikhism and the Gurus.
In 1606, the Muslim Mughal Emperor Jahangir imposed a fine of 200,000 rupees and demanded that Guru Arjun erase some of the hymns in the text that he found offensive. According to the Sikh tradition, the Guru refused to remove the lines and pay the fine, which led to his torture and execution.
