Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/203

CHAP. IV. AMRITSAR. 163 mandir with gunpowder and desecrated all their sacred places. The temple was rebuilt in 1766, probably on the same plan as well as on the site of the former. It stands on a platform 67 ft. square, connected with the north side of the tank by a marble causeway 203 ft. in length ; the temple itself 40 ft. 4 in. square is of two storeys, with a room on the roof, covered by the dome. Ranjit Singh, after seizing the city in 1802, was too emulous of the wealth of his Hindu and Moslim subjects in this respect not to desire to rival their magnificence. He spent large sums on the Sikh temple, ornamenting its walls with marbles largely from Jahangtr's tomb, and roofing it with copper gilt, and consequently we have the Golden Temple in the Sacred Tank at Amritsar as splendid an example of its class as can be found in India, though neither its outline nor its details can be commended (Woodcut No. 35 5). 1 It is useful, however, as exemplifying one of the forms which Indian temple- architecture assumed in the igth century, and where, for the present, we must leave it. The Jains and Hindus may yet do great things in it, if they can escape the influence of European imitation ; but now that the sovereignty has passed from the Sikhs we cannot expect their priests or people to indulge in a magnificence their religion does not countenance or encourage. At Nander, on the Godavari, midway between Aurangabad and Haidarabad there is another Sikh Dehra or shrine. Here Govind Singh, the tenth and last of their Gurus or pontiffs, was stabbed by a Pathan servant and died in 1708. It is built on the plan of the Amritsar temple, being of two storeys, with the dome, which is over the square room in the centre of the structure, raised a storey higher. This inner room has silver plated doors on the four sides and contains the tomb, about which are arranged swords, spears, shields, and steel discuses, that are worshipped by the Sikhs of the colony settled in the town, and by numerous pilgrims that visit the shrine, as having belonged to the Guru. 2 Round it is a corridor, as in many Muhammadan tombs, and the outer walls have a triple opening on each face, hung with curtains. In it the Granth is daily read and worshipped. 1 In Ranjit Singh's time the temple acquired its present Sikh name of ' Darbar Sihib.' 2 Trumpp, ' Adi Granth,' introd. p. 96. The arrows of the Guru were carried to Amritsar after his death by his disciple Banda Bairagi. A list of the Sikh Dehras and sacred places is given in 'Journal Asiat. Soc. Bengal,' vol. xiv. pp. 39 4 ff.