Amritsar

Amritsar is the capital of a district in the Punjab, India. In 1951 the town had 325,747 inhabitants and the district 1,367,047, of whom 4,585 were Muslims; the entry notes that the population of the district declined sharply after Partition. ¹

The town was founded by the fourth Sikh guru, Ram Das (1574-1581), on a site granted by the emperor Akbar, where he excavated the holy tank from which the town takes its name (amrita saras, 'pool of immortality'). It was first called Guru ka Chak or Chak Guru, and Ramdaspura. His successor Arjun (1581-1606) completed the Harmandir, the 'Golden Temple', the chief Sikh place of worship. ¹

In 1762 Ahmad Shah Durrani destroyed the temple and the tank, but the Sikhs rebuilt them quickly. With the establishment of independent Sikh power after 1764 the importance of the town grew, and the Sikh rulers, especially Ranjit Singh, endowed the temple heavily. The town passed under British rule in 1849. For about two centuries it has been important for its entrepot trade. ¹