About Tarn Taran Sahib
Tarn Taran Sahib is a city with population of more than 130,000 and is situated near Amritsar, in the state of Punjab, India. It sends one elected representative to Lok Sabha (the Indian parliament) and one member to the State Legislative Assembly.
Tarn Taran has many Gurdwaras, which include Darbar Sahib Shri Tarn Taran Sahib, Guru Ka Khoh Khuh, Gurudwara Bibi Bhani Da Khuh, Gurudwara Taakhar Sahib, Gurudwara Lakeer Sahib, Gurudwara Jhulna Mahal Thatti Khara. Other Gurdwaras at Goindwal Sahib, Khadoor Sahib, Baba Buddha Sahib (Birr Sahib), Chohla Sahib and that of historic places at Amritsar make this area a historic sikh centre of gathering and interest.
Tarn Taran city is royal city of punjab.The main occupation in this area is agriculture. Recently on 16th June 2006, Tarn Taran has been accorded the status of a district, the declaration to this effect was made by the Chief Minister of Punjab during the celebrations marking the martyrdom day of Guru Arjan Dev. With this it becomes the 19th district of Punjab. Now Tarn Taran district comprises of 493 revenue villages of subdivisions of Tarn Taran, Khadoor Sahib and Patti.
Tarn Taran (31°27'N, 74°56'E) is an important centre of Sikh pilgrimage 24 km south of Amritsar, which was founded by Guru Arjan in 1596. Six years earlier, on 13 April 1590, he had inaugurated the conversion of a natural pond lying along the Delhi Lahore highway into a rectangular tank. Full scale digging operations commenced on the last day of the dark half of the month, Bhadon, falling on 19 August 1590. With the completion of digging, on Chet vaA'Amavas 1653 Bk/19 March 1596, the construction of the main shrine, the Darbar Sahib, and ancillary buildings began.
Meanwhile, a local official, Nur udDin, ordered, under imperial authority, the construction of a new caravan serai (way station/inn) along the royal highway. He confiscated all the bricks (as well as, the kilns in which they were burnt) which were intended for the holy shrine at Tarn Taran. He deputed his son, Amir udDin, to have the bricks carried to the serai site where, besides the inn, a complete village named Nur Din sprang up. This was about 6 km to the northwest of the Guru's tank.
Further development of Tarn Taran remained suspended until 1768, when Sardar Budh Singh of Faizullapuria misi occupied the entire parganah of Patti, uprooted the village of Nur Din and the serai, and brought their bricks back to the site of this sarovar.
Sardar Budh Singh and Sardar Jassa Singh Ramgarhia joined hands to have the building of the Darbar Sahib constructed. Some bungas or dwelling houses were also built on the periphery of the holy tank. Maharaja Ranjit Singh visited the shrine in 1802. It was here that he exchanged turbans with Sardar Fateh Singh Ahluvalia as a token of their lasting friendship.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh had the steps on the two sides of the sarovar, left unfinished by Budh Singh and Jassa Singh, completed and its circumambulatory passage paved. The Darbar Sahib was also reconstructed. Maharaja Ranjit Singh and his grandson Kanvar Nau Nihal Singh, donated large quantities of gold to have the exterior plated with the metal, but the work made little progress in the troubled times that followed Ranjit Singh's death. It was in the last quarter of the nineteenth century that part of the exterior was covered with goldleaf by Sant Sham Singh, of Amritsar. Only one of the four towers planned by Kanvar Nau Nihal Singh for the four corners of the tank was erected during this time. Under Maharaja Ranjit Singh's orders, the town of Tarn Taran was enclosed by a wall. A few other shrines such as the Mahji Sahib, the Akal Bunga and the Guru ka Khuh were developed and several bungas added.
After the annexation of the Punjab to the British dominions, the management of the shrines at Tarn Taran, along with those at Amritsar, was entrusted to a Sarbarah or manager appointed by the deputy commissioner of Amritsar. The role of the manager was, however, confined to general supervision, the priests being autonomous in the conduct of religious affairs. They divided the offerings among themselves and gradually appropriated most of the lands endowed to the Darbar Sahib during Sikh rule. They neglected their religious duties and cared little for the sanctity of the holy shnnes and the sarovar. The traditional monthly congregation on every amavasya day, the last day of the dark half of the month, was reduced to a gay carnival. Reforms introduced by the Siugh Sabha, Tarn Taran, established in 1885, were disapproved and resisted by the clergy. Efforts of the Khalsa Diwan Majha and the Central Majha Khalsa Diwan to cleanse the administration met with only partial success.
As the Gurdwara reform movement got under way, the control of the sacred shrines passed to a representative body of the Sikhs, the Shiromoni Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, on 27 January 1921.
Air : Amritsar International Airport is the nearest airport as Amritsar is 24 km away from Tarn Taran. Amritsar has International airport, which connect the holy city with Singapore, England, Canada. Amritsar is also connected by air with Delhi and Srinagar.
Rail : Tarn Taran Railway Station is on the Amritsar-Khem Karan rail route. Traveling north, Amritsar Junction Railway Station is the major railhead. Amritsar is connected by rail with Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay, Varanasi, Wagah (Attari Border) and some other places in India.
Road : Tarn Taran is well connected by bus with Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Ambala, Chandigarh, Delhi, Ferozepur, and Jammu etc.
Local Transport: Cycle Rickshaws, Taxis, Auto rickshaw.
