Guru Arjan

Timeline

1. 1563–1581Goindval · GoindvalBorn in Goindval to Bibi Bhani. As a youth he was sent by his father to Lahore to tend the congregation. In 1581 at eighteen he succeeded as fifth Guru; his elder brother Priti Chand refused to accept it, creating divisive pressure within the community. He was the fifth teacher in Nanak's line, not the founder Nanak himself.
2. 1581–1601Amritsar · AmritsarCentered on the sacred pool dug by his father, he built the four-doored Harmandir, making Amritsar a city of both pilgrimage and commerce. Tradition dates the foundation to around 1588; he also founded Tarn Taran, Kartarpur and other settlements, and applied the masand network and voluntary labor to the works and the communal kitchen.
3. 1601–1604Harmandir, Amritsar · AmritsarGathering hymns of the first four Gurus, his own works, and verses of Hindu and Muslim saints, with the help of Bhai Gurdas and others he compiled the Kartarpur manuscript — the Adi Granth — installed in the Harmandir in 1604, with Bhai Buddha appointed first Granthi. This book was later expanded into the Guru Granth Sahib.
4. 1605–1606Lahore · LahoreJahangir ordered his arrest on the grounds that he had received the rebel prince Khusrau; he was tortured and killed in Lahore. Sikh tradition honors him as the first martyr Guru; only after his son Hargobind succeeded did armed self-defense become systematic, so militarization should not be projected back onto Arjan himself.