Place · Sikh takht & birthplace · India
Patna Sāhib
The gurdwara Takht Sri Harimandir Ji on the Ganga at Patna, Bihar, birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh on 22 December 1666 while his father Guru Tegh Bahadur was travelling in eastern India. One of the Five Takhts of Sikhism and the one anchor of the Punjab-based tradition in Bihar. The present marble gurdwara was rebuilt in 1954 after an earthquake, over the ground floor of the original haveli where Guru Gobind Singh spent his first six years before the family moved to Anandpur Sahib. The complex holds the Guru's cradle, his small sword and manuscripts in his handwriting among its sacred relics.
- Function
- Sacred site & pilgrimage
- Tradition
- Sikh tradition
- Confidence
- Mixed / layered — The place is documented; its associated historical or cultural record and its named tradition are distinct layers.
- Location
- 25.594, 85.234
Connections (8)
- Takht set withHarmandir Sāhib (Golden Temple)
Patna Sahib on the Ganga is the birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh, born there in 1666 while his father was travelling in the east, and it is one of the five Takhts — a Punjab-centred tradition with a seat in Bihar. The distribution matters: the Takhts mark where the community's decisive events happened rather than where its population is, which is why two of the five are outside Punjab altogether.
- Life routeGuru Gobind Singh
Gobind Singh was born at Patna in 1666 while his father Tegh Bahadur was travelling in Bengal and Assam, and spent his first years there. The Bihar takht exists because the ninth Guru was away from Punjab, and the tenth's childhood belongs to the Ganges rather than the Sutlej. He left Patna at about six and never returned, but the Bihar sangat maintained the house, and the takht there now keeps a distinct eastern Sikh practice of its own.
- Companion in the same setHazūr Sāhib, Nanded
Patna and Nanded are the tenth Guru's birth and death, on the Ganga and the Godāvari, two thousand kilometres apart and neither in Punjab. The takht scheme spans three linguistic regions because the Gurus' own lives did. Both shrines keep practices the Punjab does not — Patna its eastern sangat traditions, Nanded its Deccan forms including arms displayed and a distinct order of service.
- Site adjacencyPhulwari Sharif, Patna
Phulwari Sharif is the Sufi khanqah of Shah Muhibbullah on the southwestern edge of Patna, now a suburb of the city; it sits outside the walled takht precinct of Patna Sāhib and belongs beside it in greater Patna rather than inside the Sikh gurdwara.
- Site adjacencyPātaliputra
Pātaliputra is the ancient Mauryan-Gupta imperial capital that lies buried under modern Patna; Patna Sāhib is the Sikh takht marking Guru Gobind Singh's birthplace in the eastern part of the same city. The two share the urban fabric of Patna rather than one being inside the other.
- Site adjacencyPatna opium & Company trade
The Patna opium trade centred on the East India Company's Opium Agency and the Gulzaribagh godowns on the Ganges waterfront, downstream of the Patna Sāhib takht; both are features of Patna city but the opium trade belongs to its colonial waterfront rather than inside the Sikh takht.
- Site adjacencySonepur Mela
Sonepur Mela, the vast cattle and horse fair at Hariharnath on the Gandak confluence, is held across the river from Patna in Saran district; it is part of greater Patna's hinterland and belongs beside the Patna Sāhib takht in the region rather than inside its precincts.
- Site adjacencyChhath
Chhath, the four-day sun worship on riverbanks of Bihar and eastern UP, is practised across the Ganga and Yamuna basin rather than inside any single shrine; its most crowded Patna ghats stretch along the river downstream of the Patna Sāhib takht and the Harmandir ji Mahal area.
On these journeys
Sources
Takht Sri Patna Sahib
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