Gurdwara

Definition

The word means the Guru's door. What makes a building a gurdwara is not architecture but the installation of the Guru Granth Sahib, placed on a raised platform under a canopy in the main hall. Any room in which the scripture is properly installed serves.

A gurdwara is identified externally by the nishan sahib, a triangular saffron flag on a tall pole, and usually by a dome and the Ik Onkar over the entrance.

Conduct

Those entering remove their shoes, wash their feet or hands, and cover their heads. All sit on the floor at the same level, facing the scripture, with no seating that would place anyone higher or apart. Tobacco and alcohol are not permitted on the premises.

Worship consists chiefly of kirtan, the singing of scriptural compositions, and katha, exposition, closing with ardas, the congregational prayer, and the distribution of karah prasad. Anyone may read the scripture; there is no priesthood, and the granthi who reads is an appointed reader rather than an ordained figure.

Functions

Every gurdwara maintains a langar, and most provide accommodation for travellers. Gurdwaras have also served as schools, dispensaries and refuges, and in the Punjab as centres of political assembly — a role that follows from the miri-piri doctrine.

Governance

The historic gurdwaras of Punjab are administered by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, an elected body established under legislation in 1925 after a long campaign to remove hereditary custodians who had taken control during the colonial period. This was one of the most consequential episodes in modern Sikh history, and it made gurdwara management an elected and therefore political matter.