CHAPTER XL
AMRITSAR-CHHATTARPUR
(i) The Golden Temple of the Sikhs
One evening Gopalrao took Ramdas out on a visit to
the celebrated Golden temple of the Sikhs which is their
main Gurudwara. It is situated in the middle of a big
tank with an overbridge on one side that leads up to
the temple from the main land. The tank has all its
four banks artistically covered with glazed and varied-
coloured, square marble slabs. The visitors walked
round the tank on this marble floor before entering the
temple across the bridge. Anybody, irrespective of caste,
cread or colour, has access to tho temple. The only
restrictions to be observed arc—removal of shoes by the
visitor who should have also clean feet and his headgear
on. At the entrance to the tank two water taps are provided
for washing the feet, and a man is appointed to be in
charge of the shoes left over there.
Now the temple. It is a beautiful structure with small
minarets at the corners of its roof and a dome at its
centre. The entire temple except tho floor is covered with
gold sheets. The roof, the domes, and the walls are all of
gold. When you enter the main hall through the verandah
that runs along the four sides, you discover a huge book,
the Granth Saheb, poised upon a stand covered with fine
silk cloth and decorated with flowers and garlands. This
place is the main prayer hall where the best singers con-
gregate in front of the Sacred Book to perform kirtan to
the accompaniment of musical instruments. There is also
an upper gallery, as in a theatre, where you go up by a
flight of stairs. Here the visitors sit listening to the music
from the hall below. The kirtan goes on from three in
the morning to ten or twelve o'clock in the night.
Thousands of people, chiefly Sikhs, daily pay visits to