In a previous communication on the above subject a reference was made to the foundation stone lying of the Golden Temple as referred to by Mr. Gurbachan Singh Tahib in the Tribune, Chandigarh (Dec. 18, 1985). It is not understood what prompted the learned scholar to stir up this controversy when there is no dispute about the year, month and date of its foundation stone lying and this is not going to after the celebrations connected with the anniversary of Harmander Sahib.

The writer seems to have based his findings on ‘Guru Partap Suraj Granth’ of Kavi Santokh Singh popularly known as ‘Suraj Parkash.’ This is not an authentic or reliable version. About the author of the six ponderous volumes in difficult Hindi with a large admitive of pure Sanskirt words, Macauliffe writes:

It is however, doubtful whether Bhai Santokh Singh had access 10 any trustworthy authority. From his early education and environment he was largely tortured with Hinduism. He was unquestionably a pact and his imagination was largely stimulated by copious droughts of Bhang and other intonicants in which he freely indulged. The consequence was that he invented several stories, discreditable to Gurus and their religion. Some of his inventions are due to his exaggerated ideas of proverbs and force in a bas as well as in a good cause, a reflen of the spirit of the marauding age in which he lived. His statements accordingly cannot be accepted.as even an approach to history.”

However, in a translation in Punjab of Suraj Parkash, Karam Singh Lakhomi, writes ‘The Gura had absolutely no attachment to caste and communal bigotary and this is proved by the fact that Sahib, the Guru sent for the well-known Moslem saint ‘Mian Mir’ p. 117.

The widely read commentator, author and Sikh historian, Khushwant Singh in “A History of the Sikhs Vol. I”? Published in 1963 states that ‘Mian Mir, the famous divine of Lahore who became a personal friend of the fifth Guru, laid the foundation stone of the Harmandar at Amritsar p. 28.

Mark Tully, Chief of the BB.C’s Bureau in Delhi in his ‘Amritsar Mrs. Gandhi’s last battle’ writes as under about the Golden Temple.

“The foundation stone was laid by a Moslem mystic, he Sufi Mian Mir of Lahore’ p. 8.

Lyed Shabbir Husaim a veteran Pakistan Journalist, in his ‘Sikhs at crossroads” writes “and it was he (Guru Arjan Dev) who raised the Harmandir in the midst of the tank and in keeping with the electric spirit of Sikhism, invited a Moslem divine, Hazras Mian Mir of Lahore, to lay the foundation stone of the temple (p. 26).

Oral tradition and several other accounts of the founding of Harmandar Sahib mentioned Mian Mirs’ name,

In view of the rightly evidence to the contrary, it would be in the fritners of things if the S.G.P.C were to issue an authoritative statement in the subject so that the controversy may be niffed in the bud.

Article extracted from this publication >> January 31, 1986