Akal Takht

It is one and primary seat of Sikh Authority out of all Takhts or thrones situated in various parts of India. Akal Takht is situated in front of the famous Golden Temple at Amritsar and it was established by the 6th Guru, Har Gobind (1595-1644) in the year 1609 A. D. when the Sikh religion made a formal bid to proclaim its basic commitment to politics and social problems. The other three Takhts are situated at Anandpur Sahib in the Siwalik foothills of Himalayas, at Patna Sahib in Eastern India and at Nanded in Southern India. The building of Akal Takht Comprises of a high throne of an altitude three times as high as was permitted to any authority by the Mughal sovereigns of India and it is higher than the Mughal Throne balcony in the Red Fort at Delhi. Thus, Guru Har Gobind, by establishing the Akal Takht and building this high throne openly repudiated the Mughal sovereignty over India and proclaimed the Sikh claim to a co-equal sovereign status. During the 18th and 19th and even 20th centuries the Sikh people have occasionally assembled at the Akal Takht to make national political decisions through consensus which have been deemed as binding on every Sikh. Many of these decisions have been of the nature of an open revolt against the established political authority in the country. The Akal Takht and the other seats of Sikh Authority, are in theory, managed and controlled by a Jathedar or Controller General and during the Sikh Raj even Maharaja Ranjit Singh was obliged to submit himself to its decisions.