Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/202

 162 NORTHERN OR INDO-ARYAN STYLE. BOOK VI. This time, however, it is no longer an idol-shrine, but a mono- theistic place of prayer, and differs, consequently, most essentially from those we have been describing. The religion of the Sikhs appears to have been a protest alike against the gross idolatry of the Hindus and the inflexible monotheism of the Moslims. It does not, however, seem that temples or gorgeous ceremonial formed any part of the religious system propounded by its founders. Reading the ( Granth ' and prayer are what were 355. The Golden Temple in the Sacred Tank at Amritsar, from the north-east. insisted upon, but even then not necessarily in public. We, in consequence, know but little of their temples, of which they seem to have but few. Ramdas, the fourth Sikh Guru, or high priest, obtained a grant of the site of Amritsar from the tolerant Akbar, dug the tank, which is 170 yds. square, and began the temple, which was completed by his successor, Arjun. It was named Har-mandir, and stood in the middle of the tank ; but Ahmad Shah Abdali, on his return from P^nipat in 1761, was opposed near Ludhiana by a Sikh army, which he signally defeated, and entering Amritsar blew up the Har-