Origin 1600 to 1700
The canopied palanquin in which the Guru Granth Sahib is carried, and in many gurdwaras the canopied structure in which it is installed for the day.
Both uses are the same object doing the same work. In its portable form it is a litter with poles, borne on the shoulders, in which the volume travels to the resting room at the Sukhasan or through the streets at Nagar Kirtan. In its fixed form it is the canopied seat above the manji sahib on which the volume rests while the gurdwara is in session. Either way it raises the Guru above everyone present and puts a canopy over it, which are the two constants.
The palanquin is the conveyance of a ruler, and its use follows directly from what Sikh teaching holds about the scripture. A book is carried; a sovereign is borne in a litter, in procession, with attendants. The Guru Granth Sahib is never carried at waist height or under the arm but on the head, and the palki is the formal extension of the same rule.
The best known is the gold palanquin at Amritsar, in which the Guru Granth Sahib travels each night from the Harmandir Sahib to the Akal Takht and returns each morning, carried by relays of volunteers before crowds. Ordinary gurdwaras use a wooden one, and the ceremony performed is identical.
Facts
Use
Who May Handle ItAdherents of the tradition 2 ConsecrationBlessed before use, without a rite of consecration 2 Physical Form
MaterialWood, silver or gold, with a canopy and cushions 1 Origins
Origin Period Learn More
The Palanquin of the Enthroned Scripture
The palki sahib is the canopied palanquin in which the Guru Granth Sahib is carried, and in many gurdwaras the canopied structure in which it is installed for the day, and it is the throne of the scripture treated as the living Guru.
Carried and enthroned
The scripture is carried in procession on the palki, borne as an honoured sovereign is borne, and each day it is brought from its place of rest and installed on a raised and canopied seat, the palki, for the hours of worship, then carried back and laid to rest at night, so the volume is enthroned and attended through a daily round modelled on the service of a living person of the highest honour. The canopy over it, the raised platform, and the cushions on which it rests all belong to this treatment.
The daily service
The installing of the Guru Granth Sahib on the palki in the morning and its ceremonial putting to rest at night are among the ordinary devotional acts of the gurdwara, performed with prayer and reverence, so the throne is not a fixed piece of furniture only but the centre of a daily service rendered to the scripture. The whole arrangement, canopy, palanquin, whisk and cloths, expresses the Sikh conviction that the scripture is the living Guru and is to be honoured as such, and the palki sahib, as the seat and the vehicle of that presence, is the most visible sign in the gurdwara of the enthroned authority of the Guru Granth Sahib.
The Daily Ceremony of Placing and Retiring the Scripture
A Palki Sahib is substantial gurdwara furniture rather than a portable litter despite its name, built by specialist woodworkers and metalsmiths, a wood frame under a canopy plated in silver or gold according to the gurdwara's means, with cushions and bedding replaced on a regular schedule as they wear.
Who builds them
Workshops in Punjab specialize in producing this kind of gurdwara furnishing, and diaspora communities abroad increasingly commission custom built palkis matched to their own building rather than importing older ones, a modern extension of a craft historically concentrated in one region.
A ceremony repeated every day
Beyond its construction, the Palki Sahib is at the center of a scheduled daily ritual, sevadars place the Guru Granth Sahib into it each morning, Prakash, and return it to a resting place each night, Sukhasan, a routine performed daily rather than a one time act of installation. The frame and metalwork are built to last for years, while the fabric elements, the canopy lining and cushions, are the parts actually replaced as they show wear from that daily handling.
Scale varies with the size of the congregation
A small gurdwara may use a modest palki little larger than a canopied table, while a large one built for a substantial diaspora congregation commissions a correspondingly larger structure, so the object scales with the community it serves rather than following one fixed standard size the way some other regalia on this list does.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
The gold palanquin at Amritsar carries the Guru Granth Sahib from the Harmandir Sahib each morning.
The gold palanquin at Amritsar carries the Guru Granth Sahib to the Akal Takht each night.
Belongs to Tradition
Element Of
The canopied palanquin under which the scripture rests and in which it is carried, again the treatment given to a sovereign.
Implement Of
Sources
1. J.S. Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab (New Cambridge History of India II.3)
J. S. Grewal, Cambridge University Press, 1998on the daily service of the scriptureView the Source 2. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism
Harbans Singh (editor-in-chief), Punjabi University, Patiala, 1998on the palki and the enthroned scriptureView the Source 2. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism
Harbans Singh (editor-in-chief), Punjabi University, Patiala, 1998Entry on PalkiView the Source Historical Dictionary of Sikhism, 3rd edition
Louis E. Fenech and W. H. McLeod, Rowman and Littlefield, 2014View the Source Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
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