From its founding in 1588, the Golden Temple has come to symbolise the epitome of Sikh architecture as well as the undying love of its devotees. The complex that developed around it was the Sikhs' very own 'Vatican City'. In its heyday in the early 1800s it was also highly regarded as a centre of learning and a beacon for those in search of spiritual and educational enlightenment. Around it developed a bustling multicultural town that became a prominent stop on the Silk Route and a major commercial hub of north western India. This unique volume highlights the temple's unparalleled beauty and changing fortunes during a golden era of peace, prosperity and patronage. Its vast collection of paintings, sketches, lithographs and photographs have been painstakingly sourced from archives around the world. They are complemented by intriguing quotes from 70 eyewitness accounts, ranging from the earliest discovered in 1808 - a report by a one-legged British spy - right up to that of an awestruck Hollywood heartthrob, Lew Ayres, in search of the exotic and esoteric in 1959.

Golden Temple: Marvel of Sikh Architecture by Dr SS Bhatti is based on the author¿s doctoral thesis for his third PhD from Panjab University, Chandigarh. This work on the Golden Temple is the first one of its kind in that it has been done by a professional whose research and creative contribution in the three fields of Architecture, Engineering, and Aesthetics is quite well known. The author has developed a new method of studying historical monuments, and of establishing their distinct styles on the basis of illustrated analysis of the three fundamental elements of building design: space, structure, and form. Dr Bhatti has convincingly shown how Sikh Architecture is an independent style of building design, which has produced the Golden Temple, Amritsar: a marvel of Sikh Architecture with its characteristic ebullience and aesthetic charm. This book is a definitive work on the theory and practice of building design with a befitting research methodology, which should benefit students, teachers, practitioners, and scholars alike worldwide.