ASI team to inspect excavated structure at Golden Temple tomorrow

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, July 18

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will gauge the significance of the tunnel-like structure discovered during the excavation while building a new ‘joda ghar’ in the Golden Temple complex.

Also read: ‘Unearthed structure at Golden Temple built originally in 1773’

A team of the ASI is scheduled to visit the site on Tuesday. The work on a new ‘jora ghar’ for devotees has been suspended partially till then after the intervention of the Amritsar district administration.

DC Gurpreet Singh Khaira said the ASI team was to take a final call over its significance. “The ASI team, which at present is at Lahaul and Spiti, will visit the place on Tuesday. The team will determine the historic or religious significance of the tunnel-like structure. The team will decide what has to be done as per the law. The next course of action will be decided accordingly — whether to protect the structure or keep it underneath only,” he said.

On the other hand, SGPC president Bibi Jagir Kaur said a ‘wait and watch’ policy should be adopted till the ASI’s report was received.

“So far, no concrete historical facts have come to light about the structure. Primarily, it is being speculated that it must have been buried underneath during the demolition of area surrounding the Golden Temple and construction of a ‘galliara’ by the then government,” she said. In view of the surge in the number of devotees, the SGPC had decided to construct an expanded ‘joda ghar’ and the task was assigned a voluntary organisation headed by Baba Kashmir Singh Bhuri Wale. It was during the excavation of the site at a depth of 20-25 feet that the tunnel-like structure made of small bricks surfaced. 

Could be ‘bungas’: Art body member

Punjab state convener and governing council member, Indian National Trust for Art and Culture, Dr Sukhdev Singh said the structure appeared to be the century-old ‘bungas’ (a kind of dormitory accommodation) meant for visitors to the Golden Temple from far-off places, but these seldom have any link to Gurus’ era. The arches could be the roofs or the remains of the underground parts of the bungas, he claimed

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