Pangat offered at Vishnu temple in Sajla, Himachal Pradesh

Pangat (Punjabi: ਪੰਗਤ ) is a word derived from the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

word ''pankti''
पङ्क्ति
that means a line, a row, or a group. It is a synonym for ''Guru Ka Langar''. In a Pangat, food is served by volunteers (Sevadars) to people of all religions who sit together to eat. Pangat is about eating food while sitting in rows with no discrimination on the basis of caste, creed and

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

. According to the beliefs of Sikhism, nobody sleeps without eating, nor should anybody die of hunger.

History

Pangat and Sangat came together from the time of

Guru Nanak Dev Ji Gurū Nānak (15 April 1469 – 22 September 1539; Gurmukhi: ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ; pronunciation: , ), also referred to as ('father Nānak'), was the founder of Sikhism and is the first of the ten Sikh Gurus. His birth is celebrated wo ...

, the first Guru of Sikhism. Nanak's father gave him money for trade that he spent on feeding hungry

Sadhu ''Sadhu'' ( sa, साधु, IAST: ' (male), ''sādhvī'' or ''sādhvīne'' (female)), also spelled ''saddhu'', is a religious ascetic, mendicant or any holy person in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism who has renounced the worldly life. ...

s. He named this that ''True Transaction'' (Sacha Sauda). Where there is Sangat, there is always a Langar (food service). According to Sikh principles all people (Sangat) who sit in pangat share food on equal basis. In the history of Sikhism, when

Emperor Akbar Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...

and the King of Haripur went to meet Guru Amar Das Ji, the third Guru of Sikhism. They both had to eat Langar in the pangat before meeting the Guru.

References

{{reflist, 30em Cultural assimilation Sanskrit words and phrases Sikh practices