The followers of the Guru began making bricks to line the sorovar in the local kiln. However, the local Mughal subedar, Nur Din raided the premises and carried away the bricks for a sarai he was building nearby.
For nearly two centuries thereafter the tank remained incomplete and the gurdwara was a kuccha hut. The magnificent 300-metres square sarovar that now stands before Darbar Sahib in Tarn Taran was completed in 1778 by three misldars. Maharaja Ranjit Singh visited the shrine in 1802 and, in fact, exchanged turbans with Jassa Singh Ahluwalia’s grand nephew, Fateh Singh Ahluwalia in a gesture of lasting political significance. Ranjit Singh was largely responsible for the present structure of the Darbar Sahib and for paving of the parikarma.
Although it does not quite compare with the Golden Temple in terms of splendour, the Darbar Sahib at Tarn Taran has a tranquility that is unique to it. The gurdwara complex is entered through a double-storeyed arch that has projected balconies on both the inner and outer facades. A colonnade runs around the periphery of the complex.
The Darbar Sahib, at the southeastern end of the sarovar, is a three-storeyed square structure topped with a gilded and fluted dome. It is approached through a two-storeyed archway. The facade is relieved by three cusped openings above each of the doorways. On the eastern and northern sides, these openings are flanked by projected balconies, while to the south and the west can be seen domical balconies with three arched openings and lotus type bases.
The interior is decorated with intricate stucco work, inset with glass and the first floor is in the form of a gallery overlooking the congregation hall. The Guru Granth Sahib rests on a platform under a gold-covered canopy donated by Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s grandson, Nau Nihal Singh.
There are several other buildings within the precincts of the complex. The four-storeyed Akal Bunga where the holy book is laid to rest at night was constructed in 1841 by Nau Nihal Singh. The small domed Manji Sahib on the eastern part of the parikrama marks the spot where Guru Arjan Dev sat on a manji (cot) and supervised the construction of the sarovar.
A little to the south of the Darbar Sahib is a well called Guru-ka-khu, literally the Well of the Guru, and a monument commemorating the martyrdom in 1921 of two Sikhs killed during the Gurdwara Reform Movement.
Compassion and benevolence have always been hallmarks of Sikhism, and Guru Arjan Dev had established a home for leprosy patients in Tarn Taran called Dukh Nivaran, literally allevitaing pain.