Amritsar, Nov 12 (IANS) The Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) Thursday decided to set up a 10-member committee to resolve the controversy over the Sikh religion’s “Nanakshahi” calendar.
SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar told media after a long meeting, attended by top Sikh religious leaders from various organisations, that the 10-member committee would comprise five “pro-Nanakshahi” and five “anti-Nanakshahi” group representatives.

There has been a running controversy over the last few years over the Nanakshahi calendar, which is followed by the SGPC, regarding dates of important religious events. Its dates do not match with the Vikrami calendar followed elsewhere in the country, including by the general Sikh community.

Out of the five high seats of Sikh religion, two seats (Takhts) at Patna and Hazoor Sahib (Maharashtra) also do not follow the Nanakshahi calendar.

The Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhism situated inside the Golden Temple complex, which has the holiest of Sikh shrines ‘Harmandar Sahib’, had asked the SGPC earlier this year to resolve the Nanakshahi calendar row.

The Nanakshahi calendar has been prepared by US-based Sikh scholar Pal Singh Purewal. Other Sikh scholars have opposed the calendar.