PANGAT

PANGAT, from Sanskrit pankti (lit. a row, line, series, or a group, assembly, company), stands in Sikh terminology for commensality or sitting together on the ground in a row to partake of food from a common kitchen regardless of caste, creed, sex, age or social status. Pangat is thus a synonym for Guru ka Langar, an institution of fundamental importance in Sikhism. It is customary for diners in the Guru ka Langar to sit side by side in a pangat or row when food is served to them by sevdddrs or volunteers. The institution of Guru ka Langar itself thereby came to be referred to as pangat.

Another reason for the popularity of the term probably is its alliterative and sonorous affinity to sangator holy congregation, another basic institution of the Sikhs.As, later in Sikh history, deg(it. kettle) came to stand for Guru ka Langar because it rhymed with tegh (lit. sword), so did pangat for rhyming with sangat. The earliest use of pangat in Sikh literature appears in Bhai Gurdas (d. 1636), poet and exegete, in his Varan, XVII.

12, where it matches sangat to produce resonant effect: “bans vansu nihchal matt sangati pangati sdthu banandd” firm believers of the tribe of swans (i.e. the Sikhs) made appropriate company in sangat and pangatin sangat they pray together, in pangat they eat together. Guru Amar Das (1479-1574) attached particular importance to pangat. He expected every visitor to partake of food in it before seeing him. This gave rise to the popular saying: pahile pangat pdchhe sangateating together must take precedence over meeting together.

References :

1. Banerjee, Indubhusan, Evolution of the Khalsa. Calcutta, 1936
2. MacaulifFe, Max Arthur, The Sikh Religion. Oxford, 1909
3. Gian Singh, Giani, Panth Prakash. Delhi, 1880
4. Sabadarth Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Amritsar, 1964