Guru Gobind Singh Ji was born at Patna in December 1666, while his father Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji was travelling in the east. He spent his first years there before the family moved to Anandpur.
Takht Sri Harmandir Ji Patna Sahib stands on the site. It is one of the five takhts and the only one in eastern India.
Relics held there include a small sword, a pair of sandals, and a cradle associated with the Guru's childhood.
A Sikh community has lived at Patna continuously since, small in number, and the takht is administered by its own committee under Bihar law rather than by the SGPC.
Guru Nanak Dev Ji and Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji both passed through Patna on their eastern travels, and the city has three other gurdwaras associated with those visits.
The takht is one of five. The others are the Akal Takht at Amritsar, Kesgarh Sahib at Anandpur, Damdama Sahib at Talwandi Sabo and Hazur Sahib at Nanded, and Patna and Nanded are the two outside Punjab.
The present building is twentieth century. An earlier structure raised in the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji was damaged in the Bihar earthquake of 1934 and the gurdwara was rebuilt after it.
The Patna sangat keeps its own maryada in certain particulars and has its own institutions. The Sikh families settled around the takht are among the oldest Sikh communities anywhere outside Punjab.