Guru Gobind Singh named Nanded "Abchalnagar" while conferring Guruship upon the Guru Granth Sahib. The word means "Steadfast City," taken from the first word of a hymn read at random during the ceremony. It was both a name and a prophecy. Over the following century, Sikhs built a room over the platform where the Guru had held court, installed the Guru Granth Sahib upon it, and called it Takhat Sahib. Between 1832 and 1837, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Lion of Punjab, had the present building constructed with money, artisans, and labor sent from Punjab. The gurdwara within the complex is known as Sach-Khand, the Realm of Truth, and its inner room, the Angitha Sahib, stands directly over the site where Gobind Singh was cremated.

What distinguishes Hazur Sahib from other major gurdwaras is continuity. The ancient customs practiced during the time of the tenth Guru are still observed here. Sandalwood tilak is applied to the foreheads of priests and local devotees, a practice unique to this shrine. The inner room of the Angitha Sahib functions as a vault, housing weapons, personal belongings, and other valuable objects that belonged to Guru Gobind Singh himself. Only the head priest may enter it. The Takht houses both the Sri Guru Granth Sahib and the Sri Dasam Granth, a pattern it shares with Takht Sri Patna Sahib. Bhai Jagat Singh, an eminent Ragi, performed seva at the Takhat from 1934 until his death in 1978, a 44-year devotion to sacred music in a single place.

Nanded is also the city where Baba Banda Singh Bahadur maintained his ashram before beginning his campaign of Khalsa victories across northern India. Around the same time that Ranjit Singh was constructing the present gurdwara, the 3rd Nizam of Hyderabad, a Muslim ruler of the Deccan, raised a contingent of northern Sikhs as part of his army. Most of these men settled permanently in Hyderabad State, creating a Sikh community in the deep south of India with roots stretching back nearly two centuries. Control of the Takhat itself passed through different hands over time. Udasi Sikh priests managed the shrine until the Singh Sabha Movement of the late 19th century restored it to mainstream Sikh governance. In 1956, the Hyderabad legislature formalized this arrangement, placing the Takhat and other historical gurdwaras under a 17-member board.

Hazur Sahib is one of five takhts that serve as the highest temporal seats of Sikh authority. The others are Sri Akal Takht Sahib at Amritsar, Takhat Sri Keshgarh Sahib at Anandpur, Takhat Sri Patna Sahib in Bihar, and Takhat Sri Damdama Sahib in Talwandi Sabo, Punjab. In October 2008, the 300th anniversary of the Guruship of Guru Granth Sahib was celebrated here on a grand scale, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressing the sangat at the main ceremony. The anniversary also marked 300 years since the Joti Jot of Guru Gobind Singh, the moment the light of the last living Guru merged with the eternal light of the scripture he left behind.

Not everything at Hazur Sahib has survived intact. Sikh historians and scholars have raised alarms about the destruction of historical structures within the complex. The Ramgarhia Bunga, built under Maharaja Ranjit Singh's patronage, was demolished in January 2007. The Baradari, another Ranjit Singh-era building, followed in October of the same year. Restoration architects Sharad Chalikwar and Kiran Kalamdani had prepared conservation plans, but the management committee demolished the structures under the banner of Kar Seva renovations, citing age, dilapidation, and the need for "beautification." A laser show at Gobind Bagh now narrates the lives of the ten Gurus near the main gurdwara. It is the second largest laser show in Asia. Whether the balance tips toward preservation or modernization will shape what future generations find when they come to the banks of the Godavari.