The Kararpuri Bir is the gold standard when checking the veracity of printed versions of SGGS. A book, The Compilation of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, by Professor Sahib Singh debunks challenges to the Kartarpuri Bir. It is pubished by Lok Sahit Parkashan Amritsar and Dr. Sahib Sing goes into considerable detail. It is a brilliant work of scholarship which employs sound methods for validating the originality of texts. It is even at times a humorous debunking of critics. The book is too large a file for me to upload it. I am not sure how it can be uploaded so that forum members can read it.
Another book about the authenticity of the Kartarpuri Bir consists of 4 essays by Professor Daljeet Singh, published at Punjabi University Patiala, at this link
Global Sikh Studies.net >> Home Page. Check the left hand nagivation bar on the home page for this link
Authenticity of Kartarpuri Bir. Both books are confirmations that the Bir is intact and authentic. Therefore the Bir itself becomes the standard for authenticating other documents.
The reasoning as pk70 says in the end comes down to the internal consistency from one shabad to the next and the overall unity of the publication.
Another online book at the same Global Sikh Studies web site is entitled The Planned Attack on AGGS. This book explains why continued re-evaluations of the authenticity of the Adi Granth (in the form of the Karapuri Bir) are carefully engineered to undermine our confidence in the Bir.
AAD ji,
Another Article by Dr GS Mann - one of the MCLeodian Group has come on the Internet..in which GS Mann questions a few more Sikh traditions/History...
I read a reply by Charanjit Singh...Here it is for the benefit of our readers...most of its about the Kartarpuri Bir.. Makes interesting reading...The Original Mann Thesis is said to be 57 pages.
'The Making of Sikh Scripture': Gurinder Singh Mann abets Adverse Controversies
Charnjit Singh Bal
‘The Making of Sikh Scripture’: Gurinder Singh Mann Abets Adverse Controversies besetting Sikhism
Charnjit Singh Bal
The resumé of
Dr. Gurinder Singh Mann’s qualifications and credentials states that he graduated in 1965 CE with Master’s Degree in English from Baring Union Christian College in Batala, Punjab; India, earned his second MA in English in 1975 CE from University of Kent at Canterbury, UK, and Master’s Degree in Theology Studies from Harvard University. He topped his enviable resumé with Ph. D. in religion from Columbia University. The Oxford University Press, that has published Sikh Studies Ph. D. theses of
Drs. William Hew. McLeod, Harjot Singh Oberoi, Pashaura Singh, Louis E. Fenech, and
Doris Jakobsh, et al, published his
‘The Making of Sikh Scripture’ dissertation, in 2001 CE.
All these Western Universities-groomed scholars and academicians owe, directly or indirectly, their Sikh Studies Doctorates to the ordained
Christian Reverend and foreign Missionary-turned Sikh Studies radical scholar Dr. William Hewat McLeod’s academic tutelage. Harjot S. Oberoi got his Ph. D. from the Australian National University had Dr. McLeod as his associate supervisor.Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech were students of W. H. McLeod when he was appointed as a visiting Commonwealth Scholar, University of Toronto in early 1990s. Doris Jakobsh was a student of Harjot Singh Oberoi, when he was Punjabi Language and Sikh Studies chair at UBC, Vancouver, Canada.
Dr. Mann’s graduation from Baring Union Christian College in Batala, Punjab, India, in the year 1965 CE is noteworthy, because that is when Dr. W. H. McLeod, who got his Ph. D. in Sikh Studies for a joke from
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK, joined the teaching staff there. [See Dr. McLeod’s ‘
Discovering the Sikhs, Autobiography of a Historian’, p.39
His affiliation with the above academic clique is evident from his published thesis ‘
The Making of Sikh Scripture’, a stereotypical dissertation, constructed, partly, on data derived from the unauthentic quasi-Sikh literature and grapevine traditions, that are mostly incompatible with the Sikhism’s authentic scriptural anthology, history, pragmatic religiosity and egalitarian ideology, packs cynicism and skepticism; and abets untenable contentions and adverse controversies besetting Sikhism. Early on in his dissertation
‘The Making of Sikh Scripture’, Gurinder Singh Mann quotes and controverts Dr. W. H. McLeod’s view.
W. H. McLeod has systematically presented the view that Guru Nanak was a participant in the medieval
sant tradition, whose constituency of holy people believed in one nonincarnated God and preached a religion of interiority through meditation on the divine name. In this beatific vision all external forms of religious life including institutional authority, scriptural texts, communal centers, and so on were emphatically rejected. Simply put, the belief system to which Guru Nanak belonged does not jibe with the founding of an organized community. [W. H. McLeod, ‘
The Evolution of Sikh Community’, p. 8]
The Making of Sikh Scripture, [henceforth T.M.O.S.S.], p. 6
It is hard to accept the idea that Guru Nanak first rejected the institution of religious authority, only to reverse his stance and ensconce himself as the chief authority figure at Kartarpur. Nor is there any substance to the argument that Guru Nanak did not enjoy any power within the community during this period. His careful attempt to maintain the office of the guru in appointing his successor at the time of his death is evidence of the seriousness with which he took the institutional authority associated with the office.
T.M.O.S.S., p. 8
Obviously, Dr. Gurinder Singh Mann is unaware that Sikhism is a lay religion, i.e. there is no conventional, institutionalized hierarchy of dogmatic ecclesiastics. However, there is an honorific position for the savant Sikh preachers. Guru Nanak designated local preachers during his four protracted odysseys and Guru Amar Das appointed resident Sikh apostles, called Masunds, whose functions were to preach Sikhism and liaison between the congregation and the Guru. Guru Gobind Singh discontinued the practice when the Masunds turned authoritarian ecclesiastics and corrupt.
ADVERSE CONTROVERSIES, CONTENTIONS; RHETORIC
MANUSCRIPTS; ANTECEDENTS; ORIGINS, BRANCHES, COPIES
In the second section I turn to the Adi Granth itself. Here I reconstruct its production in a way that radically revises the current understanding of the surrounding time and circumstances, as well as the relationship between its contents and those of its antecedents, such as the Kartarpur Pothi and other seventeenth-century manuscripts.
T.M.O.S.S., p.69
BHAI BANNO BIR/KANPUR POTHI
Writing in 1770s
Sarupdas Bhalla was the first author to report the variations between the text of the Kartarpur Pothi and the manuscript prepared by Bhai Banno. Bhalla narrates that soon after the inscription of the Kartarpur Pothi, Bhai Banno obtained Guru Arjan’s permission to take it to his village with the intent to prepare a copy for himself. Guru Arjan, Arjan however, sent for the Pothi, and it had to be returned quickly. Somehow Bhai Banno managed to have a copy made, but because of its hasty compilation organizational discrepancies crept into the text. The newly compiled manuscript, along with the original, was presented to Guru Arjan, who gladly confirmed its authenticity by putting his attestation on the manuscript. Bhalla calls it the
Khara recension (
Khare ki misal), naming after Bhai Banno’s village Khara Mangatand distinguishing it from the Kartarpur Pothi (
Bhai Gurdas ki missal). Since the manuscript in is now at Kanpur, we called it the
Kanpur Pothi in chapter2.
Ibid, p.69-70
Bhalla’s discernment of differences between the two early manuscripts was endorsed by later writers, but their description of circumstances of the origin of the Kanpur Pothi (as well as the nature of its differences from Kartarpur Pothi) underwent important changes. According to the
Sri Gurbilas Patshahi 6 and
Sri Gurpratap Suraj Guru Arjan asked Bhai Banno to take the Kartarpur Pothi to Lahore for binding. During this trip to Lahore, Bhai Banno arranged to have a copy made without the prior permission of the guru. There were differences in contents between the original and the copy, and these had resulted from Bhai Banno’s deliberate effort to introduce into the sacred corpus some apocryphal hymns.
Sahib Singh dismissed earlier accounts of the compilation of the Kartarpur Pothi as fanciful and offered a new hypothesis: the Kartarpur Pothi and the Kanpur Pothi were initially identical, but in the decades after the death of Tegh Bahadur spurious compositions were inserted into the seventeenth-century manuscripts.
Ibid, p.71
Building on the work of Sahib Singh,
Pashaura Singh went a step further. He viewed the rise of both the Kanpur and the Lahore families of manuscripts as part of conspiracy that included not only the dissenting groups within the early Sikh community but also the Mughal administration at Lahore. Pashaura Singh is fully convinced that all variations in the early manuscripts were “interpolations” that resulted from conscious “tampering” with the original text carried out to confuse the message of the Sikh gurus.
Ibid, p.71
Rejecting the traditional description of the seventeenth–century manuscripts,
Piar Singh argued for the presence of seven primary branches, some of them with further internal subdivisions.
Ibid, p.71
The existing understanding of the history of Sikh scripture is constructed around the belief that seventeenth-century manuscripts fell into three groups: the exact copies of the Kartarpur Pothi, representing the authoritative line, and two branches following the Kanpur and
Lahore Pothi. The first striking aspect of the data available in the manuscripts mentioned below is that they fall not into three but two broad groups: manuscripts 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 19, 20, 22, and 24 follow what is known in Sikh tradition as the Lahore branch, and manuscripts 1, 2, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 25, 26, and 27 represent the Khara Mangat branch. (Manuscripts numbered 14 and 21 do not fit into these two groups and need special attention).
Ibid, p.71
The traditional belief that the Kartarpur Pothi as it stands today produced a branch of manuscripts which culminated in the text of Adi Granth confronts the unavailability of even a single manuscript that can be considered its exact copy. This inconvenient fact has evoked interesting responses. For instance,
Sahib Singh argues that soon after the Kartarpur Pothi was compiled, it was put up for public display at the Darbar Sahib, Amritsar and so could not be made available for copying.
Ibid, p.71-2
The existing discussion on this issue centers on two interrelated assumptions: that the text of the Kartarpur Pothi culminated in the Adi Granth with the addition of the hymns of Guru Tegh Bahadur; and that the Kanpur Pothi, containing a set of apocryphal compositions, gave rise to a distinct branch of seventeenth-century manuscripts. Both these assumptions, in my view, are erroneous.
Ibid, 73-4
There are two views regarding the relationship between the
Amritsar Pothi and the
Kartarpur Pothi in existing literature. As referred to before,
Charan Singh traces the origin of this branch to the Kartarpur Pothi.
Piar Singh rejects this relationship and views line as an independent attempt at compile of the Sikh text. Neither of them has developed their respective arguments in any detail.
Ibid, p.75
Finally, an entry recorded in the
Amritsar Pothi (folio 591) offers critical evidence to support my argument. This has two parts: the first contains the death dates of the first four gurus and the second goes as follows:
In the presence of the Guru Arjan, the manuscript was compiled. It was inscribed by Bhai Bura Sandhu in the presence of the fifth Guru. Bhai Milkha of Peshawar commissioned its inscription. He who will come to the presence of the manuscript will see the body of Guru Nanak. Forgive [my] flaws and omissions. God! The true guru! [The manuscript] is completed in Samat 1662 (1605 C.E.)
Ibid, p.78
G. B. Singh accepted 1605 as the date of preparation of the
Amritsar Pothi and named it after Bura Sandhu its supposed scribe.
Piar Singh continues to associate the manuscript with Bura Sandhu but argues that the entry is false and was inserted later to increase the significance of the Amritsar Pothi by tracing its origin to the time of Guru Arjan.
I argue that this entry does not record the date of preparation of the Amritsar Pothi as G. B. Singh claims, neither is it a deliberate attempt to falsify its date of compilation as Piar Singh believes, but rather represents a typical instance in which the scribe of the
Amritsar Pothi reproduced the colophon recorded in the source from which he copied (a manuscript prepared in 1605 by Bura Sandhu). If this
line of reasoning is correct, the Amritsar Pothi becomes a copy of the Kartarpur Pothi compiled in 1605.
Ibid, p.78
The
Kanpur Pothi, the earliest extant manuscript of this branch, is dated 1642 but contains no information about its place of compilation. The Sikh sources and family traditions of the manuscript’s custodians attribute its compilation to Bhai Banno.
There are serious problems with the traditional explanation of manuscript’s origin. The date of 1642 does not correspond to the time of Guru Arjan. Bhai Banno’s name does not appear in the list of the important Sikhs of the period in the writings of Bhai Gurdas, nor is the name of Khara Mangat included in the list of the seats of regional centers of the community in the sixteenth century.
Ibid, p.79
A note in the
Patna Pothi (1692) confirms that the importance of the Kartarpur Pothi as the original document was fully recognized in the community, and a manuscript that was copied from it or was collated and corrected with it enjoy special status. Chaupa Singh, the first author to refer to the compilation of the Adi Granth, reports that Guru Gobind Singh sought to borrow the Kartarpur Pothi from Dhirmal’s family in 1678 but did not succeed. …. Kesar Singh Chibber, writing a few decades later, contends that after this denial of access to the Kartarpur Pothi, the guru used another manuscript at Anandpur to create Adi Granth.
Ibid, p.82-3
The view that has dominated Sikh thinking since the seventeenth century, however, places the event at Damdama, Bhatinda, in 1705 – 1706.
Giani Gian Singh expanded this tradition to claim that Guru Gobind Singh, unable to access the Kartarpur Pothi, and seemingly with no other written document around, dictated the complete text of the Adi Granth from memory to
Bhai Mani Singh, who served as the amanuensis.
Ibid, p.83
G. B. Singh located a
manuscript extant at Dhaka prepared in 1675 (Samat 1732,
miti agahan
vadi), which contained all of Guru Tegh Bahadur’s hymns recoded in their appropriate
rag sections.
Ibid, p.83
MS 1192 inscribed in 1674 also contains the complete corpus of Guru Tegh Bahadur’s hymns. On its opening folio, the
invocation is followed by a note that reads, “This attestation was obtained by presenting [the manuscript to the ninth master, in the presence of the whole congregation, on Samat 1731, the full moon day of Jeth”
Piar Singh argues that the dates, the invocation, and the note recoded underneath in MS 1192 are all fake.
Ibid, p.84
CYNICAL, SKEPTICAL ASPERSIONS, INSINUATIONS, INNUENDOS
The Sikhs issued open invitation to both the Hindu and Muslim religious elite to avail themselves of the shelter offered by the guru if they wanted liberation. The words of Guru Amardas to the Brahmins were clear: “Your faith in God can work only if you listen to the advice of guru.” (
Brahamu Bindihe te Brahamana je chalahe satgur bhae. M3, AG 849-850
). Since the guru lived under Islamic rule, his invitation to Sufis to join the Sikh fold and submit to his leadership was strikingly bold: “O Shekh! Leave violence and with the fear of God control the inner confusion. Many have attained liberation by fear of the guru.”
(Sekha andarahu joru chhadi tu bhau kari jhali gavae. Gur kai bhai kete nistare bhai vich nirbhau pae. M3, AG, 551). He further stated:“O Shekh Bring your mind to focus on the One. Discard your futile pursuit and realize the word of the guru. If you follow the guru,…you will gain respect in the divine court.”
(Sekha chauchakia chauvaia ehu manu ikatu ghari ani. Ehar tehar chhadi tu gur ka sabadu pahchanu. Satgur agai dhai pau,…ta dargah pavahe manu. (M3, AG, 646).
Ibid, p.13
According to Guru Arjan, God himself had created a firm foundation of the Sikh community on which it was now thriving (
Abichal niv dhari Gur Nanak nit nit charai savai, M5, AG, 500-501).
Ibid, p.14
The bath in the holy pool, according to Guru Arjan, washed off previously committed sins (
Ramdas sarovar nate. Sabhi utre pap kamate, M5, AG, 625)
Ibid, p.14
The above passages expose Dr. Mann’s cynical mindset. Gurbani verse, from Guru Arjan’s hymn, that he references and distorts to insinuate that ‘according to Guru Arjan, bath in holy pool washed off previously committed sins’, metaphorically means, ‘those who recite God’s Name [praise], in the congregation of devotees of Ram [all-pervading God], cleanse themselves of past sinful mentality.
The illegible transliteration and misinterpretation of the select Gurbani verses, [translate in isolation], exhibit his inept or dubious scholarship. The Gurmukhi diacritics aunkurd and Siari in the Gurmukhi words accord a distinct meaning or grammatical function to a word. For instance, words Bgq, Bgqu and Bgiq may have different meaning, but all are pronounced Bhagat and transliterated as such.
His innuendo that the Sikh Gurus professed that God himself laid Sikhism’s firm foundation, and that they exhorted Hindu and Muslim clergy to seek Sikh Guru’s shelter to redeem themselves, evinces his askance view of Gurbani. There is no explicit or implicit reference to the Sikh Guru. ‘Guru’ is Sanskrit word. Literally, Gu means darkness, ignorance and Ru means enlightener. Unbeknown to Dr. Mann, Sikh scripture’s co-authors, Gurus and Hindu and Muslim bhagats, addressed God too as Guru or Satguru. Its usage is not exclusive to Sikh vocabulary. It has been in use since primeval times as a revered appellation for the spiritual guide in all the Eastern religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sufism, et al.
Jo Gur dussay waat, marida joliay. Sheikh Farid [1173-1266 CE], AG, p.488,
Satgur béri (bérdi) furi (furdi) khaloté, main kéon läee a déri. 15, Bullay Shah
MS 1245: Pashaura Singh and Piar Singh were the first scholars to focus on the importance of this undated manuscript in the history of Sikh scripture. The manuscript was acquired by the Guru Nanak Dev University in March 1987 from the Chawla brothers, art and manuscript dealers in Amritsar. … A note appended to the manuscript by the dealers at the time of its sale provides no details of its earlier ownership, and the Chawlas have refused to reveal any information about manuscript’s location prior to its purchase by the university.
Ibid, p.52
According to Balwant Singh Dhillon, the making of MS 1245 resulted from an independent effort but with a well-defined objective of creating “a new seat of Gurudom.” For him, MS 1245 represents a parallel scriptural text developed by descendants of Prithi Chand. He ties his argument with tradition that Miharban prepared and sent volumes of sacred writings to distant Sikh congregations. By presenting evidence which, he claims, suggests affinity between MS 1245 and the literature produced by this family, he argues that MS 1245 belongs to them as well.
Ibid, p.57-8
DUBIOUS HYPOTHESIS
I suggest a different hypothesis to explain the origin of MS 1245. As mentioned earlier, the
hymns of the Bhagats are not included in this manuscript. The crucial significance of MS 1245 lies not in its origin as an independent effort nor in its serving as a draft for the Kartarpur Pothi, but rather in its manifesting a composition of Sikh scripture different from the type represented in the Goindval Pothis and the Kartarpur Pothi.
MS 1245 seems to have been compiled at a time when the earlier conception of Sikh scripture was being reconsidered.
Ibid, p.58
It is true that Guru Arjan held the Bhagats in high esteem and portrayed them in his hymns as a paradigm of successful devotion. Yet the absence of the hymns of non-Sikhs from MS 1245 may suggest that at one time, around 1600, the guru considered dropping them altogether, or at least separating them from the compositions of the Sikhs and appending them as a distinct unit toward the end of the scriptural text. Emerging from this mode of thinking, MS 1245 seems to draw a line between the Sikh community-the gurus and their court poets who were part of the Sikh fold-and the others, Hindus and Muslims.
Ibid, p.59
INSINUATIONS, INNUENDOS
BHAGAT BANI: Inclusion into the Sikh Scripture
Purpose, Selection, Corrections, Status
In this context, the presence of bhagat bani in the Sikh text indicates humble submission on part of the Bhagats-both Hindu and Muslim-to the
superiority of the nascent Sikh tradition. According to Sikh view, the Bhagats came to Guru Arjan seeking to place their compositions in the sacred Sikh text, and the guru in his grace accepted the hymns of those deserving honor of becoming part of it.
Ibid, p.109
In my view, the criterion for ascertaining the identity of those brought the divine message to humanity, however, was restrictive. For Guru Amardas, these had to be people who shared the monotheistic vision and an understanding of human life with its social and ethical obligations. Because the
Sikh revelation is authentic, only hymns conforming to the Sikh belief in unity of God could be accepted as embodying the truth.
Ibid, p.110
The fact that the scripture of an eminent Sikh, Bhai Gurdas, Guru Granth’s Amanuensis [scribe] was not incorporated in the Guru Granth, belies Gurinder Mann’s insinuation that the Gurus applied discriminatory benchmark in selection of scriptures to be included in the Guru Granth.
Having accomplished this task of selecting hymns,
the gurus asserted further the supremacy of the content of Sikh revelation. Whenever the hymns of the Bhagats seemed to convey a message even slightly different from Sikh thinking,
attempts were made to correct them. We have referred to Guru Amardas’s response to
Farid’s pessimistic ideas about imminence of death-his assertion of a more positive outlook on life.
Ibid, p.112
The insinuations, innuendos, misconstrued and misinterpreted Gurbani verses in the preceding passages portray the Sikh Gurus and Bhai Gurdas as condescending supremacists. Translated and interpreted objectively, the quoted Gurbani verses and Var of Bhai Gurdas do not support his aspersions.
The Sikh scriptural Anthology, a paragon of spiritual awareness and empirical Realism, exhorts mankind to cultivate rapport with the ultimate reality to obviate fear of mortality and dwell in the ensuing eternal spiritual realm. And the Gurus did not criticize the Bhagats, nor did they emend their scriptures, but expounded some of their couplets that could be naively misconstrued or mischievously misinterpreted. Yet some do it anyway.
There is no doubt that the
hymns of the Bhagats selected for the Sikh text were thought to communicate a divine message, but the
explanation of their relation to the hymns of the Sikh gurus began with Guru Amardas himself. He perceived the gurbani (he seems to have been thinking of Guru Nanak as a paradigm for the guru) as the medium of God’s word (
Satgur bani sabadu sunae, M3, AG, 1177), its echo, he said, is present in all four corners of the word (
Gurbani chahu kundi sunai sachai nami sumaida, M3, AG, 1065, and
gurbani varti jag antari isu bani te harinamu paida, M3, AG, 1066).
Ibid, p.117
Such statements suggest that
Guru Amardas considered the hymns of the gurus to have a unique significance, and one far greater than the hymns of the bhagat, which had to be carefully selected before being inducted into the Sikh text. The
implied ranking is rooted in Guru Amardas’s distinction between guru and Bhagat:
Bhagatu Bhagatu Kahai sabhu koi.
Bin satgur seve bhagati na pave pure bhagi milai prabhu soi, (M3, AG, 1131)
Everyone may call himself a Bhagat.
Without serving the true guru saintliness cannot be attained; it is with good luck that we reach God [and attain this stage]
Ibid, p.117
The fundamental distinction between guru and Bhagat defined the basic structure of the Goindval Pothis, a structure later adhered to in the Kartarpur Pothi and the Adi Granth. The hymns of Guru Nanak result directly from the original revelation and are taken to constitute the pinnacle of sacred Sikh literature; the next stage belongs to hymns of created by the Sikh Gurus who carried the light of Guru Nanak; at the third stage came the hymns by the Sikhs who were initiated into sainthood by the gurus themselves; and the hymns of Bhagats, who had no connection with the gurus, are at the lower end of this hierarchy of sanctity.
Ibid, p.117-8
In the
rag Sorathi, Guru Ramdas writes about the greatness of God, the liberating power of the guru, and human beings who are blessed with the divine grace. In the last group, he refers to the four categories of the holy people. (Bhagats, Saints, Sadhus, and Sikhs of the guru) and categorically states that the Sikhs are the most fortunate ones among them (
Sabhdu vade bhag gursikha ke jo gurcharni sikh paratai, M4, AG, 649. He has no doubt that the Sikhs belong to a higher level of blessedness than the one enjoyed by the Bhagats.
Ibid, p.118
Bhai Gurdas is not modest in explicating the hierarchical relationship between the Bhagats and the Sikhs (Gurmukhs/Gursikhs”). He writes about the Bhagats (
Var 10), the early prominent Sikhs (
Var 11), and the code of conduct centered on their devotion to the guru (
Var 12). He believes that the Sikhs attained the same bliss received by Beni, Dhanna, Kabir, Namdev, Ravidas, and Sain. In other words, only the most prominent saints of the other traditions were on an equal level with the Sikhs of the guru.
Ibid, p.118
His absurd assertion, that the Gurus ranked the Bhagats inferior to Gurus, Saints, Sadhus and Sikhs, is symptomatic of deficient and/or devious scholarship. In Sikhism there are only three entities, God, Guru [Word] and Sikhs, who are not beatified, but venerated and revered as Bhagats, Saints or Sadhus according to their spirituality, devotion, piety, altruism and noble virtues. In the Sikh scriptural anthology, Guru Granth Sahib, there are numerous hymns by the Sikh Gurus, venerating the bhagats, including Guru Arjan’s hymn that explicitly mentions bhagats blessed with reverence and veneration. See GGS p.487
The Sikh Gurus adopted the, universally lauded, par excellence criteria and methodology in the monumental task of collection, selection, redaction, collation, and pagination of Sikh scriptural anthology, Guru Granth Sahib, that is popularly acclaimed and regarded to be personification of perpetual Guru of the Sikhs, ‘in its entirety’, as per Sikhism’s cardinal concept and doctrine, ‘Guru’s eternal Word, not his mortal body, is the Guru’. The comments of the celebrated non-Sikh scholars philosophers and leaders, quoted directly below, best describe the Sikhism’s universal theology and egalitarian social Ideology, as enshrined in the Guru Granth Sahib [Sikh Scripture]. The term ‘in its entirety’ is noteworthy as it signifies the inclusiveness of Bhagat Bani.
“At a time when the society and the nation was splintered in the name of caste, religion, language and region, Guru Arjan took up the challenging task of bringing the entire humanity in one fold by incorporating the
Banis of Saints and Scholars from almost all classes of society to spread the message of Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of mankind.”
Dr. Hameed Ansari, Vice President of India, Sikh Review, Feb. 2009
“But the Adi Granth is a catholic [universal] anthology. It also includes hymns written by earlier Indian seers in whom Nanak and his successors recognized kindred spirits; and some of these contributors to the Granth are Hindus, while others are Muslims. Their writings have found a place in the Adi Granth because the compilers of it held, and surely with good reason, that these seers were Sikhs in fact, though they lived and wrote before the Sikh religion took institutional form. They were Sikhs because they brought out and emphasized the universal spiritual truths contained in their respective religious traditions; and these truths belong to all ages and to all faiths.”
Arnold Toynbee, Forward,
UNESCO Publication ‘The Sacred Writings of The Sikhs’ p.10
“A remarkable feature of the
Adi Granth is that it contains the writings of the religious teachers of Hinduism, Islam, etc. … The Sikh Gurus who compiled the
Adi Granth had this noble quality of appreciation of whatever was valuable in other religious traditions. The saints belong to the whole world. They are universal men, who free our minds from bigotry and superstition, dogmas and rituals and emphasize the central simplicities of the inner values who correct the fanaticisms of their superstitious followers. [
Late] Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, President of India, Ibid,pp.17-8
Conclusion
Why would Gurinder Singh Mann, or anyone else for that matter, choose to pursue inquisitorial study of Sikh anthology, stamped with its original coauthors, venerated and revered Sikh Gurus and Hindu and Muslim Saints’ signatures, compared to some other major religions’ scriptures that were written by the disciples long after their respective religions’ founder’s demise? Apparently, he chose to pursue Ph. D. degree to advance his literary profile and academic career, under the tutelage of academics whose proficiency in the Sikh theology, ideology and history we can only extrapolate. His published thesis, rife with radical contentions and adverse controversies gleaned from some disenchanted Sikhs and mythological chroniclers accounts, incompatible with Sikh scripture’s unique message, traditions and historical details, packs potential to detract the cause of Sikhism. Obviously he is aware of the accounts’ anomalies.
Given the centrality of scripture in the tradition, almost all the Sikh chroniclers refer to the compilation of the original text and its expansion into the Adi Granth. These authors constructed their accounts primarily around oral traditions, using them with varying degrees of ingenuity.
T.M.O.S.S., pp.5-6
The nineteenth–century narrators, however, introduced additional dramatic details. In these accounts, Kabir is presented as the spokesperson for the Bhagats during their visit to the Sikh court. He respectfully introduces each of them to Guru Arjan and announces the precise purpose of their visit - to get their hymns recorded in the sacred Sikh text. …. These chroniclers also knew that many of the Bhagats whose hymns are recorded in Sikh scripture were dead by the time of Guru Arjan. Still, they easily circumvented the difficulty of announcing for this historical anomaly by describing the saints’ arrival in ethereal forms.
Ibid, p.103
