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The Compilation of the Holy
Granth
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Guru Granth
Sahib contains hymns of reformers of other religions too. All these
hymns are binding on the believers. The Holy Granth took the place
of various puranic citations and with this the Sikhs took a further
and firmer step in their social life and standing, practically
becoming emancipated from the hold of the Brahamans. This is the
story of how the Granth came to be compiled. |
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Sikhism was
essentially a religion of the Name. In it, the most obvious exercise
was the recitation or singing of the Guru's Word, to the exclusion
of all other ceremony or ritual. Seeing the importance of this
practice, many clever persons like Prithia, had begun to mix up
spurious writings with compositions of the Gurus and to make them
current among the Sikhs. There was a danger of confusion in the
creed and the ritual; and the Guru who was responsible for the
organization of Sikhism on a sound basis had to ensure unity of
belief and practice. He undertook therefore to collect writings of
his predecessors and, adding to them his own, to prepare a grand
volume out of them. Some of the work had been done by the Second and
the Third Gurus, and the manuscripts lay with Baba Mohan at Goindval.
Guru Arjun went there personally and brought them reverently to
Amritsar. As these Goindval manuscripts do not contain all the
writings included in the Holy ranth, he must have consulted other
sources too to get at the complete works required.
He sat down at
Ramsar, a beautiful solitary spot to the south of Amritsar, and
began his work of composition and compilation. His own contribution
was the biggest, and included some of the sublimest pieces like the
Sukhmani which being free from any touch of sectarianism have been
favourite reading with the non-Sikhs in Sindh as well as in the
Punjab.
His chief
qualities as a writer are intellectual vigour, classical restraint,
and serenity of emotion arising from practical needs of life. There
is in his writings a still sad music of humanity, a lyrical cry come
from the heart that has known suffering and has found peace. It is a
peace behind which lies a tremendous struggle with pain, culminating
in victory, 'like the calm of the weather brought about by a shower
of rain following on a storm of dust and wind' (Kabir).'
 Besides his own
and his predecessors' compositions, he also included selections from
the writings of fifteen Hindu and Muslim saints, Kabir, Farid,
Namdev, Ravidas, Bhikhan, etc., most of whom belonged to the
socalled untouchable classes. Five at least (Farid, Bhikhan, Satta,
Balvand and Mardana) were Mohammedans. The selection was based, not
on doctrinal but the lyrical and living value of the pieces. The
idea of making this selection was not new. It was inherent in the
cosmopolitan nature of Sikhism, and had begun with its founder. That
Guru Nanak himself had the writings of Kabir with him is proved by
the fact that many of Kabir's expressions are embedded in his own;
e.g 'Sutak will enter into our kitchens' (Var Asa) is found also in
Kabir's Gauri.
'The mind is
born out of the five senses' occurring in Guru Nanak's Asa is the
same as 'The mind is the creature of the five senses' of Kabir's
Gauri. 'Live pure amidst the impurities of the world' is word for
word the same in Guru Nanak's Suhi as in Kabir's Gauri. 'To conquer
the mind is to conquer the world' is found in Guru Nanak's Japji as
well as in Kabir's Maru. 'Without the True Guru they shall not find
the way' (Var Asa) also occurs in Kabir's Basant and Beni's Prabhati.
Many verses in Guru Nanak's 5th shloka of the 12th pauri
of the first Var in Ramkali are the same as Kabir's verses in Bhairo
about a Qazi. Some couplets of Farid are embodied in the writings of
Guru Nanak (e.g. 113 and 114). Sometimes the Guru criticizes Farid's
views and inserts his own salokas after his (e.g. 119-120 and 123-
124). See also Farid's Suhi (ii) and Guru Nanak's reply to it in the
same measure, ghar 6(ii). A similar identity or correspondence in
expression is found between Second, Third and Fourth Gurus, on the
one hand, and Farid and Kabir, on the other. This could only be
explained by the supposition that the predecessors of Guru Arjan had
before them the writings of these Bhagats, and that Guru Arjun was
not the first to think of making a collection of their verses.
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The idea of
compiling the Granth was not new. It was inherent in the
cosmopolitan nature of Sikhism, and had begun with its founder. That
Guru Nanak himself had the writings of Kabir with him is proven by
many quotations and their being found in Bhagat's bani. Some of the
work had been done by the Second and the Third Gurus.
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What Guru Arjun
did was to give them a scriptural position, and following up the
work of his predecessors to enlarge the scope of this inclusion. He
was unable to secure their originals, and had therefore to depend on
the Goindval manuscripts and what was available from the followers
of those saints in the Panjab, where their language had been
Panjabised to some extent. This will explain why so many Panjabi
words and forms are found in the Bhagats' writings as incorporated
in the Holy Granth. The Guru had to reject the compositions of many
men, like Kahna, Chhajju, Shah Hussain andPiloo, who had requested
him to find a place for them in his Granth: some were considered
unsuitable because of their Vedantic leanings, others because of
their hatred for the world or for women. He wanted only healthy
optimism and joy in worldly duties and responsibilities, and not
mere tearful ecstaticism or other worldliness.
The huge
material thus assembled was reduced to writing by Bhai Gurdas at the
dictation of Guru Arjun. It is arranged according to 31 musical
measures, those modes being rejected which are calculated to work
the mind to extremes of joy or sadness; e.g., Megh and Hindol; jog
and Deepak. The Vars or odes are constructed on a truly indigenous
basis, nine out of the twenty-two being set to the martial strains
of the well-known heroic ballads. Within each Rag or measure, the
passages are arranged according to subject or thought, and groups
of hymns forming single paragraphs always begin with an invocation
to God. First come the writings of the Gurus in the order of their
succession, each calling himself by the common appellation of Nanak;
then follow those of the saints, beginning with Kabir and ending -
if there is any piece from him - with Farid. Towards the end, after
the shloks of Kabir and Farid, are given the Swayyas of eleven
contemporary Bards who admirably sum up the characteristics of the
different Gurus. After a miscellany of Shloks left over from
insertion in the Vars, the Book closes with an epilogue, called
Mundavani, in which the author says:
In this dish are
placed three things; Truth, Harmony and Wisdom. These are seasoned
with Name of God which is the ground of all, Whoever eats and enjoys
it will be saved. And then he adds with a genuine pride in the work
he has accomplished for the regeneration of mankind:
It is a thing
you cannot afford to ignore; You must clasp it to your hearts. The
Book was to be translated into Indian and foreign languages so that
it might spread over the whole world just as oil spread over water.
t was completed and installed in he central sanctum sanctorum at
Amritsar in 1604, nd Baba Buddha was appointed its first Granthi or
custodian. While the Book was still in preparation, the enemies of
the Guru represented to Akbar that he was compiling a book in which
the Muslim and Hindu prophets were reviled. The Emperor visited the
Guru at Goindval towards the end in 1598, and was very much pleased
to hear some of the passages read out to him from it. He found
nothing objectionable in them, and expressed his deep appreciation
for the Book, which as 'the first great Scripture of Synthesis' was
bound to appeal to the founder of the first synthetical religion of
the world. Akbar also remitted a portion of the year's revenue to
the Zamindars, whose hardships were brought to his notice by the
Guru.
(This article
has been excerpted and adapted from the writings of Sikhism's great
scholars, Professors Teja Singh and Ganda Singh. Some parts have
been adapted with help from their A Short History of The Sikhs (same
authors, 1949), reprinted by Punjabi University, Patiala).
29
October 2008
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