The Adi Granth is an enormous volume consisting of nearly 6000 hymns, its contributors are Sikh Gurus – These include the first five Gurus. The largest number (2218) is from the pen of Guru Arjan Dev. followed by Guru Nanak (974); Amar Das (907); Ram Das (679);and Angad (62); After Guru Gobind Singh embedded in it 116 Shabads and Saloks of Guru Tegh Bahadar and only one line of his own, which according to Trumpp and Munshi Sohan lal formed a reply to his father’s letter addressed to him from the prison of Delhi but which according to Dr. Chhabra, is something which is very doubtful.
Contributors
Hindu Bhaktas and Muslim Sufis-Hymns of sixteen Bhaktas and Sufis are included in the Granth. In the chronological order they are Jai Dev of Bengal; Farid of the Punjab; Nam Day, Trilochan and Parmanand of Maharashtra; Sadhna of Sindh; Beni and Ramanand of Uttar Pradesh; Dhanna of Rajasthau; Popa, Saiu Kabir and Ravidas of Uttar Pradesh; Bhikhan of Uttar Pradesh; and Sur Das, the blind poet of Avadh, The greatest number of hymns from among Bhaktas are those of the Muslin writer of Benaras, Kabir, and Farid who was the Sub mystic of Pak Pattan “The hymns of Bhaktas and Sahis in the Granth Sahib represent four centuries of religious thought in India”.
Minstrels (Bhatts or Barda)-There were eleven bards (Bhats) in the court of Guru Arjan. They were all Brahmans and came to Guru Arjan in 1580 81. They were men of wisdom and were much impressed by the personality and the work of Guru Arjan Dev They sang in Swayyas, the praise of Guru Anan Dev another Gurus. Their names were: Kal, Jalap, Bhikha, Sal, Bhai, Nal, BAL, Gyand, Mathura, Kirat, and Harbans.
Other Contributors
The Granth includes the eulogistic Ballad (Var) of Satta and Balwand. The composition of the Ballad was started by Balwand and completed by Satia. Sunder’s elegy popularly known as Ramkalt Sad also found a place in the Holy Granth Mardans a disciple of Guru ‘Nanak also contributed five Shabads to the Granth.
Arrangement
- The Granth starts with ‘Jap, called also Guru Mantar. It occupies about 9 pages and consists of 40 Sloks, called Pauries of irregular length, some of two and some of several lines. The mode of composition implies the presence of a questionnaire and an answer. It was written by Guru Nanak and it very beautifully and artistically depicts the road, one should adopt to attain one-self to the Reality. The Sidhs regard it a sacred duty to repeat it every morning.
2.Jap’ is followed by ‘Sodar Reh Ras” another com- position of Guru Nanak, although later on additions to it were make by Guru Ram Das and Guru Ajan Dev. “Sodar’ is the yearning of the soul for the door of the house of God.
After ‘Sodar’, there is composition known as ‘So Purkh’. Whose English synonym is that Supreme Being’? It is also recited as a part of evening prayer, ‘Kirtan Sobila’ follows ‘Sodar’ it occupies a page and one or two lines. It was also composed by Guru Nanak but has additions by Guru Ram Das and Arjan Dev. The word “Kartan’is a perverted from the word Kirti which means to praise and Sohila stands for marriage song, a song of rejoicing. Hence ‘Kirtan Sohila’ is a song of rejoicing in praise of God.
- The next portion of the Granth is divided into thirty ‘one sanctions each according to a particular Raga. The portion occupies 1154 pages. The thirty one Ragas are as under,-(1) Sri Rag; (2) Majh, (3) Gaura; (4) Asa; (5) Gujri: (6) Dev Sandhart; (7) Bihagra; (8) Wadhans (Wad Hans); (9) Sorath; (10) Dhansari; (11) Jaitsri; (12) Todi; (13) Balrari; (14) Tilang; (15) Suht; (16) Bilawal; (17) Gosnd; (18) Rarn Kalt; (19) Nat Narayan; (20) Mali Gaura, (21) Maru; (22) Tukhari; (23) Kedura; (24) Bhairon; (25) Basant; (26) Sarang; (27) Malhar; (28) cee (29) Kaltan; (30) Parbhatic and (31) Jai wahti.
The Gurus considered divine worship through music the beat means of attaining the state of Bliss-Vismad-which resulted in communion with God. The selecting of ragas was carefully made. Those that aroused passions of any kind were omitted. Megh and Hindol were not used because of their jubilant (one; Jog and Deepak were likewise rejected for their melancholy.
Each of these sections begins with an invocation to God followed by the hymns of the Gurus in order of their succession. All the Gurus themselves used the common appellatton of Nanak). Their compositions can be known only by the word in the beginning such as Mehla 1, Mebia 2. Mehla 3 and so on After Guru’s hymns in each section are the hymns of the Bhaktas or the saints beginning with Kabir and ending with Farid, if there is any hymn from the latter.
- Towards the end, after the slokas of Kabir and Farid are given swayvas of contemporary Bardi (Bhatts), who admirably sum up the characteristics of the different Gurus. After a miscellany of sloka left over from insertions in Vars, the book closed with an epilogue called ‘Mandown”, in which the author says.
-“In this disc are placed three things; Truth, Harmony and Wisdom, These are seasoned with the name of God. Which is the ground of all?
Whoever eats and enjoys he will be saved.
”And then he adds with a genuine pride in the work he accomplished for the regeneration and rejuvenation of mankind;-
It is a thing you cannot afford to ignore; you must clasp it to your hearts. The Granth concludes with the Rag-Mala which contained a list of ragas and their sub-divisions. On conduction a probe it appears that ‘Rag Mala’ does not form an essential part of the Granth. There are many reasons for that firstly it forms part of the work of a Mahammadan poet, alam which is supposed to have been written in 1583 and purports to be an account of the love affair of Madhave, Nal and a lady called Kam Kundala, secondly the ragas mentioned in Rag Mala do not correspond to those used in Adi Granth.
Language
The language of the Granth is a mixture of almost all the Aryan languages current in India. There are some stanzas whose language is very much like Sanskrit eg. the contributions of Jai Dev, the famous author of Gita Gobinda. One or two stanzas are in pure Perdian. The contribution of Nam Dev and Trilochan bear a strong, Impress of Marathi on them. Even then despite a span of five centuries between the earliest and latest compositions and the distant regions from which they were gathered, there is a certain unity of them and language in them. “Guru Anjan chose only there hymns who echoed sentiments he wanted to inculcate in his own com- munity. He did not have much difficulty with the language since most sint-poets of Northern India wrote in especially vocabulary common to Northern-Indian languages and used extensively for religions verse. “Besides this, as already stated whether the poems were from Bengal, Uttar Pradesh or Manarashtra, the version which the Guru accepted, was that which the Punjabis could understand. The main appeal of the Granth as a Scripture is its non-esoteric character and its utter simplicity. It has some of the greatest writings in the Punjabi language. Its two chief contributors Guru Nanak and Guru Arjan Dev have been inspiration of many later poets.
Importance of Adi Granth
The compilation of the Granth is a great landmark in The Sikh history. More than anything else it crested communal consciousness among the Sikhs and with a separate book of their own; they finally parted company with their Hindu brethren who would not regard any other book except the Vedas, Upanishads and the Purans as holy. Societogically speaking, it contributed immensely to the emergence of the Sikhs as a separate religion with distinct ethos of its own.
The adi Granth is the first religious book which contains the writings of the persons belonging to different communities, cases and diverse regions of the country. Of the 16 Bhaktas, four (Nara Dev, sadna, Sain and Ravi Das) are Shudras and two (Kabir and Farid were Muslims, four were Brabmans (Jai Dev, Trilochan, sur Das, and Ramanand), one Jat (dhanna); two Bhikhan and | Beni of unknown Caste and one Popa a barber. While the book was in preparation, the enemies of the Guru represented to Akbar that he was compiling a book in which the Muslims and Hindu prophets were reviled. The Emperor visited Goindwal in 1598 and heard some of the passages read out to him for it. He found nothing objectionable-rather he expressed that the Granth was the greatest book of synthesia worthy of reverence’ T.L. Vasavani regards it the first great scripture of synthesia. Having compiled the Granth, the Guru placed it in Hari Mandir and instituted daily public worship at the temple where the Granth was recited all day long to the accompaniment of stringed musical instruments. This step of the Guru supplanted the Hindu Vedas and Purans which the people were unable to read; and went a long way in developing a community with a distinct faith. The Granth was a sort of Bible for the Sikhs.
Treasure of Languages
The Granth is a ‘Treasure of Indian Languages’. Contributions of Kabir and Ramanand are in pure Hindi of the land. Farid’s compositions are in pure Punjabi. The hymns of Trilochan and Nam Dev bear impress of. Marathi, Persian words are also available in Granth. We have in it words “Jumnagar’ and those of Lehndi such as *Wanjan’, ‘Ghin’ etc. Besides this the Granth’ throws considerable light on the syntax words and also the development of different Indian languages during a span of five centuries between the earliest and the latest compositions.
Repository of Religious Thought
The hymns of the Bhaktas and Sufi in the Granth Sahib represent for centuries of Indian religious thought. They do not, however, correspond strictly to the versions now current in Hindi, Marathi or the other languages in which they are said to have been originally written. Apparently by the time, they cane to be known in the Punjab, they had undergone certain linguistic alter- nations; but once they had been incorporated in the Granth, no further changes were introduced in the text.
Mirror of contemporary Condition
The Adi Granth of Guru Arjan Dev is nowhere narrative or historical, yet it furnishes valuable information regarding social, religious, economic and political life of the age Guru Nanak in ‘Asa Di Var’ and “Babar Vani’ gives us a clear picture of the political and social corruption rampant in the society. He also gives a graphic description of the destruction and devastation wrought by Babar’s invasion, apart from his admonitions to the selfish, careless, lethargy ridden and foolish rulers of the country. The Guru’s hymns make no secret of the fact that social life was not harmonious. The people were caste-ridden and superstition-striken with no spirit left to proceed onwards. Religious life was also at its lowest ebb. The people were more particular for the performance of useless and unmeaning ceremonies than understanding the true meaning of their religious. Similarly by reading the Granth one can have a peep into the economic life of the people.
An Original Priceless Spiritual Treasure
Dr. Chhabra says, “Importance of the Granth lies in the fact that whereas we learn of the philosophy of Sox rates only from Plato and Xenopher; of the philosophy of Christ from Mathew and John; where Budana and Confucius have left no original record of their teachings; the philosophy of the Sikh Gurus is preserved in such secure and original form, and under the locks of poetical metrea that it is well-night impossible to adulterate or deform it’. According to Cuaningham “The Guru gave to his followers their fixed rule of religious and moral conduct with an assurance that multitudes even of divine Brahmins had wearied themselves with reading the Vedas and had found not the value of an oil seed within them.”
Article extracted from this publication >> October 13, 1989
