- 1. 1. Date of Birth of Guru Nanak: According to Karam Singh’s study, the date of birth of Guru Nanak in Puratan Janam Sakhi, Mehma Parkash, Bhai Mani singh Wali Janam Sakhi and other sources is Vaisakh Sudi 3 of Samat 1526. It is also known from the history that Gurpurab of Guru Nanak used to be celebrated on this date, but the date of birth shown in Bhai Bale Wali Janam Sakhi is Katik Puranmashi of Samat 1526. Thus, the date of Gurpurab was changed to Katik Puranmashi in Samat 1925 by the followers of Bhai Bale Wali Janam Sakhi. The reason given was that the change was necessary to prevent people visiting Ram Tirth on Katik Puranmashi. Thus, the first Gurpurab celebration at Nankana Sahib on Katik Puranmashi during Samat 1925 (1868 AD.) was to attract the people, who otherwise would have gone to Ram Tirth. The reason to change the date of celebration of Gurpurab from Vaisakh to Katik does not seem to be very logical at all. Moreover, to deceive people with wrong date of birth of their Guru, on the other and, can be considered very sinful activity of the followers of Bhai Bale Wali Janam Sakhi. According to Karam Singh’s analysis of this Janam Sakhi, the most appropriate date of birth of Guru Nanak is Vaisakh Sudi 3, Samat 1526, i.e., Saturday Vaisakh 20. According to the Christian era it falls on April 15, 1469 A.D. It is, therefore, never too late to rectify the mischief introduced by some anti-Sikh arcs. Let us, the Panth, decide bring back the date of Gurpurab of Guru Nanak to April 15 of every year. The foundation of Sikhism is considered from the birthday of the founder, Guru Nanak, ie. April 15. The day of completion of Sikhism (Sikh Nation) by the Tenth Nanak (Guru Gobind Singh) falls almost on April 13 every year. Since us, the Sikhs, in North America, UK, and other countries, except India, always have celebrated our religious days on weekends; therefore, it would not be difficult for the Panth to celebrate both the religious days on the Sunday closer to the 15th of April every year. The main idea of celebration of these two religious days are for deliberations on their contributions for creating a new, unique, scientific, logical, and modem religion Sikhism, and creation of a nation of most sturdy, hardworking, adventurous and entrepreneur people. According to Gurbani such days could be celebrated on any suitable day, as every day is an auspicious day for the Sikhs. Therefore, which day other than the Sunday closer to April 15 of every year could be more suitable for celebration of the both auspicious days, i.e., birthday of Gum Nanak and the completion day of anew Nation, The Sikhs?
I highly appreciate the work of Karam Singh who took his courage to condemn the most popular Janam Sakhi of Bhai Bala. He also succeeded to convince the Chief Khalsa Diwan to publish his book. But its sale was stopped soon by the Chief Khalsa Diwan without giving any reasons. Most probably the sale might have been stopped by Giani Gian Singh because it contradicted the date of birth of Guru Nanak given in his book, Gurpurbs of Sikh Gurus. It is also apparent from his letter dated Chet 5, Samat 1969, ie., 1912 A.D., given in Katik ke Vaisakh to keep the Sikhs in the dark: “ ..your (Karam Singh’s) efforts are worth appreciation but a complete condemnation of the ancient and currently accepted book (Bhai Bale Wali Janam Sakhi) would create confusion in the Panth and there would not be any benefit of it. If any critic declares the stories of this Janam Sakhi unrealistic and gossips, then what about the Hindu Purans, Mohammed Hadisan, Angeel of Christians, etc. which is also full of dark, thus this chaos is acceptable by all… These are the ideas of Giani Gian Singh, and historian, a philosopher, a prominent member of Chief Khalsa Diwan, and Singh Sabha. Unfortunately he is cited extensively in the modem literature on Sikhism. I may add here that he was one of those members of the Singh Sabha who were hesitant to drop the ancient mythology erroneously connected with Sikhism.
Karam Singh’s research was appreciated almost by all the then Sikh scholars except Giant Gian Singh. Among the modem scholars it is only Harinder Singh Mehboob who has contradicted his work and insisted on keeping the birth date on Puranmashi of Katik. However, recently Purewal’s research has shown that the birthday of Guru Nanak falls on Vaisakh 1, 1526BK, ji. ¢., March 27, 1469 according to Julian calendar. Most probably he is biased to keep Vaisakh 1 to start Nanakshahi Calendar and it is a Puranmashi, considered auspicious day by some. If this date is converted according to Gregorian calendar it would be April 13, 1469 A.D. which is close to that given by Karam Singh.
On the other hand I also wonder that this book, “Katik Ke Vaisakh” was written during the early part of 1912 A.D. and about a century has elapsed and the Sikhs have not been able to remove the damaging effects of Bhai Bale Wali Janam Sakhi and Bhai Bala from pictures of Guru Nanak, and bring the change in the birth date of the founder of the Sikhism to its real date. Now there is a big question? Is it that the anti-Sikh forces are stronger than that of the Sikhs or that, we the Sikhs, have degenerated to such an extent that we cannot dare to take any step to set the record straight and bring back Sikhism in its real perspective.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 2, 1996
