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Life And Work of Guru Arjan.
Pashaura Singh : Life and Work of Guru Arjan, History, Memory and Biography in the Sikh Tradition. New York : Oxford University Press, 2006, P. 448, $45.US. 'Life and Work of Guru Arjan (2006)" is another feather in his turban. He builds Guru Arjan's life from various sources- tradition, collective memory, hymns recorded in Adi Granth, works of Bhai Gurdas, Bahoval pothi, Dabistan-i- Mazahib(1644/45), pothi of Bibi Rup Kaur, Granth of Bhai Painda, K S Chhibar's Bansavalinama(1769), Sarup Das Bhalla's Mahima Prakash(1776), Santokh Singh's Suraj Praksh(1843), etc. Since Guru Arjan spent his childhood at his grandfather's place at Goindwal, the religious atmosphere of the place was a good influence on young Arjan. He noticed the compilation of Goindwal Pothis, detailed selection and arrangement of works of three Gurus and Bhagtas. This proved helpful when he compiled the Adi Granth later. He received the training in classical ragas from resident rababis and visiting musicians. In fact, he inherited the rich musical tradition and employed the same 30 ragas in Adi Granth which were used by previous Gurus. His grandfather and father founded new towns, built baolis(wells) and pools, and Guru Arjan continued the tradition of founding more towns and building pools. Teachings of Guru Arjan are dealt beautifully, especially emphasizing its consistency with Guru Nanak’s doctrine of monotheism . “Throughout his works Guru Arjan spoke through Guru Nanak’s lips,” as Dr. Singh puts it. He has read and analyzed all available evidence and theories of the martyrdom of Guru Arjan. He stresses that the martyrdom was a turning point in Sikh history and that it helped in crystallizing the Sikh tradition. New Findings : Reader gets lot of new information which perhaps has not been adequately covered in other biographies of Guru Arjan. We learn that Guru Arjan and Bhai Gurdas were class mates. They were taught Gurmukhi by Baba Buddha and Sanskrit by pundits, Kesho and Gopal. Generally it is believed that Bhai Gurdas was the amanuensis of Guru Arjan when he compiled Adi Granth. According to Pashaura Singh, there was also a Jagna Brahmin of Agra who had expertise in Sanskrit and Hindu scriptures. He earned himself a fine reputation for making exact copies of scriptures. They were assisted by four others- Bhai Sant Das, Bhai Harja, Bhai Sukha and Bhai Mansa Ram. In fact the preparation of scripture was a team effort, under the direct supervision of Guru Arjan. Jagna Brahmin made his own copy which Dr. Singh saw at Goindwal in 2002. It is claimed as the exact copy of the Bir prepared by the team. We also learn that Emperor Jahangir gave 1400 bighas of land to Guru Arjan to build the city of Tarn Taran. According to Dr. Singh, this is mentioned in two old manuscripts found in Vaid Mohan Singh's library. Later, when the relations with the Mughal emperor turned sour, Shah Jahan gave a revenue free grant to Dhir Mal in 1643 to create a parallel seat of authority against Guru Hargobind. Dr. Singh saw the original document ordering the grant with Sodhis of Kartarpur . He has produced its English version in the book. Due to the pro-establishment leanings of Dhir Mal, Guru Hargobind designated his youngest grandson Har Rai as Guru in 1644. MS 1245, Behoval pothi and Vanjara Pothis were the earlier drafts prepared under the supervision of Guru Arjan before the master Kartapur draft was finalized. Guru Ram Das added 11 ragas increasing them from 19 to 30 ; Guru Arjan did not add any raga, but re-arranged and systematized them while compiling the Adi Granth. Guru Nanak wrote his hymns in lande/mahajani, language of his profession, but used Gurmukhi script. That puts Gurmukhi earlier than Guru Angad. Eight chaukis(sittings) to sing kirtan as part of daily routine at Amritsar were influenced by the eight orders of vaishnava bhakti tradition. Stands by his convictions : Despite severe denigration and charges of blasphemy from a section of Sikh writers when his Ph.D thesis appeared, Dr. Singh stands unnerved. He still believes that Guru Arjan made drafts before preparing the master manuscript, the Kartarpur Bir, and that GNDU MS 1245 was an earlier draft with valuable information and is worth examining . He still holds that Guru Arjan did a minor revision to the Mul Mantra he inherited from Guru Ram Das. He maintains that inclusion of Bhagat Dhanna’s hymns in Adi Granth was a response to the contemporary situation in which a large number of Jats were attracted towards the Sikh faith. His loyalty to his guide and mentor, Dr. Hew McLeod, is unwavering. The spirit of McLeod stalks through the pages of the text. McLeod is the most quoted author in the book. Disagreements : No doubt it is a comprehensive study of all that is associated with Guru Arjan’s life and works, yet it leaves some questions not fully answered. Acccording to Dr. Pashaura Singh, the Kartarpur Bir was only the master draft, it was not installed at Harimander Sahib. He, however, claims that the Kartarpur Bir was completed on Aug.1, 1604. Then other sources reveal that it was installed at Harimander Sahib on Aug. 16, 1604. Was an improved copy possible within two weeks ? There are more reasons to believe that it was the Kartpur Bir that was actually installed and Guru Hargobind carried it with him after the battle of Amritsar in 1634 and left it with his family at Kartarpur on his way to Kiratpur. Dhir Mal and family had not yet gone down in the estimation of Guru Hargobind. Dr. Pasahura Singh says that Guru Hargobind took the Bir (master draft) from his house in Amritsar, but left behind the real final bir at Harimandir Sahib. Why would guru take away the draft and not the real Adi Granth ? According to Encyclopedia of Sikhism, the Bir was taken by the Guru from Harimandir Sahib. It is somewhat puzzling to learn that the master manuscript was not actually the final draft. "In fact Guru Arjan had not closed the canon and he intended to add more hymns to the evolving corpus of the Sikh scripture. Both Gurinder Mann and I have discussed in our works that certain hymns were added after 1604", admits Pashaura Singh. Then he says the Punjabi University Museum (PUM) manuscripts #8 was further improvement over the Kartapur manuscript as it did not have the apocryphal Mira Bai hymn and has only two lines of Ramkali hymn without the deleted or blank space. In his ‘The Guru Granth Sahib, Canon, Meaning and Authority (2000)', he gives several reasons to prove that PUM #8 was closer to the current Bir than the Kartapur Bir. Since PUM#8 was written during Guru Arjan's time, why not accept it as the final Bir or the master manuscript in place of Kartarpur Bir ? If Sikh scripture was still evolving, then those who question the authenticity of Kartpur Bir have good reason to say so. According to Dr. Singh, both Guru Arjan and Mian Mir laid the foundation stone of Harimandir Sahib. “The Guru laid the first brick and the Sufi saint probably laid some additional bricks for the masonry foundation of the Harimandir Sahib”. This compromise formula of Dr. Singh is less convincing. Evidence that Guru Arjan himself laid the foundation is weightier and more convincing. Many may not agree with him on his justification for the inclusion of Ragmala in the Sacred scripture when he says “An understanding of the musical system of the Rag-mala enables one to explore the spiritual ethos of the Adi Granth”. Since Rag-mala is not Gurbani, it should have been better contained in a separate volume as Guru Gobind Singh did to his compositions.. There is no reference to Dr. Balwant Singh Dhillon’s book, “Early Sikh Scriptural Tradition", a similar work on the subject. Conclusion : Such differences, however, should not deny him the credit of the intensive scholarly study he did in area which was not attempted at this scale before. It is a very well researched volume and as scholar, gursikh and granthi, he is fully qualified to the job. At the end of each chapter there are 100 or more references to the literature consulted. It has a mine of information for scholars and students of Sikh studies looking for new ideas on the life and work of Guru Arjan Dev. It is befitting tribute to Guru Arjan as book was released in June 2006 on the fourth centenary of his martyrdom anniversary. No wonder it was on the "Best Sellers List" in India (The Tribune, August 6, 2006). It sure deserves a place in all libraries where there is a collection on Sikhism and an interest in Sikh studies. The book is available from South Asia Books [ sabooks@juno.com ] for individual buyers for $30 (shipping included). Note: Comments do not represent the views of SikhNet. Comments containing profanity, provocation or slandar will be removed by the moderators.
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