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Summary of Question:	Spelling Mistakes In Sggs???????
Category:	Gurbani
Date Posted:	Tuesday, 8/06/2002 5:46 AM MDT

Waheguru ji ka khalsa waheguru ji ke fateh!!

Dear Moderator, i came across one of the responses to a question in which is written that there are many spelling mistakes in SGGS ji. Please explain?
How can this be, is this to do with misinterpretation of Gurbani or when bhai mani singh was writting as guru Gobind singh ji was reciting?

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REPLY
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Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!
Perhaps I shouldn't have said 'mistakes.' But I am reading SGGS in a slow Sahej Paath and I see the same words spelled sometimes three or four ways--not usually in the same shabad, but still I see them. (So, I don't know which wasy is considered correct spelling, not that it matters!) I am NOT a Gurmukhi or Punjabi scholar, but I know one and he agrees that the same word can have several spellings in SGGS.

I mean NO disrespect to 10th Guru or Bhai Mani Singh. Imagine trying to keep up with writing while being dictated to, and since it's Gurbani, no doubt Bhai Mani Singh went into a state of bliss while transcribing! I can easily see where different spellings could happen. It's not a big deal and no one should make it a big deal. ALso, the difference in spelling could have something to do with the different Gurbani authors, and perhaps, how they spelled a word in their dialect or locale, or it could be a reflection of the audience the Guru was teaching at the time. Personally, I appreciate these differences; it's how I KNOW that SGGS has not been altered.

In today's modern world, those kinds of differences would be made consistent by an eagle-eye editor. Back then 10th Master's concern was the correctness of the the shabd; not, perhaps, if each word was spelled consistently throughout SGGS! Guru rakha,
-DKK