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The story of the making of Sikh scripture is brought to the present and its development is situated within a broader historical context. First, the history of the Adi Granth is traced from its inception in the late seventeenth century to the present time. The primary data for this discussion are provided by the extant Sikh scriptural manuscripts compiled between 1700 and the middle of the nineteenth century, when creation of new manuscripts virtually ceased, and the printed editions of the Adi Granth proliferated from 1865 onwards. The focus is then shifted to the issue of the development of scriptural authority within the Sikh community and its evolution is examined in detail. The roles that the text has played and continues to play in the Sikh religious and community life today are considered. The chapter concludes with a brief assessment of future prospects for the role and status of the Adi Granth as the Sikh community (now a world community with adherents all across the globe) enters the twenty‐first century.

A survey is made of the relevant Sikh literature, in order to understand Sikh perceptions of the history of compilation of the Adi Granth (the primary Sikh scripture) and the difference of views among scholars regarding the text's origin and its various stages of expansion. The important issues constituting scholarly debate and popular Sikh discourse on the compilation of the text of the Adi Granth are laid out. The chapter is divided into three main sections covering eighteenth‐century, nineteenth‐century, and twentieth‐century accounts.

The evolutionary process that resulted in the Adi Granth is traced. First, the significance of rag in Sikh devotion and its relationship to the organization of Sikh scripture are briefly addressed. The evolution is the traced of the structure of the Sikh text in terms of both the sequential arrangement of rag sections and their internal constitution. The chapter concludes with a brief comparison of the structure of the Adi Granth with that of Hindu and Islamic scriptures.

This chapter reconstructs the history of the compilation of the Adi Granth. It looks at the interactions between the Mughal and the Sikh traditions and examines the place of certain early manuscripts in the formation of the Sikh canon. Bhai Gurdas and Jagana Brahmin are believed to have helped Guru Arjan in his preparation of the Adi Granth. In addition, four other scribes — Bhai Sant Das, Bhai Haria, Bhai Sukha, and Bhai Mansa Ram — were also involved. Incidentally, at least four different handwritings were identified at different places, although the primary scribe is responsible for the major portion of the Kartarpur Bir. The making of the scripture was thus a product of teamwork led by Guru Arjan at Ramsar, in the central place of Amritsar. The formation of the Sikh canon commenced with the use in Sikh liturgy of Guru Nanak's hymns, when he was the head of a nascent Sikh Panth. Analysis of the early manuscripts indicates that Guru Arjan worked on a number of pre-canonical texts before coming up with an authoritative text of the Adi Granth in 1604.

The historical background to the Sikh religion is outlined, and an account given of the Adi Granth (“original book”) – the primary Sikh scripture, which is considered to be the highest authority within the community, and plays a central role in Sikh devotional and ritual life. It consists of about 3,000 hymns of carefully recorded authorship with over 2,400 hymns written by the 6 Sikh gurus who lived in the Punjab between 1469 and 1675. The text of the Adi Granth is divided into three main parts: the opening section is liturgical and includes three daily prayers; the Japji (meditation) has 38 stanzas and 2 couplets; the Rahiras (supplication) has 9 hymns; and the Sohila (praise) has 5 hymns. Next, there is an account of the early Sikh community, which also discusses the origin and expansion of the scriptural text. The chapter ends with a plan of the book.

This chapter and Chapters 3 and 5 examine in detail the extant Sikh scriptural manuscripts in relation to the compilation of the Adi Granth (the primary Sikh scripture). Here, an analysis is made of two major manuscripts: MS 1245 (a recently discovered document thought to date from about 1600, which suggests that an intermittent stage separated the compilation of the Goindval Pothis from that of the Kartarpur Pothi) and the Kartarpur Pothi (1604), in order to describe the stage of development of the scriptural text at the turn of the seventeenth century. On the basis of the firm evidence available, the author proposes to modify the traditional characterization of the Kartarpur Pothi as the original attempt at compilation of the Sikh sacred literature (the Adi Granth), as well as existing understanding of its evolution into the canonical text in later history. This, however, poses no challenge to the authenticity of the manuscript.

This chapter and the two previous chapters examine in detail the extant Sikh scriptural manuscripts in relation to the compilation of the Adi Granth (the primary Sikh scripture). Here, an analysis is made of the seventeenth‐century manuscripts in order to reconstruct the history of the text up to the compiling of the Adi Granth in the l680s. The existing classification of these manuscripts is examined and a modified picture of their mutual relationships proposed. Next, the Adi Granth itself is addressed, and its production is reconstructed in a way that radically revises the current understanding of the surrounding time and circumstances, as well as the relationship between its contents and those of textural antecedents, such as the Kartarpur Pothi (described in the last chapter) and other seventeenth‐century manuscripts.

The presence of the hymns (bhagat baṇi) of 15 Bhagats (either non‐Sikhs or Sikhs who are not gurus) in the Adi Granth and the community's responses to this portion of Sikh scripture is addressed. On the basis of the information available in the early manuscripts, arguments are put forward for a radically revised view of Sikh traditional beliefs about the dates of the entry of these hymns into the Sikh text; the possible reasons for their introduction; the process of selection of this corpus and its evolution; and the status of the bhagat baṇi in relation to the hymns of the Sikh gurus in the minds of the Sikh scripture compilers, and later in evolving perceptions within the Sikh community.

This chapter focuses on the Sikh response to the Vaishnava bhakti tradition. It examines the two hymns of Jaidev, although he has not received any direct comment from the Sikh Gurus. He is specifically chosen to address the question of whether the author of these two hymns is identical with the author of the celebrated Vaishnava text Gitagovinda. The chapter also discusses two Vaishnava saints, Surdas and Mira Bai. In particular, it considers the single line of Surdas in the Sarang raga that has received a direct comment from Guru Arjan. It also looks at the reasons why Mira Bai's hymn in the Maru raga was deleted from the Adi Granth.

This chapter and the next two examine in detail the extant Sikh scriptural manuscripts in relation to the compilation of the Adi Granth (the primary Sikh scripture). Here, an analysis is made of the information available about the Guru Harsahai Pothi (thought to date from the 1530s) and the Goindval Pothis (thought to date from the 1570s), which are traditionally associated with Guru Nanak and Guru Amardas, respectively. The contents of these manuscripts are drawn on to assess the early formation of the Sikh scriptural corpus, and questions of their history, dating, and location in the early Sikh sacred corpus addressed.

This book analyses various issues related to scripture from the Sikh perspective, focusing on the Adi Granth, the sacred scripture of the Sikh community. Among the Sikhs, the Adi Granth is widely known as the Guru Granth Sahib and carries the same status and authority as did the ten Gurus from Guru Nanak to Guru Gobind Singh. This book explores the role of the Adi Granth in the corporate and personal lives of the Sikhs and discusses the process of canon formation in the Sikh tradition. It examines the revelation and transmission of the bani, verbal expression of bani, and the compilation of the Adi Granth along with the academic debate on the issues of scriptural analysis in Sikh studies.

This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to understand various issues related to the presence of the writings of the bhagats in the Sikh scripture, the Adi Granth. It describes the selection and treatment of the Bhagat Bani encountered in the Adi Granth collection, and the canonization of the Bhagat Bani. It then examines the various issues related to the Bhagat Bani from the perspectives of the notion of a universe of discourse, the theory of the Divine Name, the idea of religious pluralism, and the issue of self-definition. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.

The conclusion summarizes the topics discussed in various chapters. The formation of the Sikh canon is a process that began with the use of Guru Nanak's hymns in Sikh liturgy at Kartarpur during the last decades of his life. A written collection, in four volumes, appeared in the form of the Goindval pothis during the period of the third Guru. They provided substantial nucleus for the compilation of the Adi Granth and provide insights into the earliest writings of the first three Gurus and the bhagats. Guru Ram Das provided musical dimension to the Sikh scriptural tradition. Guru Arjan was responsible for the compilation of the Adi Granth which he prepared in 1604, primarily in response to the process of consolidation of the Sikh tradition that was taking place during his period. Some of the fundamental aspects of Guru Arjan's editorial policy are reflected in the actual processes by which he created the first canonical text of the Adi Granth.

This chapter considers the Sikh religious and cultural identity/ies in southern California. It also addresses how Sikh identities are formed, performed, informed, interpreted, and understood through the participants’ relationship with the Sikh practice of Gurbani kirtan (or Shabad kirtan), the musical and vocal performance of the central Sikh scripture, the Adi Granth. The analytical lens of diaspora studies used by the author understands musical and oral/aural performances of Gurbani as taking on multiple roles in the diasporic Sikh communities. The performance of kirtan can be regarded as a form of continuous self-commemoration for Sikh communities. Kirtan appears as a significant locus for identity transmission. The performance of Gurbani kirtan makes manifest the majesty and consciousness-transforming power of the eternal Naad. The obvious centrality of kirtan to the lives of diaspora Sikh communities indicates the ripeness of this topic for further research.

This chapter focuses on the works of Kabir (ca. 1398-1448), representing the Sant tradition of north India. Kabir is the major Sant poet of the Adi Granth who has received direct comments from the Sikh Gurus. The Sants were individuals who did not have the sense of mission or the idea of an organized religious community. Indeed, the question of self-definition makes sense only with a community; the Sants who seemingly lacked communities and institutional settings did not engage in a quest for self-definition. The chapter examines how the comments on the works of Kabir made by the Sikh Gurus like Guru Amar Das and Guru Arjan sharpened the process of Sikh self-definition.

In reading books, genre is a key consideration. And whether one reads the Book of Mormon from the perspective of American history, American literature, or world scripture, it is important to recognize that it is a narrative, presented as the interlocking writings of named, self-revealing narrators (something like Nabokov's Pale Fire). This makes it rather unusual for a sacred text of the last thousand years. For instance, the Adi Granth of the Sikhs is an anthology of splendid poetry. The Book of Mormon features poetic passages as well, but they are always set within a broader narrative framework. Rather than being “chloroform in print,” as Mark Twain famously observed, the Book of Mormon, like Wagner's music, is “better than it sounds.”

This chapter examines the different approaches adopted by various schools of interpretation within the Sikh tradition and how an interpretation of a text relates to the issues of its epoch. It considers Mircea Eliade's distinction between the internal meanings of textual and symbolic systems and how their use and interpretation are influenced by the ‘vicissitudes of social life’. In order to determine the religious and social significance of texts, hermeneutics must therefore be coupled with an inquiry that addresses how texts are interpreted and used by readers. This chapter describes seven major schools of interpretation of gurbani: Sahaj Pranali, Bhai Pranali, Paramarath Pranali, Nirmala Pranali, Giani Pranali, and Singh Sabha Pranali. It also analyses recent trends in scriptural interpretation within the Sikh tradition and argues that the Adi Granth text has an infinite hermeneutic potential.

Guru Arjan was fully immersed in the teachings of the Gurus, tutored to acknowledge the Divine Presence, from the time of his birth. This chapter reconstructs Guru Arjan's life — in history and memory — and traces the events leading to his death which became a turning point in Sikh history. Guru Arjan's life can be divided into three discrete periods of unique character: eleven years at Goindval, seven years at Ramdaspur and Lahore, and twenty-five years of Guru Arjan's reign. Written recollections of Guru Arjan include Tikke di Var (‘Ballad of Coronation’) and Bhattan de Savayye (‘Panegyrics of the Bards’). This chapter also examines Guru Arjan's autobiographical hymns in the Adi Granth and places the available evidence in the light of Punjabi cultural practices and social contexts. Finally, it looks at the popular image of Guru Arjan in Sikh narratives.