Bhai Gurdas and the early Sikh literature

HUKAMNAMA, a compound of two Persian words hukm, meaning command or order, and ndmah, meaning letter, refers in the Sikh tradition to letters sent by the Gurus to their Sikhs or sangats in different parts of the country. Currently, the word applies to edicts issued from time to time from the five takhis or scats of high religious authority for the Sikhs tlie Akal Takht at Amritsar, Takht Sri Kesgarh at Anandpur Sahib (Punjab), Takht Harimandar Sahib at Patna (Bihar), Takht Sachkhand Sri Hazur Sahib at Nanded (Maharashtra) and Takht Damdama Sahib at Talvandi Sabo (in Bathinda district of the Punjab).

VARAN BHAI GURDAS is the title given to the collection of forty vars or "ballads" written in`Punjabi by Bhai Gurdas (d. 1636) much honoured in Sikh piety and learning. These forty vars comprise 913 pauris or stanzas, with a total of 6,444 lines. There is no internal or external evidence available to determine the exact time of the composition of these vars, but it can be assumed that vars (Nos. 3,11,13,24,26,38,39) which have references to Guru Hargobind who came into spiritual inheritance in 1606 after the death of Guru Arjan, his predecessor, might have been composed sometime after that year, and the others implicitly prior to that date.

HAQIQAT RAH MUQAM RAJE SHIVNABH KI Haqiqat Rah Muqam Raje Shivnabh Ki (account or description of way, i.e. journey to the abode of Raja Shivnabh) is an anonymous and undated short piece in Punjabi prose, found appended to some manuscript copies of the Guru Granth Sahib, particularly to copies of the Bhai Banno recension. The author of this account is supposed to be Bhai Paira, a learned Sikh who was deputed by Guru Arjan to go to Singhladip (Singhladip of the Janam Sakhis), present-day Sri Lanka, to fetch a copy of a manuscript called the Pran Sangll (Chain of the Vital Breath), an interpretation of Hatha Yoga, which was said to have been recited by Guru Nanak to the Raja of Sanghladip, Shivnabh.

JANAM SAKHI derives its name from the number attached to the manuscript in the catalogue of the India Office Library, London (MS. Panj B40). It consists of a unique collection of sakhis or anecdotes concerning the life of Guru Nanak, and, although it sliares common sources with the Puratan and Adi Sakhian traditions, it constructs a different sakhi sequence and incorporates a substantial block of stories which are to be found in none of the other major traditions. This cluster of anecdotes was evidently drawn from the oral tradition of the compiler`s own area and includes all the principal janam sakhi forms such as narrative anecdote, narrative discourse, didactic discourse, and lieterodox discourse.

JANAM SAKHI, i.e. life story, is the term used to designate traditional narratives of the life of Guru Nanak. Although the compound is occasionally applied to narratives concerning later Gurus or other religious teachers too, it is normally confined to those which relate in anecdotal prose the life and teachings of the First Master. Several janam sdkhi traditions have evolved, particularly during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

KABITTSAVAIYYE, by Bhai Gurdas who had worked with Guru Arjan on the preparation of the original volume of Sikh scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, and who is remembered in the Sikh tradition as the first consistent interpreter of the Gurus` word, is a collection of 675 kabitts and savaiyyds composed by the poet in Braj. Of his kabitts and savaiyyds, a total of 556 only were known before 1940 when Bhai Vir Singh searched out and published another 119 of them, thereby bringing their total to 675.

KARNI NAMAH, address on the importance of good conduct, is an apocryphal composition in verse attributed to Guru Nanak. In this work Guru Nanak is said to have predicted to one Qaxi Rukan Dm the advent of the rule of the Khalsa which will usher in the millennium.

MIHARBAN JANAM SAKHI takes its name from Sodhi Miharban, nephew of Guru Arjan and leader of the schismatic Mma sect. Miharban`s father, Prithi Chand, was the eldest son of Guru Ram Das and as such had greatly resented being passed over as his father`s successor in favour of a younger brother. He set himself as a rival to the Guru. He and his followers who supported his claims were stigmatized as Mmas or hypocrites and out castes.

ADI SAKHIAN (adi = first; sakhian, plural of sakhi = anecdotes, stories, discourses, parables) is one of the early compilations but not the first of the extant janam sakhi traditions to evolve. The manuscript, dated 1758 Bk/ AD 1701, and copied by Shambhu Nath Brahman was first located by Dr Mohan Singh Diwana. While teaching at Panjab University, Lahore, prior to the partition of India in 1947, Mohan Singh Diwana discovered in the University`s library a janam sakhi manuscript which differed from other extant Janam sakhis and bore an earlier date. Dr Diwana believed it to be a version of the earliest of all janam sakhi traditions and bestowed on it the name Adi Sakhian.

NASIHAT NAMAH, lit. epistle of admonishment, is an apocryphal composition in verse attributed to Guru Nanak and is said to have been addressed by the Guru to king Croesus (Karun in Sikh chronicles). The King is advised to do good deeds when God has bestowed riches upon him. Money spent in a good cause is money well spent. Money belongs to him who spends it.