PATTI, lit. a wooden tablet on which children learn to write the alphabet, is the name given to two hymns, in the Guru Granth Sahib, composed in the form of an acrostic, employing letters of the Gurmukhi alphabet. Pattt by Guru Nanak titled Rdgu Asd Mahald IPatfiLikhi comprises thirty-five stanzas, each stanza introduced with a letter of the Gurmukhi alphabet. From stanza nine to thirty-three, the order followed is exactly that of the alphabet current today; elsewhere there are deviations. What was the order prevalent in Guru Nanak`s time is, however, uncertain.
POTHIAN, BABA MOHAN VALIAN, manuscript copies {pothidn, lit. books), in Gurmukhi script, containing some of the compositions of the first three Gurus and eight medieval saints, which, according to Sikh tradition. Guru Arjan (1563-1606) obtained from Baba Mohan, the elder son of the Third Guru, Amar Das, and which he utilized in the compilation of the Adi Granth.
SIKH JOURNALISM, tracing its beginnings to the latter half of the nineteenth century was influenced in its founding and evolution primarily by two factors : institution building in Sikhism with a view to defending itself and restating its principles, and the Sikhs` confrontation with the aggressive Arya Samaj over the question of whether the Sikhs were just another sect within Hinduism. It was a period when the Sikhs faced a crisis of identity occasioned by a strong sense of militancy among the numerous sects and religions and a concomitant set of pressures arising from the demands of modernization.
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