The Scriptures of Mankind: An Introduction
by Charles Samuel Braden

Chapter 8: The Sacred Literature of the Sikhs

Sikhism is an offshoot of Hinduism. Regarded by many scholars as only a reformed Hindu sect, it is considered by its own followers as a separate faith. The British Indian census has recognized it as such and each decade numbered the Sikhs apart from the Hindus. The most recent census revealed a total of 5,691,447 followers of the faith. A comparative study of population growth and the growth of the Sikh movement over the last four decades indicates a steady growth, substantially exceeding the percentage increase of the total population.

The scriptures of the Sikhs are almost wholly unknown to the western world. Though there are now a goodly number of anthologies containing selections from most of the sacred books of the world, so far only one that has come to the attention of the writer contains anything from the Granth, the Sikh Bible, and that only a very limited selection. Why should this be so? One answer is that, while considered by themselves a separate religion, they are not so regarded by many scholars, and as a mere part of Hinduism, their writings are overshadowed by the much more important writings of that mother faith. Perhaps the real reason is that the literature itself is of a character which is lacking, at least, in popular interest. Another factor in the situation may be that it has not been translated frequently, and that the literary quality of the translations does not commend it to the anthologists.

As a matter of fact the entire work has never been translated into the English language. After having spent seven years in working on his translation of the four principals Rags¹ or sections of it, Ernest Trumpp, the translator, wrote:

On the other hand, Max Arthur Macauliffe, who was for many years a judge in India, resigned at the request of representative Sikh societies, and undertook the translation of the book. This he felt impelled to do because he felt that Trumpp’s translation was "highly inaccurate and unidiomatic, and furthermore gave mortal offense to the Sikhs by the odium theologicum introduced into it. Whenever he saw an opportunity of defaming the Gurus, the sacred book and the religion of the Sikhs, he eagerly availed himself of it."³ He hoped by his own work to make some reparation to the Sikhs for the insults which Trumpp offered to their Gurus⁴ and their religion. He wrote an extensive life of each of the Gurus, and translated most, though not all, of the Rags. The unfortunate feature of his book is that the translated portions are given without exact designation of just whence they are taken, so that they cannot be easily compared with any other translation. Trumpp does this. Nevertheless, the Macauliffe translation is much the more readable. Since he secured the approval of the best Sikh scholars before publication, it may be safely assumed that the translation is more nearly accurate than that of Trumpp.

Perhaps the editors of the anthologies read only Trumpp’s preface and became discouraged about finding suitable material for their collections. But really, it is not so hopeless. If, indeed, the collection is long and repetitious it is not without its high spots as well as low. Indeed, there are some passages of genuine poetic worth, expressive of very deep religious aspirations and devotion, some of which will be included in this chapter. But first a few facts about the movement and the type of religious faith which gave rise to the book.

It is true that the Sikh movement was a reform movement in Hinduism. There have been many such in the past, and there will continue to be new ones. The distinctive feature of this particular movement is that it represents the result of the impact of the Moslem faith on Hinduism. When religions meet and live side by side there is always a give and take, each influencing the other in some respects, despite efforts usually made to avoid just that. This is what is called a process of syncretism. Usually it is unconscious but sometimes quite deliberate. Often, however, syncretism takes the form of a new synthesis of some elements from each, to form a new faith which is in some respects similar to but different from either of the contributing faiths. The Sikh movement is such a synthesis of Hindu and Moslem elements.

But Hinduism is a very complex faith, and Islam too has its differing varieties of outlook, organization, and practice. If one were to try to say which of the variant Hindu strands were combined with varying Moslem strands, he would be most nearly correct, in the author’s opinion, in saying that Sikhism represents a flowing together of the bhakti Hindu faith of Ramanuja and Ramanda, and Islamic mysticism represented by Sufism.

Bhakti Hinduism is devotional Hinduism which finds salvation, not through works, as in the Vedas, not through knowledge, as in philosophic Hinduism, but in faith, love, loyalty or devotion to a personal divinity. A classic illustration of this was noted in the Bhagavad Gita, where Krishna is the object of devotion. Ramanuja was the great medieval exponent of this type of faith, as over against the famous philosopher and teacher, Shankara, whose commentary on the Vedanta-Sutras set forth the bases of the Vedanta. Ramananda, who lived in the fourteenth century, was a disciple of Ramanuja. He travelled widely in India preaching the faith of his Master, and became the founder of a sect emphasizing the way of devotion to Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu, as the way of salvation. His movement opened the way to all men of whatever caste as indicated in the famous saying: "Let no one ask a man’s caste or with whom he eats. If a man shows love to Hari (God), he is Hari’s own."

The poet Kabir was a disciple of Ramananda, and founder of a still existing sect, the Kabirpanth. He in turn greatly influenced Nanak, founder of the Sikh faith. Thus there is a clear line of connection between Sikhism and devotional Hinduism. But Kabir was probably of Moslem origin. As a matter of fact each faith claims him as its own. The Moslem influence is clear in the poetry of the Granth and in the organizational form the movement took. If not, like Islam, completely monotheistic in its conception of God -- it looks definitely in that direction. Sat Nam, or True Name, the most frequently used divine name, seems clearly to be the Supreme Being. Late Sikh thought frankly admitted the worship of other beings, for example, the tenth Guru certainly was a devotee also of Durga.

But since Sikhism is a syncretism, it is not unnatural that the concept of God should be near monotheistic, but with overtones of Hindu pantheism. Professor Archer says of Nanak that he was not a pantheist or a polytheist, nor yet quite a monotheist,⁵ which makes one wonder where to classify him. Perhaps the difficulty may be resolved by noting that he is sometimes one, sometimes another. This is not at all strange. One finds in many persons an alternation of attitudes toward God. Christian Science is a good example. On one page one may think himself in an atmosphere of pantheism -- on another God is described or approached in warmly personal fashion. Certainly God is called by many names in the Granth, now Hari, now Ram, now Brahma, or again Allah. One gets the impression, however, that these are but variant names of the. one Supreme.

In the first of the thirty-eight Psalms of Nanak that stand at the beginning of the Granth, as a kind of introduction to the whole, Nanak sings thus of God:

Thinking comprehendeth him not, although there be thoughts

by the thousands,

Silence discovers him not, though it be continuous silence,

Man is persistently hungry, though he eats of tasty abundance;

Not one of a hundred thousand artful devices avails him!

How may the truth be attained, the bonds of falsehood be broken?

By obeying the will of God as surely recorded, saith Nanak.⁶

As a matter of fact the important thing to Nanak and to his followers is not the correct comprehension of the nature of the ultimate but their attitude of obedience and devotion to God. In another Psalm, he sings:

Forms have come out of his order, but his order goes

undetected.

Life has come by his will, through which comes life’s exaltation,

High and low are his will, and joy and sorrow his pleasure;

In his will alone is he blessed who runs the round of his

nature

All are subject to him, not one beyond his jurisdiction

If any perceives his will, he humbles himself, saith Nanak.⁷

For salvation lies in devotion to the True Name:

The Lord is true, plainly known, his loving kindness infinite;

To those who crave and seek he gives, gives with full abandon.

What indeed must he be offered to throw his court wide open?

What words must lips be uttering to make his love responsive?

At deathless dawn give Sat Nam thought and glory,

Put on the garb of deeds—and salvation’s way is open!

Be sure that he himself is fully true, saith Nanak.⁸

The non-idolatrous worship of God is likewise a truly Mohammedan principle -- Hindu worship was generally not only polytheistic but idolatrous. Idolatry is ridiculed in the Granth, for example by Kabir:

Kabir says: a stone is made the Lord, the

whole world worships it

Who remains in reliance upon this is

drowned in the black stream.⁹

And later Sikhism developed much of the militant spirit of Islam, seeking at one time the political domination of India. It became an effective theocracy just as Islam had been.

The entire Granth is a very substantial body of poetry, consisting mainly of the writings of Guru Nanak and his first four successors, to which were added poems of a dozen or more, one-time famous saints, or bhagats, including Ramananda, Kabir and the well-known Maratha poet, Namdev.

The general plan of the book is as follows:

There is first the Japji, or as Archer calls it, the Book of Psalms of Guru Nanak, thirty-eight in number, a total of about four hundred lines, forming a kind of introduction to the whole collection. Following this come three collections of extracts from later portions of the book, designed for devotional use by Sikhs, particularly for evening prayer and before retiring for the night. The greater part of the remainder of the book is made up of collections of hymns to be sung to thirty-one different Rags or musical measures, each of which bears a specific name. They vary greatly in length but are themselves collections of verse from various poets.

The general plan seems to be to include, first, a collection of verses by Guru Nanak, followed successively by verses composed by the other Gurus. The poetic meter varies, something like a dozen different meters being employed. Where within the same Rag, the Gurus use differing meters, all those of identical meter are grouped together, the work of each Guru appearing in the order in which the Gurus came chronologically. Thus for example Rag Sin Rag has a collection of sabds, a term which may include three differing meters,¹⁰ another of astpadas or Chants, and of Vars, which, because of limitation of space, and, perhaps also of popular interest, we cannot describe in detail. Under each of these there may be verses from some or all of the Gurus. These are then followed by verses from various bhagats or saints. Following the Rags is a section known as the Bhog, or conclusion, consisting mostly of miscellaneous sloks including some from the last two of the Gurus. There seems to be little or no logical connection between the verses from any of the varied sources, either within the collection of their own verse or with that collected from other Gurus or saints. Indeed, the whole thing seems to be a miscellaneous collection of poetry arranged in an artificial, rather than logical fashion. The translation of only the four Rags, by Trumpp, requires almost seven hundred pages. Together with Nanak’s Japji and the ritual sections the whole translated work of Trumpp requires seven hundred and eight large pages. And this omits twenty-seven other Rags of whose total bulk the writer has seen no estimate.

The original poems were written in a dozen or more different languages, or dialects, so that almost no one can read the entire book. Eventually the tenth Guru, or successor of Nanak, the religious and political head of the Sikhs, decreed that there should be no human successor as Guru, but that the Granth Sahib should thenceforth be Guru. And so it has been. Now at the beautiful, principal Sikh temple at Amritsar, a copy of the Granth is the central object of reverence, if not worship. Daily it is brought out from its overnight depository with considerable ceremony, properly adorned and vested, and placed on a dais where the faithful may see and pay homage to it. At evening time it is, with equal ceremony, locked away for the night in a specially prepared vault for safekeeping.¹¹ It is not a little strange that a faith which rules out idolatry should have come, in the end, very near, if not quite, to making their sacred book an object of worship.

The Granth, it will have been noted, is not like most other sacred books in that it is exclusively in poetry. The Tao Te Ching, it is true, is wholly poetic, but it does not constitute the whole of Taoist sacred writ. Again, there is here no connected history or story of the beginning of the world, or the people, or any story of the founder, or of the beginnings of the faith. There is current to be sure, a life of Nanak, and some account of each of the Gurus, which abound in wonder stories, as do so many such accounts of other founders of religions. Trumpp happily includes translations of both in the introduction to the book. They are both interesting and instructive if not accurately historical. But these are not a part of the sacred scriptures.

The book is interesting as a scripture of a particular religion, in that it includes so much material from poets who were never associated with the movement, though some of them deeply influenced Nanak.

Namdev, earliest of the great Maratha poets, is noted for his devotional verse. He was a contemporary of Kabir, living toward the latter part of the fifteenth century AD. Several of his poems are translated in Psalms of the Maratha Saints by Nicol MacNicol.

As chiming anklets sweet ring

So rings Thy name abroad;

To human spirits hungering

Thou givest peace with God.

Thou on Thy shoulders carrying

All the world’s load of care,

To thee ‘tis such a little thing

My trouble, too, to bear!¹²

Namdev

In it one catches something of the spirit of the poet, and his warmly personal dependence upon God. The two poems of Namdev contained in the Granth are not the equal of some found elsewhere, or else the translation is not so well done. These lines are typical of his thought.

Day and night I utter the name of Ram.

With dye-stuff I color, a seam I sew.

Without the name of Ram I do not live twenty minutes.¹³

Kabir, as already indicated, was a major influence upon Nanak, the founder. He was a weaver by trade, but a most prolific poet. One who wishes to appreciate Kabir would do well to read from Tagore’s beautiful translation of one hundred of his poems in One Hundred Poems of Kabir.¹⁴ Reading the Tagore version, over against the translation of Kabir’s poetry included in the Granth (by Trumpp), one is constrained to wonder whether there is not more of Tagore than Kabir in the former’s renderings. Tagore was, of course, one of the greatest writers of poetry in English -- winner of the Nobel Prize in 1913, though himself one of the most illustrious of India’s sons. Here is just a sample of one of his songs according to Tagore:

LXIII

Why so impatient, my heart?

He who watches over birds and beasts

and insects,

He who cared for you while you were yet

in your mother’s womb,

Shall He not care for you now that you are

come forth?

O my heart, how could you turn from

The smile of your Lord and wander

so far from Him?

You have left your Beloved and are

thinking of others: and this is

Why all your work is in vain.¹⁵

But even in the plodding translation of Trumpp one finds beautiful bits of verse expressive of profound religious devotion.

"O Madhava, (my) thirst for water does not cease!

(In drinking) the water the fire increases still more.

(1). Thou art the ocean, I am the fish of the water.

I dwell in the water, without the water I am done for.

(2). Thou art the cage, I am thy parrot.

Yama, the cat, what can he do unto me?

(3). Thou art the tree, I am the bird.

The unlucky one does not get thy sight.

(4). Thou art the Guru, I am thy new disciple (= apprentice).

Kabir says: join me at the time of the end!"¹⁶

XIX

(1). For gold he is not obtained.

Ram is obtained for the price of the heart.

Now that Ram is considered by me as my own,

My heart is comforted with natural ease.

(2). Brahma, though always speaking (of him), did not get his end.

(But) Ram comes to the house of his devotee, who is sitting

(there in rest).

(3). Kabir says: I have given up my fickle mind.

Devotion to Ram alone is my lot.¹⁷

XL

Now that King Ram has become my helper:

Birth and death are cut off, I have obtained final emancipation.

(I). I have been joined to the society of the pious.

I have been rescued from the five attackers.

The nectar-name I mutter (now) with (my) tongue.

I have been made his own slave with a price (being paid for me).

(2). The true Guru has afforded (me) assistance.

I have been drawn out from the way of the world.

Love to the lotus-feet has sprung up (in me).

Govind dwells continually in my mind.

(3). The burning coals of the Maya are extinguished.

In (my) heart is contentment, the name (is my) support.

In water and on land the Lord is omnipresent.

Wherever I see, there he is near and dear.

(4). His own worship is established by himself.

What is written before, that is obtained, O my brother!

On whom he bestows mercy, his accoutrement is complete.

The Lord of Kabir is cherishing the poor.¹⁸

(1). Dwelling in heaven should not be desired nor should dwelling

in hell be dreaded.

What is to be, that will be, no desire should be made in the

heart.

The excellences of the sweetheart should be sung,

From whom the highest treasure is obtained.

(2). What is muttering, what austerity and control of the

passions, what vows, what ablutions,

As long as the right, loving worship of the Lord is not known?

(3). Seeing prosperity, one should not be joyful, seeing misfortune, one should not weep.

As prosperity is, so is misfortune; what is arranged by destiny,

that happens.

(4). Those worshippers are excellent (by their) worship,

in whose heart the enemy of Mura dwells.’⁹

Now and then Kabir gives evidence of a sense of humor as well as of understanding of the true nature of God and salvation. He has evidently observed people bathing in the holy Ganges or elsewhere, believing that thus salvation might be attained. But he cries:

"Adore Ram, the one God

The service of God is true bathing.

If by immersion in the water salvation be

obtained, the frogs bathe continually.

As the frogs, so are those men."²⁰

Just what is the meaning of the following verse is not clear but surely it could have been meant humorously:

Hear one wonderful thing, O brother!

I see that the lion is pasturing the cows.

The fish of the water is delivered of young on a tree.

I see that the cat has carried off the dog.

Below is the Rebarsa (a tree), above its root.

To the stem of that stick fruits and blossoms.

Mounting a horse the buffalo goes out to pasture cattle.

Without the bullock the sack has come to the house.

Kabir says; who comprehends this verse:

To him uttering Ram, all is manifest.²¹

Altogether a surprising amount of Kabir’s verse appears in the Granth. If to what is actually of his own composition be added all that has the flavor of his religious ideas and attitudes, those who are quoted by Archer as asserting that the Kabir portions of the Granth Sahib make up in reality "two thirds of the Granth," may not be far wrong in their estimate.²²

There are even bits by a Moslem, Shekh Farid -- a Sufi, and a contemporary of Nanak, who seems to have had rather a close association with him. In all there are one hundred and thirty verses, called Sloks. They are quite disconnected for the most part, and the reason for their inclusion does not seem clear. One reads:

"O Farid, if thou art clever in understanding, do not write an account of the evil deeds of others.

Lowering thy head look into thine own collar, that is, look into thine own heart."

Another rather surprisingly reads:

"O Farid, who beat thee with their fists, do not beat them again!

Go to thine own house, having kissed their feet."²³

Sikhs have not been known for turning the other cheek. Rather, many, though not all, have been much given to fighting. For a long time they have been regarded as the best soldier material in all of India. But, in all fairness, it must be said that they were not given to military activity in the earlier phase of the movement.

On the whole the good Shekh’s sloks give rather a gloomy view of life and its sufferings.

O Farid, he who is bound by death appears like one who

is thrown into the river.

In the other world thehell is heated, a howl is heard

and a scream rises.

Spome have become very prudent, some wander about careless.

The works that are done in the world, are witnesses at the

court of god."²⁴

The assembling of all but a small portion of the Granth was done by the Fifth Guru, Arjun (1581-1606). According to legend, a group of disciples came to him one day saying that they were greatly benefited and inspired by the true songs of Nanak, but that other verses, falsely attributed to Nanak, were the occasion of the growth of pride and worldly wisdom in men s hearts. Could there not be some way of indicating which were the genuine words of Guru Nanak? Acting on the suggestion, Arjun set about collecting the authentic hymns of Nanak, as well as those of his successors, including his own, and to these added many hymns from the Indian Saints which were not in disagreement with the thought of Nanak. Thus was the Granth formed. To this were later added short selections from Teg Bahadur, the ninth Guru, and the Gobind Singh, the tenth and the last of the Gurus.

It is called the Adi or original Granth, and is accepted by all Sikhs of whatever sect. There is another, the Daswan Granth which contains a substantial number of hymns from Gobind Singh, last of the Gurus, and some of his father, Teg Bahadur. It is not accepted by all Sikhs, but it is especially honored by the Akali sect of Sikhism.

The line of living Gurus ended with Gobind Singh who ordered that, thenceforth, the Granth should be as a living Guru to them. Macauliffe asserted that eventually the Sikhs came to believe in the Gurus as but one, each succeeding one being but a new embodiment of the soul of the preceding Guru, and that now this has passed into the Granth.²⁵ However, J. C. Archer declares categorically that the Sikhs do not believe that each succeeding Guru was the reincarnation of his predecessor.²⁶

It is fitting that, at least, a brief bit from each of the Gurus be included though it is impossible to judge any one of them by a single brief song. We have already included several hymns by Nanak but here are two further brief selections.

The first is but one of many, expressive of his relationship to God, the center of his life and thought:

I have no friend like God

Who gave me soul and body, and infused into me understanding.

He cherisheth and watcheth over all creatures; He is wise and knoweth the secrets of hearts.

The Guru is like a lake; we are his beloved swans;

In the water are many jewels and rubies.

God’s praises are pearls, gems, and diamonds; singing them maketh soul and body happy.²⁷

It is in God that his hope of salvation rests:

My soul is in fear; to whom shall I complain?

I have served Him who causeth us to forget our sorrows; He is ever and ever the Giver.

My Lord is ever young; He is ever and ever the Giver.

Night and day serve the Lord, and in the end He will deliver thee.

Hark, hark, my friend, thus shalt thou cross over.

OMerciful One, by Thy name shall I cross over; I am ever a sacrifice unto Thee.²⁸

The second Guru, Angad, did not contribute much to the Granth, only a few sloks. One, expressive of the typical mystic thought of God, is this:

They who possess the greatness of Thy name, 0 God, are happy at heart.

Nanak, there is only one nectar; there is none other;

Nanak, that nectar is in the heart, but it is only obtained by the favor of the Guru;

They who were so destined from the beginning quaff it with delight.²⁹

The note of predestination found in the last line is common in the Granth. It is a part of their Moslem heritage.

Superior to any of his verse found in the Granth is a poem that has been preserved in manuscript form.

O Thou who art perfect, light of the Soul, the Supreme

God, my beloved, my soul and body.

Bewitcher, Thou hast bewitched my heart; I have

obtained understanding by pondering on Thy Word.

I am the handmaiden of my Lord. . . .

Since I began to love the joyous God, my mind hath

been consoled by repeating His name. . . .

O my Beloved, Support of my soul, there has been none

like unto Thee in the past,

There shall be none like Thee in the future. . . .

Thy name is my refuge.³⁰

From Amar Das, let two poems suffice, one on the evil of pride:

The Sikhs are true to Hinduism in their belief both in Karma and in rebirth. Guru Amar Das sings of it thus:

A song from the fourth Guru, Ram Das, is reminiscent of some of the great penitential psalms.

O God, I a sinner have taken refuge at Thy gate . . .

O God, my demerits are great, and could never be numbered.

It is Thou who possessest merits; it is Thou who art compassionate:

It is Thou who pardonest when Thou pleasest.

I am a sinner but thou hast saved me by association with the Guru, who,

by teaching me God’s name hath delivered me.

Can any one else preserve a sinner like me --

Thou, O Guru, art my father, Thou art my mother,

Thou art my relations and companions. . .³³

If it is through the Guru that one attains to salvation, then what can be the fate of those who deny the Guru? Ram Das expresses it thus:

The fifth Guru, Arjun, who collected the Granth, was himself a prolific writer. He was a profound mystic -- a lover of God. He expresses his love in many ways:

Thou art, O God, an ocean of water; I am thy fish. . . .

In Thee is my hope, for Thee I thirst, my heart is

absorbed in Thee

As a child is satisfied by drinking milk,

As a poor man is happy on finding wealth,

As a thirsty man is refreshed by drinking water, so

is my soul happy with God. . . .

God is mine; I am His slave -- ³⁵

For him God was everything,

Thou art my father, Thou art my mother,

Thou, art my kinsman, Thou art my brother,

Thou art everywhere my protector; then why should

I feel fear and anxiety? . . .

Thou art my shelter, Thou art mine honour. . . .

My heart is refreshed by singing Thy praises.³⁶

After he had collected the Granth, charges were made that he had blasphemed against the religion of the Hindus and Moslems. Made a prisoner by the Emperor, he was ordered, on pain of death, to remove the supposedly objectionable passages from the Granth and to include praises of Mohammad and the Hindu gods. This he refused to do, saying, "The Granth Sahib hath been compiled to confer on men happiness and not misery in this world and the next. It is impossible to write it anew and make the omissions and insertions you require." He was submitted to the cruelest kind of torture, but remained unmoved. In the very midst of excruciating torture he is said to have exclaimed:

When very great troubles befall, and nobody

receiveth one;

When enemies pursue and relatives flee away,

When all from whom man looked for assistance have

fled and all succor is at an end,

If he then remember God, no hot wind shall strike him.

God is the strength of the strengthless.

He neither cometh nor goeth; He is permanent ever;

by the Guru’s instruction know Him as the True One.³⁷

When the torture was momentarily discontinued and he was given a chance to recant, he is said to have cried: "O fools, I shall never fear this treatment of yours. It is all according to God’s will; wherefore the torture only affordeth me pleasure." He further repeated, in part, the following:

The egg of superstition hath burst; the mind is illumined;

The Guru hath cut the fetters off the feet and freed the captive

My transmigration is at an end.

The heated caldron hath become cold; the Guru

hath given the cooling Name. . . .

The load of my karma is removed; I am freed therefrom.

From the sea I have reached the shore.³⁸

He died June, 1606, and was succeeded by his son, Har Gobind

the sixth Guru. But the Granth was complete, save for brief bits from the ninth and the tenth Gurus.

The Sacred Literature of the Sikhs

Sources for Further Reading

THE ADI GRANTH

There is no complete translation, but the following contain substantial sections of the work:

The Holy Scriptures of the Sikhs, translated by Ernest Trumpp, London, 1877, contains only four of thirty-one Rags. It is said not to be a very good translation, and the general tone of the work not sympathetic to the faith. It contains a substantial amount of introductory material.

Max Arthur Macauliffe. The Sikh Religion, its Gurus, sacred writing and authors. Six volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1909. Contains the greater part of the Granth in a translation approved by Sikh scholars. It is a highly sympathetic study of the religion in all its aspects. The translation in general is more readable than that of Trumpp. Unfortunately the translated material does not appear in the same order as in the original collection. All the poems of Nanak, e.g., are assembled together in one place -- and so in the case of the other Gurus. The hymns are quite lacking in notations as to the particular sections of the Granth from which they were drawn.

John C. Archer, The Sihhs, Princeton University Press, 1946, has only the translation of the Japuji, or Psalms of Nanak, and a few scattered verses. A good study of the religion of the Sikhs.

Among the anthologies, there is only a very limited selection in S. E. Frost, Sacred Writings of the World’s Great Religions, pp. 356-365.

captive.

Footnotes:

1. Rag really means a musical measure, but all those hymns to be sung to a given measure are gathered together in one section.

2. Ernest Trumpp, The Adi Granth, London, 1877, preface, p.vii.

3. The Sikh Religion, Vol. 1, p.vii.

4. In India generally the term guru means teacher. The student learned the Vedas from his guru. It means also spiritual guide. In the Sikh faith it has special reference to the founder, Nanak, and his nine successors as heads of the movement. But it not infrequently in the Granth refers to God.

5. John C. Archer, The Sikhs, Princeton University Press, 1946, p. 116.

6. From The Japuji, A Book of Psalms of Guru Nanak Nirankari, J. C. Archer, The Sikhs, p. 120.

7. Ibid.

8. Op. cit., p. 121

9. Trumpp, The Adi Granth, p. 678.

10.Trumpp, p. 21

11. This ceremony first reported by Monier-Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduism, page 177, and given wide circulation through repetition in various popular books on the History of Religions, has been questioned by J. C. Archer, who states that during a lengthy stay among Sikhs he never observed it. (Personal letter, 2-14-51.) Dr. Archer does, however, in an article in The Review of Religion, January 1949, pp. 118, 119, describe the ceremony with which the reputed original copy or first edition of the book was shown to him together with some friends at a special darshan. It was taken from a safe, placed upon an altar while the gyani, or reader, in charge of it, uttered certain prescribed prayers. The successive seven wrappings were then removed and the book finally exposed. Afterward it was carefully re-wrapped and put away. Such exhibitions generally occur each night when the moon is full. This was, however, not at Amritsar, but at Kartarpur in the Hall of Mirrors on an upper floor of the palace fort built by Guru Arjun. This ball serves as a place of worship. In the Golden Temple at Amritsar, says Archer, a canopy on the altar hangs above the two copies of the book and royal peacock feathers are waved over it, both indicative of the royalty assigned to it. He says also that some signs of bibliolatry toward the Granth are to be found among the people (p. 122).

12.Associated Press, Calcutta, 1919, p. 43. This and several others are included in the delightful anthology of Indian verse, much of it a devotional nature, Temple Bells, edited by M.A. Appasamy, Association Press, Calcutta, 1930.

13. Trumpp, op. cit., p. 666.

14. Macmillan and Co., London, 1923.

15. Op. cit., p.66.

16. Trumpp, Adi Granth, Ragu Gauri, The Sayings of the Devotees, p. 458.

17. Adi Granth, p. 464.

18. Ibid., p. 470.

19. Adi Granth, p. 478.

20. Trumpp, p. 664.

21. Ibid., p. 660

22. The Sikhs, p. 53.

23. Trumpp, Op. cit., p. 686. His spelling frequently differs from that of other authorities, e.g., Shekh is spelled Shaikh by others.

24. Ibid., pp. 691-692

25. Macauliffe, XVI, Vol. I.

26. Personal letter, 2-14-51.

27. Op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 362.

28. Macauliffe, Vol. I, p. 336.

29. Op. cit., Vol. II, p. 57.

30. Macauliffe, Vol. II, p. 201, passim.

31. Op. cit., Vol. II, 164-165.

32. Op. cit., Vol. II, p. 207.

33. Op. cit., Vol. II, p. 294.

34. Macauliffe,Vol. II, p. 305.

35. Ibid., Vol. III, p. 114.

36. Ibid., Vol. III, p. 118.

37. Macauliffe, op. cit., p. 95.

38. Ibid., p. 93.