BHAI VIR SINGH’S tried to mould his own creative inspiration by writers only slightly ACHIEVEMENTS efforts on lines suggested in these. less celebrated though Others before him had tried the distinguished each in his own way, A BRIEF INTRODUCTION Gurbachan Singh Talib same process in Urdu, the language such as Deputy Nazir Ahmed, with whose literature most well- Maulvi Zakaullah, Sir Syed Ahmed From the book : Bhai Vir SIngh - Life Times & educated people in the Panjab, Khan, Babu Piare Lal Ashob and Work, Published by Bal Krishna M.A., Muslims as well as others, had several others. Drawing his Sectretary ,Publications Bureau, Punjab acquired acquaintance in varying inspiration from such writcrs, who University Chandigarh, 1973. degrees. What had been had opened a nee mine of realism accomplished in this direction in and a wide sense of social Influences and Profile languages of regions situated far responsibility in their comipositions away from the Panjab, or even in in prose and verse, he too would Bhai Vir Singh’s long creative Hindi did not make that impact on have directed his creative powers to career of over sixty years (he lived the mind and thought of the achievements in the same field. to be eighty-five) was a many- Panjabis as the mass of new creative Both through the vast mass of his splendoured fulifiment. He was the work in Urdu, the Ianguage of work, through its artistic quality pioneer who caught through the education and official work current and vast influence exerted in antennae of a keen sensibility and then. The work of Maulana ushering a great new era, he an imagination strongly responsive Muhammad Hussain Azad in remains without doubt the greatest to new urges, the novel tones which history-writing, in belles-lettres man of letters in Panjabi of the new were to be heard in English modelled on certain imaginative creative urges and the new literature, particularly of the pieces from Addison and other experiments, after the traditional, Romantic and the Victorian writers, his new didactic poetry as neo-classical age in which Panjabi periods. also the poetry of Maulana Hali in had been either merely a folk Braj With whatever opportunities he the same vein and his Critical literature or was literature with writings would be known to Bhai Panjabi overtones in the Gurmukhi. had at that time eighty years ago, to acquaint himself with certain pieces Vir Singh. So also the pieces Apart, of course, from what Bhai or texts from English literature, he composed under the same strain of Vir Singh learnt of the new influences from English for his own writers, whose sensibility was be a subject for an ample discussion creative efforts, he would naturally seeking new values of the in a book or a thesis, which have studied also patches of democratic age for expression and obviously cannot be attempted English literature in the original. inculcation in place of the limited here. Only a few of the directions Most of our Indian writers went for themes of the traditional ages with which his creative powers took in imitation and adaptation to English their feudal background of this respect can be indicated in brief writing of the nineteenth century, reference. In style too, the attempt hints. Nor can a proper appraisal of particularly the romanticism would be at a realistic delineation the quality and value of his tempered with the moral sensibility of a factual or emotional situation achievement be made at this of the Wordsworth variety, the mild rather than the embroideries of neo- juncture, for towards Bhai Vir humanism and tender classical artifice with all its moulds Singh the attitude of large sections sentimentalism of ‘pre-romantics’ and devices. All these influences of influential and fairly well- like Cowper and Collins, the are visible and traceable in the informed people is one of wistfulness and surface moralizing Indian writers of this period, veneration only ‘this side of Gray and the general didacticism though their acquaintance with idolatory.’ So in this respect too, of the writers from the middle class, English literature was restricted by while a great laudation is called from Addison on. Further, after the their circumstances only to a few forth by his truly great surfeit with pseudo-romanticism spots in it. The situation changes achievements in scholarship and his and conceits of Indian writing they when we come to a Tagore or an interpretation of the principles of caught with great avidity on the lqbal or latterly an Aurobindo with his faith through several media of peculiar Victorian inculcation of the their vast background of Western literary creation, the spirit of domestic virutes of a Smiles or learning and their transmutation of criticism must discipline itself into occasionally a Tennyson, though its deepest secrets and more an attitude of reverential silence. the supreme art of Tennyson would intimate nuances both of theme and Maybe that at a time not far (for a naturally elude them. The heroic art. widely studied writer like Bhai Vir and epic treatment of history by Singli cannot long be kept in an Scott and the nineteenth century To enquire into the totality of the insulated and sealed temple of balladists again appealed to our influence of Western literature in adoration and adulation alone) he Bhai Vir Sing’s creative work would will be objectively discussed as a Moreover, this latter kind of A Synoposis of his Work writer rather than merely placed on criticism is allergic and even hostile a pedestal as a teacher. Moreover, to the particular social orientation Bhai Vir Sing’s creative work falls in a volume like the present, which Bhai Vir Singh attempted into three main genres-Poetry, intended to present the various through his writings, and which Biographical and Disquisitional aspects of his achievement on the was part of a vast process of Prose and Fiction. He also tried his occasion of the centenary of his regeneration of the Sikh people. hand at Drama, but this attempt birth, any exhaustive critical About such regeneration more than suffered from the handicap which examination of him would be one writer in the essays that follow in Bhai Vir Singh’s fictional efforts clearly out of place. With all this, it has made reference , hence its one perceives in general—the lack might be said that so far hardly any points need to be reiterated here. Be of a capacity to create full, rounded serious attempt has been made to it said however that no characters. His characters fall into find out and to phrase forth the true unsympathetic attempts at ‘types’ and are made in accordance quality of his total achievement as a devaluing Bhai Vir Singh can strip with certain formulae. So his fiction writer and to define the principle of this colossus of his fine drapery does not rise into the realm where it his intellectual being. which he would continue to wear might be valued as such, and not as with grace and distinction, though part of a larger scheme for the Art attempt of this nature is a few frills here and there of writing propagation of religious ideals. obviously c forth. partly to temper reprsenting his moments of weak Despite his shortcomings however, the purely laudatory and often inspiration may be snipped off in his novels became extremely vapid rhetoric poured forth about the process. Such a process may be popular with the Sikh reading him by encomiasts whose literary appl ied with parallel results to any public, and one particularly culture is not appreciably above the popular writer. Bhai Vir Singh Sundari, still remains a best-seller. elementary level and equally to remain s vastly popular and his This is because to the average Sikh meet the somewhat unkind attacks achievement is solid and ha s its reader, unqualified to judge of the of certain contemporary ideological roots in real inspiration and power. technical features of fiction, these groups who hold a narrow, novels bring in a highly appealing utilitarian view of literature in form the history of the grim repudiation of its aesthetic values. struggle of their forefathers. The small Sikh people had by then their struggle of liberation over biographies of Guru Nanak, Guru passed though their ordeal of fire several generations—that it calls for Gobind Singh and the remaining for nearly half a century, and a great epic to catch something of Gurus of the Sikh faith. Then there through sheer faith and unswerving its scale and power. Such an effort is the second portion of the work of heroism of spirit were able to has so hr not been made. Except in fiction Baba Naudh Sing This second overthrow their well-entrenched fragments such as Bhai Vir Singh’s portion is disquisitional with only oppressors. In these novels there is novels and that portion of Giani the thinnest connective thread of idealization of the Sikh character of Gyan Singh’s Panth Prkash dealing certain narrators and their listeners, course, but then the reality was with it, there is very little literature giving to it just a faint pretence of itself so noble and heroic, partaking in existence on it. While Bhai Vir fiction. But interspersed in it are so much of the superhuman Singh’s work is in the form only of powerful and splendid passages character. that the idealization not three small-sized novels, Giani and episodes. only is convincing, but led the Gyan Singh’s work suffers from writer on to itself by a process of being unequal in execution. But Bhai Vir Singh’s prose is poetic in inevitability. Not only Bhai Vir given a great occasion, he rises to tone and style, though its structure Singh and the other Sikh writers on true poetic eloquence as in the is modelled close to the spoken the period, but Europeans and even whole portion on Bhai Mani Singh idiom of the average educated Muslims delineating the quality of or Ghallughara, and he has shown person. This last remark applies the Sikh character of the period had what can be made poetically of this only to the structure-skeleton, the not been able to withold the tribute great material. syntax, for which the models were of high admiration. provided by good Urdu prose, a Prose vast quantity of which was in This period in the history of the existence by the time Bhai Vir Singh Panjab is so rich in a vast heroic Before taking up a brief study of took up pen as writer, and by effort —not in the manner of feudal Bhai Vir Singh’s poetry, I may English prose which had then for individual heroism on a fixed s glance at the large mass of his two centuries been acquiring the pattern of certain graces. but the prose. Apart from the prose written ‘spoken’ character. Bhai Vir Singh’s colossal and mighty effort of a by him in his works purely work in the field of journalism and whole oppressed people to wage scholarship there are his great tract-corn- posing further confirmed this spoken idiom style sentimentality and the feminine powerful, emotional writing in of his, to which he gave through his small-change of feeling—but rises moving strains of sensitively- own writings a finish and charm with recurring spurts to the true rendered music, which mells into which no one since has been emotional level. But whenever the the heart and rising even higher, capable of. A comparative study of spirit moves him on a great the soul. Bhai Vir Singh’s prose-writings and occasion from Sikh religious of all those who have written prose history, and the more tender This is what makes Bhai Vir Singh since say, 1900 in Panjabi will easily feelings of pity and humanitarian the great artist in prose. He released show the glaring contrast—the melting of the heart are involved, prose from the constricting mould grace and beauty of Bhai Vir he is also capable of rising to true of its earlier stylized idiom, simple Singh’s pages and the crude and emotional and imaginative writing. and generally crude in structure, stilted efforts of others. Here and Then he is no less the great poet in and only here and there having the there in small patches some others prose than he is in verse. If one masterly touch in writing such as too may have been able to achieve were to venture a statement about the Purakin Janarn Sakhi of quality in their writings. But him in terms of the Indian system unknown authorship of the early altogether in grace and felicity of poetics, he is strong in portraying seventeenth century. As I have which appear to be the natural these tender emotions of pity and ventured to state earlier, in addition element in which he disports, Bhai sorrow, along with the softer strains to the sheer largeness of the mass of Vir Singh remains still the supreme of romantic love, which in his case his prose-writing and the total artist in Panjabi prose, besides of gets always transmuted into the awareness of the related spiritual course, being the great poet and love of the soul, called in Indian and theological background that it scholar that parlance, Bhakti. Such moments displays, there is no prose in when he writes at the higher level Panjabi to compare in grace, charm It is in his diction bearing the of poetic creativity in prose come and power with Bhai Vir Singh’s. perfume of Panjab’s sacred frequently—as a matter or fact, in Teja Singh, Puran Singh, literature and the expression of the midst of bathetic patches of Gurbakhsh Singh and Gurmukh sensibility that Bhai Vir Singh sentimentality and padded Singh Musafir, each a considerable achieves the poetic quality. Very verbiage one constantly encounters writer in his place, would stand often his sensibility declines to dwarfed by his side. The main point of difference is that while his is the long work is not popularly read. The main influences which prose of art, in the case of the others Requiring a comprehensive view contributed to shaping the poetic the level is either merely functional and considerable application from art of Bhai Vir Singh came from the or at best ‘play’ of the mind in a the reader, besides great English poetry of the nineteenth rather lower key. perseverance to follow it through century, as stated in the beginning its numerous abstract portions, it is of this brief survey. Wordsworth Poetry generally left half unread. The and some minor didactic poets source of Bhai Vir Singli’s because of their moral slant would Bhai Vir Singh’s essential image in popularity therefore, must be based appeal to the Indian mind in those the public mind is fixed as a poet. mainly on the shorter pieces in the times around the last quarter of the His achievement in the poetic field other collections. These, when they nineteenth century and shortly again, even more than in prose is appeared at rather long intervals in after. To a generation which had the great glory of Panjabi literature. the first third of the present had an overplus of the baroque and His total output in poetry—that century, took the Panjabi reading a static and decadent romanticism which is of literary worth, is public by a kind of storm Not only couched in artificial verbal comparatively small. Certain did they bring to it a taste of poetry craftsmanship, the nineteenth devotional ‘songs’ of his are emancipated from the traditional century English treatment of real popular, but not genuine poetry. neo-classic ‘rules’ and the various lire in poetry made an inevitable Besides the epic, Rana Surat Singh, elements of artifice, which made appeal. Moreover, to generations there are four slender volumes or such poetry sterile of true creative aroused to a sense of social verse containing short lyrical pieces effort and imaginative appeal, but responsibility such as the educated ; some poems with the thought- brought also sweet lyrical strains in Indians were, around this period content predominating and about the language of ‘cultivated beginning soon after the 1857 half a dozen ‘romances’. The great conversation’, in a diction which Revolt, poetry with a didactic, popularity and influence of Bhai was familiar as well as elevated social and philosophical slant Vir Singh as poet is perhaps with echoes of the great pieces in appeared to be exactly what the somewhat out of proportion to the the earlier mystical and romantic country needed. Theories as to the total volume of his poetical nature and function of poetry, creation, since Rana Surat Sing, a formed, perhaps, on an imperfect .Besides this influence from the nineteenth century English understanding of nineteenth- West, which went on to shape the influences. century European ideas on the content of Bhai Vir Singh’s poetry, subject, all emphasized this new there were also minor influences, This English influence also helped content and treatment. Not only in mainly from the Sufistic strain in to shape form. Neo-classical and India, in most parts of Asia there Muslim thought. These came to traditional Indian poetry, including was in evidence a new ferment of Bhai Vir Singh partly via Persian, in Panjabi, was form’-based, like the ideas, giving rise to new blends of which his learning was fairly sound classical and neo-classical poetry of literature along with their and partly also through Urdu, Europe. It was from the supporting theories. which had inherited the main seventeenth century on that the characteristics of Persian. Sufism ‘poem in English as an autonomous So, the particular tone and tendency was also established in Panjabi structure entered as the do form. of Bhai Vir Singh’s poetry must be right since the centuries of Muslim After the first half of the understood in the light of these proselytization in the Panjab, and seventeenth century, the ‘poem’ newly-aroused urges. In his case of Panjabi has a rich stock of such was any short piece, embodying course, the immediate source of his poetry, with its own imagery and any conception and built on any inspiration was the state of the Sikh background of reference apart from technical principle. Earlier, short people, at that time trying to find Persian. While echoes of the Sufis of pieces called songs or lyrics, were an identity and group-stability the Panjab are frequent in Bhai Vir looked upon as minor, almost through the Panjabi language and Singh’s short pieces and quatrains, playful exercises thrown around by the reinterpretation of the Sikh here and there one catches even a poet who must prove his mastery religious thought, which suited echoes of lqbal, one side of whose in art by composing a considerable remarkably the new ideas of social poetic personality expressed Sufitic piece in one of the established responsibility, in which it had idealism. But these influences from ‘forms’— Epic, Tragedy, Comedy, actually anticipated the modern the literature of Islam are mainly the Philosophical Poem or other. European humanism by more than peripheral the core off Bhai Vir Not so now. A poet did not three centuries. Singh’s poetry derives from necessarily have to establish his supremacy by any such work. He might compose only short pieces, now indiscriminately to be called song. Now, with this new form The supreme source of inspiration ‘poems’, and be yet acknowledged imported from the West, the poets of Bhai Vir Singh as suggested great. By the time of the Romantic found a new horizon of earlier, are the teachings of the Sikh movement, this trend was already achievement in the higher kind of faith. The Sikh Religion in essence well established, and got a further poetry opening out before them. is a blend of elements mystical and widespread vogue during the They naturally made good use of ethical—each of these with a nineteenth century details of which this new opportunity. It is in the particular orientation given by the would not be in place here. When light of this phenomenon that Bhai great Sikh Teachers, the Gurus. English poetry came within the ken Vir Singh’s shorter poems may be Mysticism in Sikhism takes the of our own English-educated class, viewed. They are in meters which form of the experience of the One, they grew familiar with this arc based in the Panjabi tradition undifferentiated. eternal Reality phenomenon. The autonomous but with rhyme schemes and called Omkar, Brahmann and Akal form of the short ‘poem’ had a structural patterns suggested by the the spiritual vision formulated by liberating influence on the poetry of sacred poetry of Sikhism, as also by Guru Nanak. The Divine Reality is our various languages. Poets now the Urdu ghazal. In places he conceived of also as the Supreme no longer mastered for use the adopted the stanza-form hand- led Being, the universal soul which is poetic craft of older times, but with with such mastery by Bhai Gurdas All-Love and All-Beauty and some skill in composition and the in his Vats. In his last work, in the capable of responding to the new kind of thinking could claim to ‘free verse’ style he has composed worship of the human devotee. The be masters in the art. poems of admirable quality. A highest form of such worship is the detailed discussion of these features Love with the yearning of the finite In Urdu and Persian. the ghazal, a would be out of place in a short individual self to merge into the complete-in-itself short form was treatment such as the present. So, universal Self. The course of the already well established. Such a only the main influences from spiritual quest in the Sikh faith is as short form with the same literary which he derived and perfected his much the intuitive Realization of prestige was not established in form are indicated. the Eternal, called Gyan (Jnan) as Panjabi or Hindi, except perhaps Devotion or Love, called .Bhakti. the devotional piece called bhajan Fount of Inspiration—Mysticism Only the course of this Gyan does (shabad in the Sikh tradition) or the not lie through the apprentice Supreme Being as known to Sikh tradition, shared by Sikhism, such stages of knowledge of aspects of thought. love and passion takes the form of the Divine, that is, through deities, the yearning of the love-sick female, nor the Love through Love of the Bhakti or Devotion within Sikhism separated from her spouse, the visible, incarnated forms like the has taken the form, as just said, of beloved. In her state of separation various gods and goddesses. While Love of the Eternal, the essence, she passes through a variety of Sikhism shares with idealistic unincarnate and hence extremely moods of despair, sorrow and Hinduism certain basic postulates, difficult to fix in the consciousness. passionate remembrance. seeking it has also done a vast degree of It is the Love of the soul which, nothing so much as his return to pruning, so that it has emerged as transcending passions and her in the warm security of the what for all practical purposes is a emotions based in the carnal body, home and the connubial bed. new religion. In that particular yet is capable somehow of phase of its development, which is experiencing the etherealized, In the soul thus represented as the still continuing, in the thought- distilled essence of love, in which yearning female the supreme climate of which Bhai Vir Singh nothing is left except the mystical passion is surrender of the self at grew up, the emphasis was on urge, seeking absorption into the the feet of the object of her love, her points of departure from what is Divine. Such love, should the soul lord. The deepest experience of the ordinarily known as Hinduism than be inspired with it, passes through tender feminine sensibility thus on discovering inter-relationships. phases and stages, some of which goes into voicing this strain of This was due to certain historic are akin to the strong urges of the poetry. This feminine sensibility is a compulsions which in the interest body for the deeply stirring constant . characteristic of the of their sheer survival as a people experience of the passionate literary creations of Bhai Vir Singh, the Sikhs had to highlight. While embrace. This is the form such both in prose and verse, and in Bhai Vir Singh’s poetry is not experience takes in the life of either form he has given deeply polemical except in some portions mystics all the world over. The satisfying expression to it, of .Rana Surat Sing the religious imagery and symbology of such notwithstanding that whenever he thought which emerges from his quest and such experience is not is composing at a low key of poetry is the quest of the eternal different from that of physical inspiration he falls to the passion. In the Indian mystical sentimental. In this strain the devotional quest takes the responsibility in the life of the showed such a pattern clearly anthropomorphic form wherein the organized group, whether it be the emerging from it. In this respect he devotee in a tender ‘dramatic circle limited to one’s co-religionists partakes of the character of the bard situation is face to face with the or the larger circle of the nation or of a people, their spokesman and Divine Beloved, alone with I of humanity in general. Generally, their inspirer. Realization is thus achieved, and despite all the imperfections to the world, maya shed off. The which the process of reducing Scholarship careful, sensitive reader will thus ideals to practice is subject, the catch in reading his poetry such Sikhs have tended to keep before One aspect of Bhai Vir Singh’s tender quest and union them- selves the essence of this achievement, his scholarship, is constantly—no less in the ethical teaching. The masterly known naturally to a much smaller outpourings of his soul in his last expression of such ethical idealism number compared to those who work, Mere Saiyan Jio, written when occurs woven into the plot, know and appreciate his work in he was approaching his eightieth somewhat thin, of the epic Rana the more popular fields of poetry year than in those of several Surat Sing But in the shorter poems and colourful prose-writing. decades earlier. The other strain of too, where the theme is some phase Scholarship descended to Bhai Vir God-consciousness at the more of the life of action, this thinking Singh from his father, grandfather intellectual level is met with also emerges. The patriotic passion, the and his maternal grandfather—all constantly, though what he has call to courage and self-sacrifice, famous scholars and savants of the written ii the devotional strain is and a robust philosophy of fruitful Sikh people in their day. A study much the more impressive. This is action forms the basis of such even of those of Bhai Yin Singh’s his most intimate phase of the poems. When Bhai Vir Singli writings, not expressly falling mystical quest, and perhaps the manages to emancipate his thought under the category of scholarship peak of his poetic achievement. from the weaker strains of will reveal behind every statement sentimentality, he is the wise a rich background of learning and Ethical thought in Sikhism has patriarch, guiding a people on to information. The history of the Sikh taken the direction of a strong the path of noble, socially beneficial people and of India in general, puritanical emphasis in individual endeavour. His whole life as lived knowledge of Indian philosophy life and a keen sense of social and the several languages from which religious learning in the texts. In this respect his supreme philosophy of which the composer Panjab has derived, such as achievement is the editing of Bhai of the work was an accomplished Sanskrit, Persian and Braj Bhasha Santokh Singh’s Guru Fartap Suraj, master. called for powers of come in constantly to buttress his an epic history of the Sikh faith scholarship which hardly anyone arguments and conclusions, in composed by a supremely great else besides Bhai Vir Singh making which he shows a highly poet in a highly ornate style in Braj possessed. And it is not merely that responsible sense of scholarly Bhasha. Completed in 1843, this he glossed the difficult text or thoroughness and integrity. Just a work, the richness and intricacy of explicated allusions and the poetic few examples to illustrate this whose art, besides the vast ‘nine of conceits. Where the occasion calls aspect of his achievement will soon information that it is, should make for it, Bhai Vir Singh goes into the follow. it one of the supreme expressions of statements made by the poetry the poetic genius in . Its linguistic conveyed by his sources, and A significant thing to note about his texture, woven thickly of scholarly examines them critically at full historical fiction the four novels and wit’ in the ‘metaphysical sense and length in the light of con- Rana Surat Singh is the absence of flowing on like a mighty river in temporary scholarship. One great any anachronisms. This shows an flood, Con extremely wide example of such examination is the ever-alert scholarly conscience, knowledge of classical and post- statement about the alleged built upon his vast learning, which classical Indian literature for its worship of the goddess Dunga by was aware even of the minutiae of explication. Allusions and literary Guru Gobind Singh. Over twenty- literary culture. puns (called in Indian Poetics, four pages of a closely argued Anupras and Yainak in their thesis, taking evidence from Besides the great scholarship numerous forms) came to this poet contemporary historical research implicit in his creative work, as with a facility which would make and thought, Bhai Vir Singh forming the basis and frame-work people in earlier ages believe in disproves the false statement of the of it, such as the biographies of the some divinity guiding his pen. To Guru’s worship of Durga. This Gurus of the Sikh faith and Rana have adequately edited this work of point has been dealt with ably by Surat Singh, he accomplished a some 6000 pages and to have dealt Dr. Bhai Jodh Singh, in the essay massive amount of work of with all its literary features and the contributed by him to this Volume. scholarly editing and glossing of Bhai Vir Singh besides, was the first metaphorically, has been discussed attempted the work, it would take to discover from Jahangir’s Tuzuk as fact in a highly interesting note about fifty such volumes. His style the real background of the by Bhai Vir Singh from the was somewhat expansive, and his martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev. evidence of Muslim hagiology. It is learning leaned on the side of After his discovery of it, the story said that the Kaaba has often amplitude and plenty rather than of about Chandu being mainly moved from its fixed place to grant scarcity. So, with summarizing the responsible for the Guru’s a sight of itself for blessing Allah’s hymns, their paraphrase, exegetical martyrdom recedes into the chosen devotees when they could exposition and the glossary of background. This part from the not visit it. One such to whom it terms, allusions and expressions, Tuzuk was not known to Macauliffe appeared was the Sufi Ibrahim such of this work as could be and the band of great scholars who Adham. Another was the pious accomplished is satisfying to the assisted him. Now of course, not lady Rabia. So, Bhai Vir Singh’s scholarly intellect. Difficult points only this statement from the Tuzuk, arument runs, Kaaba might as well of exposition have been wrestled but further facts have come to light move in consonance with the with, and points made by all about this episode in Sikh religious movement of a holy person like important previous authorities have history. But credit is due to Bhai Vir Guru Nanak. This discovery from been mentioned and what the Singh for making the discovery. the history of Islamic piety is author considers to be definitive Similarly, Bhai Vir Singh appears to incorporated in Guru Nanak conclusions stated. Where have been one of the few persons Chmatkar, the biography of Guru necessary, texts from the Sanskrit who knew in detail the manuscript Nanak. Such scholar ship one and other learned sources are Pothis of Goindwal which provided comes upon constantly in reading quoted, and individual words part of the preserved Gurbani from Bhai Vir Singhs work. explained with their sources, and which the Adi Granth was their history of mutations traced. compiled. The famous miracle Besides editing Guru Parlap Suraj, attributed to Guru Nanak, of the Bhai Vir Singh began but could not There is besides, Guru Grant/i Ka a .Kaaba revolving in whatever complete a work of the exegesis of dictionary of the Adi Granth in direction his feet turned, and which Adi Granth. Now this is a great three volumes. This, besides was sought to be explained fragment in seven volumes. On the explaining important terms and scale at which Bhai Vir Singh allusions authoritatively, contains several appendices rich with Sanskrit is another scholarly learned and ample information on achievement of his. the system of musical notation adopted for the Adi Granth, along It was a somewhat belated with the parallel musical systems recognition of his greatness when current among different the Panjab University, then re- denominations in the centuries established in India at Solan around the emergence of the Sikh conferred on him the degree honoris faith. Here again, the vastness and causa of Doctor of Oriental amplitude of this learning is rare Learning. A few other marks of and shows the kind of schol2rship recognition followed, but all these that looks like an inexhaustible came to him as he was crossing his mine. eightieth year, and was probably indifferent to them like Dr. Johnson, He wrote a biography of the great to whom also recognition came poet Bhai Gurdas whose rather late. He nevertheless compositions because of his deep received these honours in the spirit insight have been called the ‘key’ to of the deep humility of faith, in the the under standing of the Gurus’ words of the Holy Granth—’But for Word. He also prepared a definitive the Guru’s grace who would care version of the oldest Biography of for me, a mean worm crawling in Guru Nanak, known as Purajan dust ?’ The province of his birth Janam Sakhi, after critically collating had been indifferent on t whole to its several versions, available till his greatness. Only hen the country then only in manuscript form. became free, the propitious moment arrived to recognize it. But his boat His rendering of the mystic- was already, in his own phrase in philosopher Bharthani Hari’s Shatak Mere Saiyan Jio, sliding downstream into Panjabi poetry from the in the direction of the Unknown.