Guru Granth Sahib Research Articles

Engaging with the Guru

The Sikhs have perhaps taken the concept of a sacred scripture much further than any other religious community by treating the Guru Granth Sahib as a living guru. This essay analyzes various religious beliefs and practices by which contemporary Sikhs construct and maintain conceptions of their scripture as a guru with spiritual authority. A distinction is made between religious practices that serve to mediate and interpret the semantic content of the scripture, performative acts that are enacted to transform the social world, and rituals that aim to give the scripture a careful ministration and celebrate different stages of its worldly life. The various ritualized uses of Guru Granth Sahib can be approached as external strategies by which the Sikhs personify their scripture and make it socially alive as a living guru.

Subject to Interpretation: Philosophical Messengers and Poetic Reticence in Sikh Textuality

The translation of the Guru Granth Sahib (GGS), or Sikh ‘scripture’, within the discourse of (European) colonial/modernity was enacted by the use of hermeneutics—which oversaw the shift from the openness of praxis to the closure of representation and knowledge. Such a shift demoted certain indigenous interpretive frames, wherein the GGS is assumed to enunciate an excess that far transcends the foreign demand to fix the text’s ‘call’ into singular meanings (beyond time), but rather transforms the hermeneutic desire into a process of learning (Sikhi) through multiple meanings (in time). Thus the GGS is not translated according to a particular life-world, but actively transforms the life-world of those that respond to its excessive call. How should hermeneutics be reformed in this case? If the GGS as text demands interpretation, then the text as Guru demands engagement, and together they would necessarily call forth a radicalization of hermeneutics via a certain poetic reticence to all philosophical messengers.

Lahore, 1849

Lahore, 1849 Anne Murphy (bio) On 29 March 1849, Maharaja Daleep Singh held court for the final time, to make official the annexation of the independent state founded by his father, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, by the East India Company (Grewal 127). This state was centred at Lahore in Punjab—a cultural/linguistic region now split between India and Pakistan—and was annexed by the British East India Company under the direction of the Earl of Dalhousie, who had recently been appointed Governor General of East India Company-controlled India. This annexation was an achievement for Dalhousie—indeed, it earned him the title [End Page 21] of marquis—and was part of his aggressive and directed drive to consolidate company territory across North India: "I cannot conceive it possible for any one to dispute the policy of taking advantage of every just opportunity which presents itself for consolidating the territories which already belong to us," he wrote, "by taking possession of States that may lapse in the midst of them" (qtd. in Metcalf and Metcalf 94). This drive was controversial, particularly with respect to its implementation in other parts of North India, such as Oudh, in 1856. It is thought to have been a contributing force behind the 1857 Rebellion, otherwise known as either the First War of Indian Independence or the Indian "Mutiny," which broke out right after Dalhousie's departure from the subcontinent. Whatever the larger significance of Dalhousie's actions across the region, the annexation of Punjab brought to an end the first sovereign imperial state in Punjab headed by a Sikh ruler, and "the British colours were hoisted on the Citadel of Lahore, and the Punjab, every inch of it, was proclaimed to be a portion of the British Empire in India" (Dalhousie 62). At the time of annexation, the toshakhana, or treasury house, of Maharaja Ranjit Singh came into the possession of the East India Company (see Stronge).1 The contents of the toshakhana were dispersed: elements of it were auctioned off, given to the Queen, or selected for inclusion in the collection of the East India Company and eventually for the Victoria and Albert Museum.2 One of the most famous of these, the Koh-i-noor diamond, was given to the Queen, a particular point of pride for Dalhousie. "It is not every day," he wrote on 30 March 1849, "that an officer of their Government adds four millions of subjects to the British Empire, and places the historical jewel of the Mogul Emperors in the Crown of his Sovereign" (Dalhousie 62).3 At this time, Dalhousie exhibited particular interest in a set of objects within this treasury that were said to have belonged to Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708; guru 1675-1708), the tenth and final human Guru of the Sikh tradition before the office of guruship was invested in the Sikh canonical scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib. Dalhousie perceived a dangerous metonymic relationship between these objects and Sikh sovereignty, as embodied in the newly annexed former kingdom of Ranjit Singh. Soon after annexation, when these objects came under his control, Dalhousie noted in a letter to the Court of Directors of the East India Company that "it would not be politic, in my opinion, to permit any Sikh institution to obtain possession ... of these sacred and warlike symbols of a warlike faith" (United Kingdom 236/215). Dalhousie then went on to request them for his own collection (Murphy). This was their fate, alongside a range of other objects. As the sovereignty of the independent state was dissolved in 1849 by the East India Company's imperial ambitions, its state treasury was thus dispersed into a larger imperial field. Another destination of these objects was the India Museum. It was founded in 1799 and located in East India House, in peripheral areas of a building dedicated to commerce and the coercive force required to conduct it (Davis 168ff.). The toshakhana objects took their place alongside the other spoils of conquest and expansion that filled the company's museum, with [End Page 22] the most "curious" on display for visitors; as Richard Davis has described it "England's most comprehensive repository of Indian objects...

SAKHI, VYAKHYA AND THE SELF: SOME REFLECTIONS ON ‘CHAUBOLE MAHLA 5’

This essay probes the interplay between gurbani, sakhi and the human self. It attempts to show that a study of textual nuances (in this case the meaning of the word Chaubole) can sometimes be helpful in detheorizing varied conceptualizations of language, subjectivity and love in relation to the human body-self. While many of the prevalent methodological techniques in scriptural analysis are informed by the culture of modernity and are founded on supposedly universal notions of language as a tool of rational communication, I argue that this need not always be the case. The language of the Guru Granth Sahib, for example, stirs multiple effects in the human subject that urge us to tread a path of spiritual love. Sakhis are seen here not as mere myth, which conveys meaning through metaphor, but as vehicles that deliver the force of spiritual teachings right up to the door of the reader's subjectivity. This force empowers the subject's spiritual quest and it exists in the form of a charged language that retains the capability of transforming the self. This is one reason why I have chosen to write this essay in a language other than English. Interpretive frameworks imposed by the global spread of English through several centuries of colonialism can only be counteracted by resurrecting the particularities of oppressed, silenced and mutilated languages.

Religious beliefs: online information and resources

The Sikh religion is ranked as the world’s fifth largest, according to the number of professed adherents to that faith, with over 20 million followers worldwide. This month marks the martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Sikh guru who completed the compilation of the previous Guru’s writings into the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh Holy Scripture. The book was different in that its content included Hindu and Muslim compositions, which were consistent with the tenets of Sikhism; perhaps best illustrating the religions emphasis on the equality of man and devotion to one God.

Some Aspects of Language Style and Stylistics of Sri Guru Granth Sahib

Some Aspects of Language Style and Stylistics of Sri Guru Granth Sahib

Sikhism, Interfaith Dialogue, and Women: Transformation and Identity

This article locates the study of Sikhism and gender within the wider milieu of ‘women and religion’; in this context, the question of interfaith dialogue, women, and Sikhism is examined. Further, this article focuses on a recent controversy at the Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of the Sikhs. Two British amritdhari (initiated) women were refused the right to participate in the Sukhasan procession, a ritual in which Sikh scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, is formally taken from its public platform and carried to its nightly resting place. The incident prompted a media uproar, particularly in India; it also became a hotly debated issue on the Internet. Given that the women at the centre of the controversy were ‘Western’ Sikhs of Punjabi origin, the incident led to a widespread petition within the diaspora. This article addresses the question of Sikh women's religious and ritual rights within the context of the apparent divide between the concerns of Sikhs in diaspora and Sikhs in the Punjab as well as interfaith concerns. It questions whether this incident is perhaps a watershed in terms of Sikh women's active engagement and resistance to discrimination within Sikh institutions and the community at large.

The Guru Granth Sahib: Canon, Meaning and Authority

This important study looks at the genesis, development, and contemporary status of the Adi Granth as Sikh scripture. It offers a new perspective on the general notion of canon, its formation, its relationship with a religious community, and the processes through which the community appropriates and interprets it.

The Word as Guru: Sikh Scripture and the Translation Controversy

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Word as Guru: Sikh Scripture and the Translation ControversyVerne A. DusenberyVerne A. Dusenbery Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by History of Religions Volume 31, Number 4May, 1992Sikh Studies Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/463294 Views: 16Total views on this site Citations: 17Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1992 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Inderjit N. Kaur Theorizing the (Un)Sounded in Sikhī: Anhad, Sabad, and Kīrtan, Religions 12, no.1111 (Nov 2021): 1007.https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12111007Barbara Bertolani, Sara Bonfanti, Paolo Boccagni At home in the gurdwara? Religious space and the resonance with domesticity in a London suburb, Religion 51, no.33 (Apr 2021): 423–442.https://doi.org/10.1080/0048721X.2021.1916787Manuela Ciotti The artist Karl Marx and the auctioned god: ‘post-practice’ ethnographies of the art world, impossible collaborations, and renewable anthropologies, Journal of Cultural Economy 13, no.66 (Oct 2020): 725–742.https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2020.1806445Pashaura Singh The GuruGranthSahib as a World Literary Dialogue, (Dec 2019): 1–12.https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118635193.ctwl0113Jasjit Singh Lost in translation? The emergence of the digital Guru Granth Sahib, Sikh Formations 14, no.3-43-4 (Jun 2018): 339–351.https://doi.org/10.1080/17448727.2018.1485355Nirinjan Khalsa Music (Sikh Popular and Religious), (Oct 2017): 266–277.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0846-1_465Pashaura Singh Guru Granth Sahib, (Oct 2017): 173–179.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0846-1_538Giancarlo Anello, Ulrico Agnati The Time Reserved for Religious Practice as a Mainstay of the Religious Freedom. Constantine's Statutes on Sunday Rest and its Legacy in Contemporary Multicultural Society, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2014).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2473495Nirinjan Kaur Khalsa GURBANI KIRTAN RENAISSANCE: REVIVING MUSICAL MEMORY, REFORMING SIKH IDENTITY, Sikh Formations 8, no.22 (Aug 2012): 199–229.https://doi.org/10.1080/17448727.2012.720751Kristina Myrvold Engaging with the Guru, Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts 6, no.1-31-3 (Jun 2012): 201–224.https://doi.org/10.1558/post.v6i1-3.201Bob van der Linden SIKH SACRED MUSIC, EMPIRE AND WORLD MUSIC, Sikh Formations 7, no.33 (Jan 2012): 383–397.https://doi.org/10.1080/17448727.2011.637364Pashaura Singh Scripture as Guru in the Sikh Tradition, Religion Compass 2, no.44 (May 2008): 659–673.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2008.00080.xNeil Krishan Aggarwal Exploring identity, culture, and suffering with a Kashmiri Sikh refugee, Social Science & Medicine 65, no.88 (Oct 2007): 1654–1665.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.06.002Charles M Mather, Kathryn M King, Pam Leblanc Meanings of the heart among a group of older Sikh immigrant women with cardiovascular disease, International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches 1, no.11 (Dec 2014): 39–51.https://doi.org/10.5172/mra.455.1.1.39 General Bibliography, (Nov 2007): 518–605.https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996522.biblioWebb Keane Religious Language, Annual Review of Anthropology 26, no.11 (Oct 1997): 47–71.https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.26.1.47André Padoux L’oral et l’écrit mantra et mantraśāstra, (Jan 1996): 133–145.https://doi.org/10.4000/books.editionsehess.25738

Bees of India (Apoidea), their Behaviour, Management and a Key to the Genera

Abstract Most people know the honey bees, Apis mellifera, and perhaps also the big black carpenter bees, Xylocopa spp., so conspicuous on the plains and favourite subjects for romantic poetry. As early as Vedic times, several sorts of bees were generally recognized. The “bhramara,” “bhowra” or carpenter bees (Xylocopa) were apparently used to carry messages, as homing pigeons are used today. These bees can return to their nests when released as far away as four kilometres, and they are large enough to carry small pieces of paper glued to the thorax. An ingenious technique was used by thieves, who kept some of these bees in a small box “bhramara-karandaka,” from which they were released at night, to fly into and extinguish lamps in the houses to be robbed (Monier-Williams, 1899). In ancient and modern poetry, these insects symbolize a libertine, lover or bearer of love messages; their beauty is also appreciated, for instance, “In Chet, agreeable is the Spring and beautiful the bhowra” (Sri Guru Granth Sahib). The territorial hovering, courtship, and fighting of male carpenter bees was called bee sport or “bhramara vilasita” in Sanskrit (Monier-Williams, 1899).

Sri Guru-Granth Sahib [English version]. Four volumes. Translated and annotated by Gopal Singh. New York: Taplinger Publishing Co., Inc., 1965. 1351 pp. Glossary. $80.00.

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Evidence for Sixteenth-Century Agrarian Conditions in the Guru Granth Sahib

Evidence for Sixteenth-Century Agrarian Conditions in the Guru Granth Sahib