Learning About the Granth of Guru Gobind Singh

The Dasam Granth (DG) is an invaluable piece of our collective legacy and very few know more about it than the experts mentioned below in this article. 

W.H. McLeod (1979/2007) states that ‘Research on the Dasam Granth has been very limited, with the result that most of the major questions which it raises cannot be answered at present.’ The previous research has been limited to the examination of its poetry, with the exception of one detailed study of Dasam Granth manuscripts (Jaggi 1966). Very little research has been undertaken on the development of the Dasam Granth (DG) in the lifetime of the Tenth Guru, and therefore this paper addresses this gap. This paper begins with an examination of the editing and dating of primary sources, so that an accurate chronology can be constructed of the textual history. This has been explored in reference to late seventeenth and eighteenth century hagiographies which are examined alongside several extant seventeenth century DG manuscripts; and with supplementation from later secondary sources. A major development in the textual history of the DG was its standardisation and subsequent printing in 1897, however some original manuscripts contain extra ‘apocrypha’ which are absent from the printed edition. The compositions in the standard version of the DG will be discussed, along with new translations and discussion of the ‘apocrypha.’ By re-examining the earliest sources, it is clear that the Scripture of Guru Gobind Singh was compiled in his Court. The juxtaposition against later sources brings the modern Singh Sabha theory that the DG was compiled by Bhai Mani Singh into question.