DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.636#0181
The Sikh Sect. 169
ship, but he well knew that to maintain the Sikh religion as a
distinctive creed some visible representative and standard of
authority was needed. He therefore constituted the Granth
a kind of permanent religious Guru, gifting it with personality,
and even endowing it with the personal title Sahib (Lord).
' After me,' he said, ' you shall everywhere mind the book of
the Granth-Sahib as your Guru; whatever you shall ask it
will show you.'
It may be worth while, therefore, to inquire a little more
closely into the nature of the book thus exalted to the
position of an infallible guide, and made to do duty as a kind
of visible vicegerent of God upon earth.
It consists, as we have seen, of two parts, the Adi-Granth
or first book, which is the portion most generally revered, and
the book of the tenth Guru, Govind, which finds greater
favour with the more fanatical section of the community. We
can only here glance at the form and contents of the Adi-
Granth. The translator (Professor Trumpp) considers it to
be 'an extremely incoherent and wearisome book, the few
thoughts and ideas it contains being repeated in endless
variations.' Nor will this estimate of its merits be matter of
wonder when it is found that the Adi-Granth is, in fact, a
jumbling together of metrical precepts and apophthegms sup-
posed to have been composed by at least thirty-five different
authors, among whom were six of the ten chief Gurus (Nanak,
Angada, Amar-das, Ram-das, Arjun, and Teg-Bahadur), four-
teen Bhagats or saints (Ramanand, Kablr, Plpa, Ravi-das,
Dhanna, Namdev, Sur-das, etc.), and fifteen Bhatts or pro-
fessional panegyrists, whose names are not worth recording.
These latter were employed to write eulogies on the Gurus,
and their panegyrics, introduced into the Granth, are curious
as specimens of abject adulation, though absolutely worthless
in themselves. It is noticeable that one verse by Govind-
Sinh has been appended to the Adi-Granth, and is regarded
as an integral portion of the volume.
ship, but he well knew that to maintain the Sikh religion as a
distinctive creed some visible representative and standard of
authority was needed. He therefore constituted the Granth
a kind of permanent religious Guru, gifting it with personality,
and even endowing it with the personal title Sahib (Lord).
' After me,' he said, ' you shall everywhere mind the book of
the Granth-Sahib as your Guru; whatever you shall ask it
will show you.'
It may be worth while, therefore, to inquire a little more
closely into the nature of the book thus exalted to the
position of an infallible guide, and made to do duty as a kind
of visible vicegerent of God upon earth.
It consists, as we have seen, of two parts, the Adi-Granth
or first book, which is the portion most generally revered, and
the book of the tenth Guru, Govind, which finds greater
favour with the more fanatical section of the community. We
can only here glance at the form and contents of the Adi-
Granth. The translator (Professor Trumpp) considers it to
be 'an extremely incoherent and wearisome book, the few
thoughts and ideas it contains being repeated in endless
variations.' Nor will this estimate of its merits be matter of
wonder when it is found that the Adi-Granth is, in fact, a
jumbling together of metrical precepts and apophthegms sup-
posed to have been composed by at least thirty-five different
authors, among whom were six of the ten chief Gurus (Nanak,
Angada, Amar-das, Ram-das, Arjun, and Teg-Bahadur), four-
teen Bhagats or saints (Ramanand, Kablr, Plpa, Ravi-das,
Dhanna, Namdev, Sur-das, etc.), and fifteen Bhatts or pro-
fessional panegyrists, whose names are not worth recording.
These latter were employed to write eulogies on the Gurus,
and their panegyrics, introduced into the Granth, are curious
as specimens of abject adulation, though absolutely worthless
in themselves. It is noticeable that one verse by Govind-
Sinh has been appended to the Adi-Granth, and is regarded
as an integral portion of the volume.