History
During the Guruship of Guru Nanak, collections of his hymns were compiled and sent to distant Sikh communities for use in morning and evening prayers.[11] His successor, Guru Angad, began collecting his predecessor's sacred writings. This tradition was continued by the third and fifth guru.
When the fifth Guru, Guru Arjan, was collecting the writings of his predecessor, he discovered that pretenders to the Guruship were releasing forged anthologies of the previous gurus' writings and including their own writings alongside them. In order to prevent spurious scriptures from gaining legitimacy, Guru Arjan began compiling a sacred book for the Sikh community. He finished collecting the religious writings of Guru Ram Das, his immediate predecessor, and convinced Mohan, the son of Guru Amar Das, to give him the collection of the religious writings of the first three Gurus.[12] In addition, he sent disciples to go across the country to find and bring back any previously unknown writings. He also invited members of other religions and contemporary religious writers to submit writings for possible inclusion.[12] Guru Arjan selected hymns for inclusion into the book and Bhai Gurdas acted as his scribe.
While the manuscript was being put together, Akbar, the Mughal Emperor, received a report that the manuscript contained passages vilifying Islam. Therefore, while traveling north, he stopped en route and asked to inspect it. Baba Buddha and Bhai Gurdas brought him a copy of the manuscript so far, and after choosing three random passages to be read, determined the report to be false.[13] He also granted a request from Guru Arjan to remit the annual tax revenue of the district because of the failure of the monsoon.
In 1604, Guru Arjan's manuscript was completed and installed at the Harmandir Sahib with Baba Buddha as the first granthi, or reader. Since communities of Sikh disciples were scattered all over northern India, copies of the holy book needed to be made for them.
The sixth, seventh, and eighth Gurus did not write religious verses, however the ninth Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur did and the tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh included Guru Tegh Bahadur's writings into Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Guru Gobind Singh had his own writings compiled in a separate granth, which today is called Dasam Granth Sahib. It is not revered as Guru by the Sikhs. The Guru is only Guru Granth Sahib Ji.
In 1704, at Damdama Sahib, during a one-year respite from the heavy fighting with Aurengzeb which the Khalsa was engaged in at the time, Guru Gobind Singh and Bhai Mani Singh added the religious compositions of Guru Tegh Bahadur to Guru Granth Sahib Ji to create a definitive version.[13] The religious verses of Guru Gobind Singh were not included in Guru Granth Sahib Ji, but some of his religious verses are included in the daily prayers of Sikhs.[13] During this period, Bhai Mani Singh also collected Guru Gobind Singh's writings as well as his court poets and included them in a secondary religious volume known as the Dasam Granth.
Elevation of Adi Granth to Guru Granth Sahib Ji
Thus, despite some aberrations, the Sikhs overwhelmingly accept that Guru Granth Sahib Ji is their eternal Guru. This has been the understanding and conviction of the Sikhs, since 1708.The Adi Granth was conferred the title of "Guru of the Sikhs" by the tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, 1708. The event, when Guru Gobind Singh installed Adi Granth as the Guru of Sikhism, was recorded in a Bhatt Vahi (a bard's scroll) by an eyewitness, Narbud Singh,[15] who was a bard at the Guru's court. There are a variety of other documents attesting to this proclamation by the tenth Guru.
Structure of the Guru Granth Sahib
Within it's 1430 pages, the shabads (hymns) of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib are arranged in thirty-one Ragas, the traditional Indian musical measures and scales. Within the Ragas, they are arranged by order of the Sikh Gurus, with the shabads of the Hindu and Muslim Saints following. The shabads are written in various meters and rhythms, and are organized accordingly. For instance, Ashtapadi - eight steps, or Panch-padi - five steps. The Sri Guru Granth Sahib is written in Gurmukhi script, but the shabads were written in many different languages including Punjabi,Sanskrit and Persian.Main article: Structure of SGGS
The original bir of Guru Granth Sahib did not contain an index. However, this is provided in some modern print of the bir to make it easy to find the location of some of the common banis. For example, from the index, (see main article here) it can be seen that the Japji Sahib starts at page 1 and ends at page 8; Sukhmani Sahib is located from pages 262 to 296; the Bara Maha bani can is found at pages 133 to 136; The bani called Anand Sahib(Bliss) can be found at pages 917 to 922, etc.
The Beginning
The Guru Granth Sahib begins with the word "Ek Onkar" – The All Pervading Being. From this Word to the tenth Word “Gur-parshad” is called theMool Mantra. After this is the rest of the composition called the Japji composed by Guru Nanak Dev. This comprises 38 Pauris or stanzas, a Prologue and an Epilogue. This is one of the morning prayer of the Sikhs.
The next composition has two parts - (1) "So Dar" and (2) "So Purkh". The Bani, "So Dar" contains 5 Shabads and "So Purkh" contains 4 Shabads. This form most of the evening prayer of the Sikhs and is called the Rehras. After this is the Bani called Sohila (full name, Kirtan Sohila), which contains 5 Shabads and is the bed-time prayer.
The 31 Ragas
- Main article: Sikh Ragas
The Adi Granth starts with the a non-raga section which begins with Japji as the first entry followed by Rehras and ending with Kirtan Sohila. Then begins the main section consisting of 31 Ragas or chapters. A raga is a musical structure or set of rules of how to build a melody. It specifies a scale, as well as rules for movements up and down the scale; which notes should figure more and which notes should be used more sparingly; etc. The result is a framework that can be used to compose or improvise melodies in, so that melodies in a certain raga will always be recognisable yet allowing endless variation.
Just as a raga has emotional overtone, so each chapter has spiritual implication. The thirty-one ragas appear in the following serial order: Sri raga, Manjh, Gauri, Asa, Gujri, Devagandhari, Bihagara,Wadahans, Sorath, Dhanasri, Jaitsri, Todi, Bairari, Tilang, Suhi, Bilaval, Gond (Gaund), Ramkali, Nut-Narayan, Mali-Gaura, Maru, Tukhar, Kedara, Bhairav (Bhairo), Basant, Sarang, Malar, Kanra, Kalyan,Prabhati and Jaijawanti.
Within the 1430 pages are found Saloks of Bhagat Kabir, Sheikh Farid, Guru Tegh Bahadur, etc.
The closing section
The Main section which consists of 31 chapters forming the the Raga section is followed by a brief closing section. This is composed of the Mundavani (The Closing Seal), a salok by Guru Arjan and the final composition of the SGGS, which is the Ragamala