The Hindu : New Delhi News : English analysis of `Janamsakhi' to counter Western claims

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 29, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

English analysis of `Janamsakhi' to counter Western claims

NEW DELHI, APRIL 28. An English analysis of the sacred Janamsakhi has hit the bookstands as a rebuttal of Western claims that the anthology of anecdotes on Guru Nanak was a mere hagiography devoid of any historical evidence.

In 1970, Sikh faithfuls were rattled when Western historiographers attempted to portray the life of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, through modern biographical parameters, questioning events presented in religious lore in the traditional Janamsakhis of 16th and 17th centuries.

Western scholars, led by Dr Hew McLeod, had attempted to show a ``Nanak of history'' while the Janamsakhis presented a ``Nanak of Faith'' with his life woven in miraculous stories.

Sikh historian Kirpal Singh's latest ``Janamsakhi Tradition, An Analytical Study'' promises to present an in-depth appraisal of early Sikh tradition vis-à-vis the ``sceptical study of Dr Hew McLeod.''

In the Janamsakhi tradition, which travels down to the present generation, Guru Nanak is a ``wonderful personality'' gifted with miraculous powers and celestial living.

On the other hand, Dr McLeod from the London University's School of Oriental and African Studies in his controversial book ``Guru Nanak and Sikh Religion'', published in 1970s, had found a lack of historical evidence that matched the descriptions in the Janamsakhis about the Guru's visit to Sri Lanka, Baghdad, Kurukshetra and other centres of Hindu and Muslim pilgrimage.

Dr McLeod assumed that Guru Nanak's mission was the same as that of the Bhakts (mystics) of the Bhakti Movement of medieval India.

All these Janamsakhis, according to him, were ``hagiographies devoid of historical elements''.

Such descriptions, of course, have never been acceptable to Sikh faithfuls and also to Sikh historians, like Dr Kirpal Singh, who maintain that ``miracles have remained an integral part of all types of spiritual exercises... religious books like the Vedas, Buddhist texts, the Bible and the Quran do contain miraculous accounts... miracles also find mention in the Adi Granth (the Guru Granth Sahib) but only in references''.

``Miracles of Janamsakhis should not be rejected or decried outright, rather their historical settings need to be studied,'' Dr Singh says.

The new 250-page book in English by Dr Kirpal Singh was released by former Ambassador Jaspal Singh at a gathering of Sikh scholars and prominent personalities here recently.

It describes Janamsakhis as neither a recorded history of Guru Nanak nor an exegesis of his ``Bani (hymns)''.

They aimed at transmitting information to the younger generations about the ``wonderful'' personality of the Guru who ``revealed to the world a unique and enlightened faith that preached the doctrine of the supremacy of God, His True Name (Naam) and service (Daya Dharam)'', the author said.

The book, with an introduction from Sikh historian and former Pro Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University (Patiala) Pirthipal Singh Kapur, says ``Janamsakhis will ever remain the most important source of information on Guru Nanak if we study them carefully and intensively.

``Most of Muslim saints whom Guru Nanak is said to have met find mention in Janamsakhi Miharban (Part Two). Their names are found in Tazkara-e-Sufia-e-Punjab recently published in Karachi (Pakistan).''

Dr Kirpal Singh, who began study of the Janamsakhi tradition in 1966 at the Punjabi University Patiala as part of his project, travelled a number of places from Nanakmatta (Uttaranchal) to Colombo in Sri Lanka in pursuit of his research on gurdwaras marking Guru Nanak's visits and old trade routes during and early 16th century.

All material was verified and compared with written accounts of Guru Nanak in Janamsakhis, he said.

There are four Janamsakhis -- Puratan Janamsakhi, Meharban Janamsakhis (Part One and Two) and the Bala Janamsakhi -- which, according to Dr Kapur, are like four Gospels and were not initially looked upon as rivals of each other but parallel versions of the anecdotes concerning the life of the Guru.

``Janamsakhis were a literature produced to lend authenticity and historical credibility to the anecdotes by inserting quotations from the hymns of Guru Nanak and his successors as enshrined in the Guru Granth Sahib or even narrating the anecdotes as an eyewitness account.

``The emergence of Sikhism as a new system of religion was hardly noticed by these writers,'' Dr Kapur adds.

But the authenticity of the Guru Granth Sahib remains unimpaired.

Sikh historian Karam Singh was the first to question the authenticity of the narrative of the Bala Janamsakhi in his 1908 book titled ``Katak Ke Visakh'', saying it was ``full of interpolations and had been written to extol Hindal Niranjania, a devotee of the Third Guru Amar Das''.

Niranjania was made ``Masand (preacher)'' and was settled in his native village Jandiala. After his death, his son compiled a Granth (volume) and a Janamsakhi with a view to extol Hindal and denigrate the founder Sikh Guru. -- UNI

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