ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>B&#256L&#256 JANAM S&#256KH&#298</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279<i>B&#256L&#256 JANAM S&#256KH&#298</i>, The Janam S&#257kh&#299s of the B&#257l&#257 tradition owe both their name and their reputation to Bh&#257&#299 B&#257l&#257, a Sandhu Ja&#7789&#7789 from Gur&#363 N&#257nak's village of Talva&#7751&#7693&#299. According to the tradition's own claims, B&#257l&#257 was a near contemporary of Gur&#363 N&#257nak who accompanied him during his period in Sult&#257npur and during the course of his extensive travels. If these claims are correct and if in fact the eponymous tradition records the authentic narrative of such a man, it must follow that the B&#257l&#257 Janam S&#257kh&#299s provide an essentially trustworthy account of the early life of Gur&#363 N&#257nak. For more than a hundred years, from the late eighteenth until the early twentieth century, this claim was scarcely challenged. During the course of the present century it has been vigorously assaulted, without being wholly demolished. To this day popular portraits of the Gur&#363, flanked by Mard&#257n&#257 the minstrel and B&#257l&#257 the attendant, testify to a continuing acceptance of its claims.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The tradition's claims to eye-witness authenticity are set forth at the beginning of all B&#257l&#257 Janam S&#257kh&#299s. The earliest extant version opens as follows :</p> <blockquote class="C1"><p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In the year Sammat fifteen hundred and eighty-two, S. 1582 [AD 1525] on the fifth day of the bright half of the month of Vais&#257<u>kh</u>, Pai&#7771&#257 Mokh&#257, a Khatr&#299 of Sult&#257npur, wrote this book. Gur&#363 A&#7749gad commanded that it be written. Pai&#7771&#257 recorded the dictation of B&#257l&#257, a Sandh&#363 Ja&#7789&#7789 who had come from Talva&#7751&#7693&#299, the village of R&#257i Bhoi. He had come in search of Gur&#363 A&#7749gad. The recording of his narrative took two months and seventeen days to complete. All the facts and all the places visited by Gur&#363 N&#257nakJ&#299 were faithfully and fluently described by Bh&#257&#299 B&#257l&#257, with the result that Gur&#363 A&#7749gad was greatly pleased with him. Bh&#257&#299 B&#257l&#257 and Mard&#257n&#257, the bard, accompanied B&#257b&#257 N&#257nak on his travels and Bh&#257&#299 B&#257l&#257 was with him during the period he spent at the commissariat (of Daulat <u>Kh</u>&#257n in Sult&#257npur). </blockquote></p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The text then relates the circumstances which brought B&#257l&#257 to Gur&#363 N&#257nak's successor, Gur&#363 A&#7749gad, who was at that time residing in the village of Kha&#7693&#363r . Gur&#363 A&#7749gad who previously knew nothing of B&#257l&#257, was one day reflecting on the fact that he did not know the date of Gur&#363 N&#257nak's birth. B&#257l&#257, having only recently discovered the identity and abode of Gur&#363 N&#257nak's successor, conveniently arrived in Kha&#7693&#363r and agreed to bring the first Gur&#363's horoscope from Talva&#7751&#7693&#299. When he returned after locating the vital document, Pai&#7771&#257 Mokh&#257 was deputed to transcribe it. The process of transcription immediately becomes one of dictation as the horoscope, having served its purpose, is forgotten and the writer takes up B&#257l&#257's narrative. There then follows the lengthy collection of anecdotes which constitutes the earliest version of the <i>B&#257l&#257 Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> tradition.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Two conflicting theories have been advanced to explain the origin of the earliest of the extant B&#257l&#257 Janam S&#257kh&#299s. Neither accepts outright the text's own claim to represent an authentic narrative of the early life and travels of Gur&#363 N&#257nak. Such an interpretation is rendered insupportable by the inconsistencies and fantasies which it provides in abundance.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The first theory does, however, affirm a modified version of the B&#257l&#257 claim. Within the earliest text there are to be found references which are plainly traceable to the seventeenth-century Hind&#257l&#299 sect. These seek to denigrate Gur&#363 N&#257nak at the expense of B&#257b&#257 Hind&#257l, father of the sect's founder. Early in the nineteenth century, Bh&#257&#299 Santokh Si&#7749gh suggested that these references were to be explained on the grounds that the original Janam S&#257kh&#299 authentically dictated by Bh&#257&#299 B&#257l&#257 had been mischievously corrupted by Hind&#257l&#299 interpolations. A version of this theory is still current. The profuse legendary material is, it affirms, the product of interpolation. Behind it there lies an original and essentially reliable Janam S&#257kh&#299 which may be restored by stripping away the extraneous content.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; This theory is difficult to sustain in that a mere pruning, however drastic, cannot reduce any of the B&#257l&#257 texts to a consistent narrative. The second theory takes account of Janam S&#257kh&#299 as a typical seventeenth-century product, a composite work incorporating the results of a lengthy period of oral growth and transmission. Other extant Janam S&#257kh&#299s demonstrate the same process. The B&#257l&#257 tradition differs in its wealth of fantasy and in its attempt to establish authenticity by the contrived introduction of an eye-witness narrator. Its actual composition may have been the work of the Hind&#257l&#299s; or a seventeenth-century text may have been interpolated by them in the manner suggested by Santokh Si&#7749gh. Hind&#257l interest of some kind is plainly evident in all early manuscripts of the B&#257l&#257 tradition.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; This leaves unsolved the problem of B&#257l&#257's identity. It may be safely affirmed that no person of this name could have been the constant companion of Gur&#363 N&#257nak as none of the other early traditions refer to him. This omission is particularly noteworthy in the case of Bh&#257&#299 Gurd&#257s. It would, however, be going too far to deny his existence entirely. B&#257l&#257 Sandh&#363 may well have been a real person.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Although the second of the theories outlined above reduces the <i>B&#257l&#257</i> tradition to the level of other early Janam S&#257kh&#299s, it does nothing to minimize the importance of the tradition in later Sikh history. <i>B&#257l&#257</i> primacy had been firmly established by the end of the eighteenth century and its hold upon nineteenth-century affections is clearly demonstrated by the degree to which such writers as Santokh Si&#7749gh, Sant Re&#7751, and Bh&#257&#299 Bahilo rely on it. When the introduction of printing produced a spectacular expansion of recorded Janam S&#257kh&#299 materials, the growth was almost wholly monopolized by the <i>B&#257l&#257</i> tradition. Many of the most treasured of all Janam S&#257kh&#299 anecdotes derive from <i>B&#257l&#257</i> sources and, if today one asks for a Janam S&#257kh&#299 in a bookshop, the volume which is produced will almost certainly be the twentieth-century <i>B&#257l&#257</i> version.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Amongst the numerous extant manuscripts of this tradition, two principal recensions are to be found. Whereas the earlier terminates the narrative prior to Gur&#363 N&#257nak's death, the latter has Gur&#363 A&#7749gad relate this episode for Bh&#257&#299 B&#257l&#257's benefit. In order to do so, the latter compiler has borrowed a death narrative from the <i>Miharb&#257n</i> tradition. The oldest of the extant B&#257l&#257 manuscripts is the earliest of all Janam S&#257kh&#299 manuscripts of whatever tradition. It bears the date 1715 Bk/AD 1658 and is in a private collection in Delhi. <i>Pañj&#257b&#299 Hatth-likht&#257&#7749 d&#299 S&#363ch&#299</i> lists twenty-two <i>B&#257l&#257</i> manuscripts in the Punjab. Three are located in London and individual items are to be found in various other places.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Four editions have appeared since the printing press was first used for Janam S&#257kh&#299s in 1871. An edition lithographed by H&#257fiz Qutab D&#299n of Lahore in 1871 generally follows the earlier of the manuscript versions. Thereafter, however, there is progressive and substantial augmenting of the text, culminating in the letter-press version which has been current for most of the twentieth century.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A critical analysis of the linguistic characteristics of <i>B&#257l&#257</i> and <i>Pur&#257tan</i> Janam S&#257kh&#299s reveals that the language of the latter is older than that of the <i>B&#257l&#257</i> Janam S&#257kh&#299. Auxiliary verb which is conspicuous by its absence in the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib and has very low frequency in <i>Pur&#257tan</i>, appears in <i> B&#257l&#257 </i> on the pattern of modern Punjabi. Many of the case-inflexions regularly used in the <i>Pur&#257tan</i> have disappeared in <i> B&#257l&#257 </i>. Case-inflexions were a characteristic of the old language, which have been gradually giving way to the postpositions. Again in the use of nasalization, the language of <i>Pur&#257tan</i> is akin to that of the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib. Many of the verbal and nominal forms which contain nasalized vowels in <i>B&#257l&#257</i> (just as in modern Punjabi) are oral in the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib as well as in <i>Pur&#257tan Janam S&#257kh&#299</i>. The <i>Pur&#257tan</i> uses the older forms of the adverbs of time and place, whereas the <i>B&#257l&#257</i> employs the modern forms of the same adverbs. In general idiom, too, the language of the <i>Pur&#257tan Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> is certainly older than the language of B&#257l&#257 Janam S&#257kh&#299.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Mcleod, W. H. , <i>Early Sikh Tradition</i>. Oxford, 1980<BR> <li class="C1"> Kirp&#257l Si&#7749gh, <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299 Prampar&#257</i>. Patiala, 1969<BR> <li class="C1"> Kohl&#299, Surindar Si&#7749gh, ed. <i>Janams&#257kh&#299 Bh&#257&#299 B&#257l&#257</i>. Chandigarh, 1975<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">W. H. McLeod<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>