ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>MAN&#298 SI&#7748GH 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>MAN&#298 SI&#7748GH JANAM S&#256KH&#298</i>, also known as <i>GY&#256N RATN&#256VAL&#298</i> and traditionally attributed to Bh&#257&#299 Man&#299 Si&#7749gh, a famous Sikh of the early eighteenth century martyred by the Mu<u>gh</u>al governor of Lahore, Zakar&#299y&#257 Kh&#257n, in 1737, is a collection of 225 anecdotes related to the life of Gur&#363 N&#257nak and some exegetical and theological discourses. Two manuscripts held by <u>Kh</u>&#257lsa College, Amritsar, are dated 1891 Bk/AD 1834, and 1895 Bk/AD 1838, respectively, and of the three others in a private collection at Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257 two are also dated 1883 Bk/AD 1826, and 1927 BK/AD 1870, and although the third and the oldest one bears the date 1778 Bk/AD 1721, it is evident from its contents and the modern style of its language that its actual date must be much later. According to S.S. Ashok, <i>Pañj&#257b&#299 Hath-Likhat&#257&#7749 d&#299 S&#363ch&#299</i>, four other undated manuscripts, two of them complete and two incomplete, also existed but they were probably destroyed during the army's invasion of the Darb&#257r S&#257hib complex in 1984. Of the three lithographed editions, the first was published by Char&#257<u>gh</u> D&#299n and Sar&#257j D&#299n of Lahore in 1891, the second by Sanskrit Book Depot, Lahore, in 1892, and the third by Gul&#257b Si&#7749gh and Sons, Lahore, in 1908. It is an abridged text of the 1892 lithographed edition that appears in Dr Kirp&#257l Si&#7749gh (ed) <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299 Parampar&#257</i> (1969).</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Some modern scholars dispute the authorship of the work or at least suspect some interpolations to have occurred later, although a prologue providing the following explanation for its original composition is found attached to all extant copies of the manuscript :</p> <blockquote class="C1"><p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Some Sikhs once approached Man&#299 Si&#7749gh with a problem. The schismatic M&#299&#7751&#257s were, they reported, corrupting the received account of the life and teachings of Gur&#363 N&#257nak. It was evidently becoming impossible to distinguish authentic fact from malicious interpolation and for this reason they desired that he, as an acknowledged authority, should undertake to separate the two. Man&#299 Si&#7749gh, in reply, referred them to Bh&#257&#299 Gurd&#257s' <i>V&#257r</i> as a reliable record of the Gur&#363's life. This record, they responded, was a very brief one. Something more was necessary and their request was for an extended commentary on Bh&#257&#299 Gurd&#257s' work. Protesting his inadequacy for such a task, Man&#299 Si&#7749gh eventually agreed to take Bh&#257&#299 Gurd&#257s' <i>V&#257r</i> as his basic text and to supplement it with narratives he had heard from the followers of Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh. The result was his Janam S&#257kh&#299, the <i>Gy&#257n Ratn&#257val&#299</i>.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</blockquote></p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; There is no evident reason to mistrust this explanation although its accuracy cannot be definitively proved. That the work appears to be originally based on Bh&#257&#299 Gurd&#257s' <i>v&#257r-1</i> is evidenced by stanzas from this <i>V&#257r</i> quoted in the <i>janam s&#257kh&#299</i>, most of them followed by a brief paraphrase, although other anecdotes also separate the stanzaic passages. These latter may have been taken from other sources by Bh&#257&#299 Man&#299 Si&#7749gh himself who must have been conversant with several <i>janam s&#257kh&#299s</i> that already existed during his time. Still some interpolations cannot be ruled out.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The language of <i>Man&#299 Si&#7749gh Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> is simple and easy to follow, but it is not uniform. Mostly, it is Punjabi, but it changes to S&#257dh Bh&#257kh&#257 when some philosophical point is being discussed. On the whole, it is nearer to the modern idiom; some of the grammatical forms, particularly case forms, freely occurring in <i>Pur&#257tan</i> or even in <i>B&#257l&#257</i> tradition have disappeared by this time.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> McLeod, W.H., <i>Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion</i>. Oxford, 1968<BR> <li class="C1"> Kirp&#257l Si&#7749gh, ed., <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299 Parampar&#257</i>. Patiala, 1969<BR> <li class="C1"> Ashok, Shamsher Si&#7749gh, <i>Pañj&#257b&#299 Hath-Likhat&#257&#7749 d&#299 S&#363ch&#299</i>. Patiala, 1963<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">W. H. McLeod<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>