ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>MANMAT PRAH&#256R LA&#7770&#298 (lit., a series to overcome heresy)</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 NAME="keywords" CONTENT="MANMAT,PRAHR,LAZ*"> <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">&#65279MANMAT PRAH&#256R LA&#7770&#298 (lit., a series to overcome heresy) comprises tracts written by Bh&#257&#299 Mohan Si&#7749gh Vaid of Tarn T&#257ran between 1903 and 1908, denouncing un-Sikh customs and rituals to which the Sikhs had succumbed. This had been one of the primary objectives of the Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 reform and a most forceful exponent of it was Gi&#257n&#299 Ditt Si&#7749gh, a prolific writer and editor of the <i><u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 <u>Ak</u>hb&#257r</i>. With his death in 1901, a vacuum occurred in the reformers' crusade against ignorance and superstition among the Sikh masses. Bh&#257&#299 Mohan Si&#7749gh Vaid entered the arena in 1903 and attempted to fill this gap. The series that flowed from his pen consisted of six books. The first four were published by <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 Agency, Lahore, and the last two by the author himself.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>Shar&#257dh Prabodh</i>, the first in the series, was published in1903, with a reprint brought out in 1905. The booklet aims to bring to the readers true understanding of <i>shar&#257dh</i>, ritual feeding of the Br&#257hma&#7751s as homage to one's departed ancestors. Bh&#257&#299 Mohan Si&#7749gh presents the custom as unworthy of a Sikh. <i>Gurmat Anus&#257r Mritak Sa&#7749sk&#257r de L&#257bh</i> commends the simple Sikh custom of cremation amid, and followed by, recitation of <i>gurb&#257&#7751&#299, k&#299rtan</i> and <i>ard&#257s</i> or prayer for the departed soul. The third in the series, entitled <i>Birdh Viv&#257h, Durdash&#257 N&#257&#7789ak</i> is a play, published in 1904, depicting the plight of young innocent girls given away in marriage by greedy parents to those advanced in years. There was at the time much misleading criticism of Sikhism by &#256rya Sam&#257j. The <i>Gurmat Gauravat&#257</i> dilates on the dignity of the Anand form of marriage, mustering quotations from the Sikh texts and stressing its importance for the Panth. The last in the series, <i>Gurmat Virodh B&#299jn&#257sh</i>, published in June 1908, was in reply to a tract, <i>Anand Viv&#257h par Vich&#257r</i>, brought out earlier by Durg&#257 Press, N&#257bh&#257, attacking the Anand marriage.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Dukh&#299, Munsh&#257 Si&#7749gh, <i>J&#299van Bh&#257&#299 S&#257hib Bh&#257&#299 Mohan Si&#7749gh j&#299 Vaid</i>. Lahore, 1931<BR> <li class="C1"> Abn&#257sh Kaur, <i>Bh&#257&#299 Mohan Si&#7749gh Vaid ate Pañj&#257b&#299 Sabhi&#257ch&#257r</i>. Patiala, 1982<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Jagj&#299t Si&#7749gh <br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>