ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>MIHARB&#256N 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>MIHARB&#256N JANAM S&#256KH&#298</i> takes its name from So&#7693h&#299 Miharb&#257n, nephew of Gur&#363 Arjan and leader of the schismatic M&#299&#7751&#257 sect. Miharb&#257n's father, Prith&#299 Chand, was the eldest son of Gur&#363 R&#257m D&#257s and as such had greatly resented being passed over as his father's successor in favour of a younger brother. He set himself as a rival to the Gur&#363. He and his followers who supported his claims were stigmatized as M&#299&#7751&#257s or hypocrites and outcastes. Succeeding his father as leader of this sect in 1619, Miharb&#257n guided it until his death in 1640. Later, the sect declined into insignificance. A belief, however, survived that Miharb&#257n had composed a <i>janam s&#257kh&#299</i> of Gur&#363 N&#257nak. Until well into the twentieth century, no copy of this <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> had come to light. The prologue to the highly respected <i>Gy&#257n Ratan&#257val&#299</i> specifically declared that the M&#299&#7751&#257s had corrupted the authentic record of Gur&#363 N&#257nak's life and teachings. The lost <i>Miharb&#257n Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> had accordingly been branded spurious and heretical, and but for the <i>Gy&#257n Ratan&#257val&#299</i> reference it would probably have been forgotten completely.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In 1940, however, a <i>Miharb&#257n</i> manuscript was discovered at Damd&#257m&#257 S&#257hib and subsequently acquired by <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 College, Amritsar. Upon exanmination this substantial manuscript turned out to contain only the first half of the complete <i>Miharb&#257n Janam S&#257kh&#299</i>. According to the colophon, the complete work comprised six volumes (<i>poth&#299s</i>). The manuscript itself consisted of the first three volumes, <i>Poth&#299 Sachkha&#7751&#7693, Poth&#299 Har&#299ji</i>, and <i>Poth&#299 Chaturbhuj</i>, respectively. The three missing sections were entitled <i>Keso R&#257i Poth&#299, Abhai Pad Poth&#299</i>, and <i>Prem Pad Poth&#299</i>. In 1961, the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 College acquired a second and much smaller Miharb&#257n manuscript which provided a text for folios missing from the Damdam&#257 manuscript. It is, however, limited to a portion of <i>Poth&#299 Sachkha&#7751&#7693</i>, and thus provides no material from the three missing volumes. The only portion to survive from this latter half of the <i>Miharb&#257n Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> is its account of the death of Gur&#363 N&#257nak. This has been incorporated in a recension of the <i>B&#257l&#257 Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> tradition.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;From the extant volumes of the <i>Miharb&#257n Janam S&#257kh&#299</i>, three important conclusions may be drawn. The first of these is that the work can scarcely be described as heretical. Objections grounded in orthodox doctrine may certainly be raised at a few points, but the same can be said of all <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299s</i>. Unlike the early <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299s</i> of the <i>B&#257l&#257</i> tradition, the <i>Miharb&#257n</i> product implies no denigration of the mission of Gur&#363 N&#257nak, demonstrating instead a serious concern to propagate his teachings. <i>Poth&#299 Har&#299 j&#299</i> does contain the spurious story of Gur&#363 N&#257nak's marriage to a Ra&#7749gha&#7771 woman, but it occurs within a narrative section which has plainly been interpolated.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The M&#299&#7751&#257s were unquestionably guilty of positive schism and it is possible that at some stage they may have attempted to corrupt orthodox texts in the interests of their own pretensions. But the extant <i>Miharb&#257n Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> scarcely falls within this category.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The second conclusion to be drawn from the two available manuscripts is that the text we now possess is a late and extensively augmented one. The Damdam&#257 manuscript is dated 1885 Bk/AD 1828 and plainly it is to the early nineteenth century that its text belongs. If in fact So&#7693h&#299 Miharb&#257n did deliver discourses to his followers, there can be little hope of isolating his authentic contribution from the mass of material recorded in the extant text.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The third conclusion indicated by the extant text is that, strictly speaking, the so called <i>Miharb&#257n Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> is not really a <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299</i>. The first volume, <i>Poth&#299 Sachkha&#7751&#7693</i> does use a <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> narrative as a convenient framework, but the burden of emphasis is firmly placed on the extensive exegetical discourses which the <i>Miharb&#257n</i> tradition so characteristically sets within this pattern. In the two remaining volumes (and presumably in their three missing successors), the narrative element disappears almost completely, except for a few interpolations. Whenever a setting is provided for a discourse, it is normally sketched in the briefest of terms. The emphasis on scriptural quotation and exegesis, already dominant in the first volume, thus becomes overwhelming in those which follow.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; It is accordingly as a work of exegesis that the <i>Miharb&#257n Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> must be primarily understood, a quality which clearly distinguishes it from the standard narrative <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299s</i>. The same <i>Miharb&#257n</i> tradition produced other exegetical works (notably <i>Go&#7779&#7789&#257&#7749 Sr&#299 Miharb&#257n J&#299 D&#299&#257&#7749</i>) and it is within this category that its so-called <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299s</i> properly belong. This is signified not merely by the actual content of the <i>Miharb&#257n Janam S&#257kh&#299s</i>, but also by the structure within which it incorporates that content. In place of the anecdotal form (<i>S&#257kh&#299</i>) of the narrative <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299s</i>, it uses a distinctive variety of discourse (<i>go&#7779&#7789</i>).</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The typical <i>go&#7779&#7789</i> of the <i>Miharb&#257n</i> tradition comprises three elements. First, there is a brief narrative setting which brings Gur&#363 N&#257nak into converse with some interlocutor, or with God. Second, there appears a series of extracts from the works of Gur&#363 N&#257nak. Third, interspersed between these scriptural quotations and providing the bulk of most discourses, there are explanations of the passages quoted. Normally these exegetical sections are introduced with the standard formula; <i>tis k&#257 param&#257rath</i> ("Its sublime meaning"). Many discourses are limited to a single hymn, with individual stanzas quoted and expounded separately, usually with an introductory query provided for each by the interlocutor. Others treat a <i>theme</i> more extensively by citing in turn a series of relevant hymns.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; There were only two <i>Miharb&#257n Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> manuscripts known to be extant. The text of the principal manuscript, supplemented where necessary by the later discovery, has been published by the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 College, Amritsar, under the title, <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299s Sr&#299 Gur&#363 N&#257nak Dev J&#299</i> (2 volumes, Amritsar, 1962 and 1969).</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The language of this <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> is S&#257dh Bh&#257sh&#257 with a mixture of Punjabi vocabulary. Theological terminology of Indian traditions is freely and judiciously employed. Typical preacher style makes the discourses a bit too monotonous.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Kirp&#257l Si&#7749gh, ed., <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299 Sr&#299 Gur&#363 N&#257nak Dev J&#299</i>. Amritsar, 1962<BR> <li class="C1"><i>Janam S&#257kh&#299 Par&#257mpar&#257</i>. Patiala, 1969<BR> <li class="C1"> McLeod, W.H., <i>Early Sikh Tradition</i>. Oxford, 1980<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">W. H. McLeod<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>