ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>PANTH</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="PANTH"> <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">&#65279PANTH, from Sanskrit <i>patha, pathin</i>, or <i>pantham</i>, means literally a way, passage or path and, figuratively, a way of life, religious creed or cult. In Sikh terminology, the word <i>panth</i> stands for the Sikh faith as well as for the Sikh people as a whole. It represents the invisible mystic body comprising all those who profess Sikhism as their faith and encompassing lesser bodies, religious as well as political, claiming to represent the whole of the Sikh population or any section of it. <i>Panth</i> for the Sikhs is the supreme earthly body having full claim on their allegiance. It transcends any of its components and functional agencies.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The use of the term <i>panth</i> as a system of religious belief and practice, synonymous with <i>m&#257rga</i> or religious path, is quite old. Several medieval cults used it as a suffix to the names of their preceptors, such as Gorkhpanth and Kab&#299rpanth, their followers being called Gorakhpanth&#299s and Kab&#299rpanth&#299s. Even the Sikhs were earlier known as N&#257nakpanth&#299s. In the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib, <i>panth</i> is used both in its literal as well as in its figurative sense. In the former sense it frequently occurs in poetical images of a love-lorn soul with her gaze fixed on the path (<i>panth</i>) longing for the Divine Lover, God, or the Gur&#363 who would unite her with the Supreme Being. In the latter sense it is often combined with an adjective or noun as in <i>mukti panth</i>, path to liberation, <i>uttam panth</i>, the superior path, <i>nirmal panth</i>, unstained, pure faith, <i>dharam panth</i>, religious creed and <i>Hari k&#257 panth</i>, way to God. Bha&#7789&#7789 K&#299rat, a bard whose verses were entered by Gur&#363 Arjan in the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib, identifies <i>gur-sa&#7749gat</i>, holy assembly of the Sikhs as <i>uttam panth</i> (GG, 1406). Gur&#363 N&#257nak, too, had used <i>gurmukhi panth</i>, religion of the Gur&#363-wards for those (the <i>sa&#7749gat</i>) singing God's praises (GG,360). Bh&#257&#299 Gurd&#257s (d. 1636) uses <i>panth</i> for the entire body of Sikhs when he, eulogizing Gur&#363 N&#257nak, records : "He vanquished the party of the Siddhas with his discourse and created his own separate <i>panth</i>" (<i>V&#257r&#257&#7749</i>, 1.45).</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>Panth</i> thus emerged as a comprehensive concept standing for the totality of the Sikh system. It represented both <i>jot</i> (spirit) and <i>jugat</i> (means or institutions) of the Sikhs. With their religious doctrines canonized in the Scripture, Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib, their separate identifiable institutions like <i>sa&#7749gat</i> and <i>pa&#7749gat</i> and their holy places like Goindv&#257l and Amritsar, Sikhs had by the beginning of the seventeenth century become a distinct entity. The execution of Gur&#363 Arjan in 1606 led to Gur&#363 Hargobind, N&#257nak VI, introducing the doctrine of <i>m&#299r&#299</i> and <i>p&#299r&#299</i> (worldly and spiritual leadership) combined in the person of the Gur&#363. This doctrine meant the fusion of <i>bhakti</i> (religious devotion) and <i>&#347akti</i> (power). Ratan Si&#7749gh Bha&#7749g&#363, the author of <i>Pr&#257ch&#299n Panth Prak&#257sh</i>, writing in the middle of the nineteenth century, expounds it thus : "The <i>Panth</i> contains in itself the power of the Gur&#363; the panth comprises devoted and disciplined worshippers of God."</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A further dimension to the concept of Panth was brought about by Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh (1666-1708). He introduced the initiation by the double-edged sword and, to repeat a line from an old verse, transformed the <i>sa&#7749gat</i> into <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257. The Panth was now identified with the Gur&#363 himself. "The <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 is my special image," he said, "I abide in the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257. <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 is my life and soul. " The Panth, now called <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 Panth, was the Gur&#363 Panth. Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh at his death declared the Granth S&#257hib as Gur&#363 everlasing for the Sikhs. The line of living Gur&#363s came to an end and the Gur&#363 Panth became its own leader under the guidance of the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib. The term Panth became more popular possibly for its assonance with Granth.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The achievements of the Sikhs under Band&#257 Si&#7749gh Bah&#257dur and Dal <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257, the federated army of the Sikh <i>misls</i>, during the eighteenth century gave an expanded meaning and import to the term <i>panth</i>. Panth and <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 came to be used synonymously for the community as a whole as Gur&#363 Panth or Gur&#363 <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 and were even compounded as <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 Panth, Panth <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 or Gur&#363 <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 Panth. Sikh Army Pañch&#257yats of the early 1840' s issued orders under the seal of <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 Panth J&#299o. Some Punjabi poet-chroniclers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries used the same or similar terminology. Gi&#257n&#299 Gi&#257n Si&#7749gh (1822-1921) calls his <i>Panth Prak&#257sh</i> a history of the Gur&#363 <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257. Thus <i>Panth</i> which ideologically stands for a <i>m&#257rga</i> representing the whole system of precept and practice laid down by the Gur&#363s, signifies, on the institutional plane, the corporate body of the Sikh community. In the latter sense it identifies itself with the Gur&#363 <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 and claims sovereign authority over the affairs of the community.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In the earlier period of the emergence of Sikhs as a political force, the militant <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 under the leadership of Band&#257 Si&#7749gh Bah&#257dur and the Dal <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 represented the interests of the Sarbatt <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 or Panth. With the establishment of Sikh power under Misl leaders and later under Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Ra&#7751j&#299t Si&#7749gh, the function of guarding the interests of the Panth passed on to the Sikh State which, however, left the matters of religious and theological nature in the hands of local priesthood without a central body vested with controlling or supervisory powers. The British period following the annexation of the Punjab in 1849 maintained the status quo, but gradually a new representative organization sprang up in the form of <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 D&#299w&#257ns of Lahore and Amritsar, and later the Chief <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 D&#299w&#257n which, soon after its birth in 1902, replaced them. The functional mechanism of the Panth underwent a big change with the establishment of the Shiroma&#7751&#299 Ak&#257l&#299 Dal in 1920. The latter, as a political party of the Sikhs, has since the middle of the 1920's dominated Sikh affairs, both religious and secular.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Yet the Panth, according to Sikh belief, is a permanent reality, higher than any of its functional agencies which must justify their validity by serving the interest of the Panth as a whole or be replaced by the Gur&#363 <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 Panth assembling as Sarbatt <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257, the supreme repository of ultimate powers of <i>m&#299r&#299</i> and <i>p&#299r&#299</i>, i.e. secular and religious authority.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"><i>&#346abad&#257rth Sr&#299 Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib</i>. Amritsar, 1964<BR> <li class="C1"> Gurd&#257s, Bh&#257&#299, <i>V&#257r&#257&#7749</i>.<BR> <li class="C1"> Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh, <i>Bachitra N&#257&#7789ak</i>.<BR> <li class="C1"> Gi&#257n Si&#7749gh, Gi&#257n&#299, <i>Panth Prak&#257sh</i>. Patiala, 1970<BR> <li class="C1"> Bha&#7749g&#363, Ratan Si&#7749gh, <i>Pr&#257ch&#299n Panth Prak&#257sh</i>. Amritsar, 1962<BR> <li class="C1"> Teja Singh, <i>Sikhism : Its Ideals and Institutions</i>. Lahore, 1928<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Fauj&#257 Si&#7749gh<br></p><BR> </font><img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""></HTML></BODY>