ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>PUR&#256TAN 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>PUR&#256TAN JANAM S&#256KH&#298</i> is considered to be the oldest extant Janam S&#257kh&#299. The term &#8216Pur&#257tan,' is used to designate an early Janam S&#257kh&#299 tradition, rediscovered in 1872 after more Than a century of oblivion. By the mid-eighteenth century the B&#257l&#257 Janam S&#257kh&#299 tradition had won general acceptance as the authentic record of the life of Gur&#363 N&#257nak largely displacing other important collections. In the popular estimation it still retains this reputation, but, as the nineteenth century wore on, educated opinion became increasingly dissatisfied with its apparent exaggerations. The discovery of a different and apparently more rational tradition was accordingly greeted with considerable interest and delight. The newly discovered tradition was called by Max Arthur Macauliffe "the most ancient biography of B&#257b&#257 N&#257nak" and has ever since provided the B&#257l&#257 tradition with its strongest competitor. Although the B&#257l&#257 narrative retains a greater popular appeal, the <i>Pur&#257tan</i> version has won an overwhelming victory amongst educated readers. Since its rediscovery, no sophisticated biographer of Gur&#363 N&#257nak has overlooked its claims and most have accepted it as a sufficient basis for reconstructing the story of his life.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Two important <i>Pur&#257tan</i> manuscripts came to light within the space of twelve years. The first of these had been acquired with other works from the H.T. Colebrooke collection which had been presented to the library of East India House, probably in 1815 or 1816. It lay unrecognized in London until 1872 when it was loaned, as one of several manuscripts in Gurmukh&#299, to Ernest Trumpp, the German missionary commissioned by the Punjab Government to prepare an English translation of the Sikh scriptures. Although Janam S&#257kh&#299s were not a part of Trumpp's commission, he gave his new discovery considerable prominence in the preface to his <i>The &#256di Granth</i>.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Trumpp's description of the manuscipt provoked much interest in the Punjab and, in 1883, a group of Sikhs from Amritsar petitioned the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, Charles Aitchison, to have it brought to India for inspection. Aitchison agreed and, having perceived the measure of interest aroused by the manuscript, he arranged to have it photographically reproduced. A limited edition, known as the photozincograph facsimile, was issued in 1885. Meanwhile, the Lahore Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 had in 1884 produced a lithographed version of the text.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; To distinguish it from other <i>janam s&#257kh&#299s</i> of the <i>Pur&#257tan</i> tradition, this manuscript is now known either as the Colebrooke Janam S&#257kh&#299 or as the <i>Val&#257itv&#257l&#299 Janam S&#257kh&#299</i>. It bears no date. A cryptic reference in one of the <i>s&#257kh&#299s</i> may be interpreted as a reference to 1635, but the evidence it offers is altogether too tenuous to support even a tentative conclusion. Various periods have been suggested by various scholars. Some of them suggested that it was written in the first half of the eighteenth century. A recent publication gives 1588 as the year of its completion. Its language and grammatical constructions show that this Janam S&#257kh&#299 must have been written around the time of the compilation of the &#256di Granth S&#257hib. Now that we have a manuscript of <i>B&#257l&#257 Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> bearing the date 1658, it could safely be accepted that <i>Pur&#257tan Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> is a writing of the sixteenth century, because its language is much older than that of <i>B&#257l&#257</i>.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; While the examining of the Colebrooke manuscript was in progress, a second <i>Pur&#257tan</i> manuscript was discovered in the town of H&#257fiz&#257b&#257d by Gurmukh Si&#7749gh of Oriental College, Lahore. Gurmukh Si&#7749gh loaned his find to Macauliffe who, having divided its unbroken lines into separate words, published the text privately in 1885. The version is variously known as the <i>H&#257fiz&#257b&#257d Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> or as the <i>Macauliffev&#257l&#299 Janam S&#257kh&#299</i>.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; These two manuscripts, the <i>Colebrooke</i> and the <i>H&#257fiz&#257b&#257d</i>, remain amongst the most important of the <i>Pur&#257tan</i> tradition. The only other extant manuscript which warrants inclusion in this select group is the one preserved at the Languages Department, Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257 (No 194). Although each differs significantly from the others, the areas of agreement are much more extensive than the variants and all three clearly belong to a common tradition. Behind all the Janam S&#257kh&#299s of the <i>Pur&#257tan</i> tradition, there can be detected an early cluster of <i>s&#257kh&#299s</i> from which all are variously descended. This cluster underwent separate development (presumably in different geographical areas), producing two distinct versions of the tradition. <i>LDP</i> (Languages Department, Punjab) <i>194</i> represents an intermediate stage in one line of development; and the <i>Colebrooke</i> manuscript stands at the climax of the other. The <i>H&#257fiz&#257b&#257d</i> manuscript, latest of the three in terms of development, draws the two lines together in a generally consistent reunion.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The primitive cluster from which all <i>Pur&#257tan Janam S&#257kh&#299s</i> are descended was probably the earliest of all coherent collections of individual <i>s&#257kh&#299s</i>. No evidence exists to suggest that this comparatively small selection was ever recorded. Apparently, it assumed a rudimentary chronology while still circulating orally. Emphasis at this stage was laid on stories of Gur&#363 N&#257nak's childhood and early manhood, with comparatively little attention devoted to the period of his travels.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; During the period of separate development, however, the tradition expanded vigorously, particularly within the subsidiary tradition which eventually produced the <i>Colebrooke Janam S&#257kh&#299</i>. Most of the additional anecdotes incorporated during this stage concerned the travels of Gur&#363 N&#257nak and it was evidently the <i>Colebrooke</i> subsidiary which ordered these into the distinctive <i>Pur&#257tan</i> itinerary. This involves four separate journeys to the east, south, north, and west, respectively.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The other subsidiary tradition seems to have been much less prolific. It does, however, possess a particular importance in that traditions which borrow extensively from early <i>Pur&#257tan</i> sources all seem to have utilized this second subsidiary. Obvious links in the <i>&#256di S&#257kh&#299&#257n</i>, the <i>B40 Janam S&#257kh&#299</i>, and the <i>Miharb&#257n</i> tradition must evidently be explained in these terms. The reunion of the two subsidiaries took place when the H&#257fiz&#257b&#257d compiler, using a manuscript of the <i>Colebrooke</i> subsidiary as his principal source, added to it anecdotes and discourses drawn from the other subsidiary tradition.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <i>Pur&#257tan</i> manuscripts are much rarer than those of the B&#257l&#257 tradition, a feature easily explained by the length by period of <i>Pur&#257tan</i> eclipse. Shamsher Si&#7749gh Ashok in his <i>Punjabi Hatth Likhat&#257&#7749 d&#299 S&#363ch&#299</i>, Parts I and II, lists only three in the Punjab (one of them incomplete). Although at least three others are known to exist within the state and others may yet be found, it seems most unlikely that the total will ever exceed ten including the famous <i>Colebrooke</i> manuscript in London. The H&#257fiz&#257b&#257d manuscript is no longer extant. It was apparently destroyed during an ownership dispute which developed in 1923.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The published versions have already been noted. These are the lithographed and photocopy editions of the <i>Colebrooke</i> manuscript (1884-1885) and Macauliffe's lithograph edition of the H&#257fiz&#257b&#257d manuscript (1885). Perhaps the most influential of all has been a conflation of the two manuscripts prepared by Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh and published under the title <i>Pur&#257tan Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> (Amritsar, 1926). In the second edition (1931), Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh added material drawn from a manuscript held by <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 College, Amritsar. The text of an expanded <i>Pur&#257tan</i> manuscript in the possession of Sev&#257 Si&#7749gh Sevak has been published by its owner under the title <i>Pr&#257ch&#299n Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> (Jalandhar, 1969). A work compiled by Shamsher Si&#7749gh Ashok, <i>Pur&#257tan Janam S&#257kh&#299 Sr&#299 Gur&#363 N&#257nak Dev J&#299 K&#299</i> (Amritsar, 1969), uses a <i>Pur&#257tan</i> manuscript as its foundation, but interpolates much material drawn from two non-Pur&#257tan manuscripts.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The language of this <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> invites special attention. It is Lahnd&#299 or Western Punjabi. Its grammatical pattern is akin to the language of the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib. Many of the case inflexions which are frequently used in Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib, but have disappeared in the modern language, are present in the language of this <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299</i>. Suffix &#8216u' which is the marker of masculine, singular, nominative case or accusative case, and suffix &#8216-i', a marker of case of agent of locative case, are two important suffixes commonly employed in the Sikh scripture as well as in <i>Pur&#257tan Janam S&#257kh&#299</i>, but are no longer in use in modern Punjabi. The use of suffix &#8216-i' or '-ai' in adverbial forms and suffix &#8216i' with the first element of the compound verbs are other characteristics of the old language freely employed in <i>Pur&#257tan Janam S&#257kh&#299</i>. Yet another conspicuous characteristic of the language of the <i>Pur&#257tan Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> is the much lower frequency of nasalization as compared to modern Punjabi. In this case too <i>Pur&#257tan Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> is in line with the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> V&#299r Si&#7749gh, Bh&#257&#299, ed., <i>Pur&#257tan Janam S&#257kh&#299 </i>. Amritsar, 1926<BR> <li class="C1"> Sevak, Sev&#257 Si&#7749gh, <i>Pr&#257ch&#299n Janam S&#257kh&#299 </i>. Jalandhar, 1969<BR> <li class="C1"> Macauliffe, M.A., ed., <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299 B&#257be N&#257nak J&#299 K&#299 </i>. Rawalpindi ,1885<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>