ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>V&#298R SI&#7748GH BH&#256&#298 (1872-1957)</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="V*R,SIDGH,BH*,Person,Person"> <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">&#65279V&#298R SI&#7748GH, BH&#256&#298 (1872-1957), poet, scholar and exegete, was a major figure in the Sikh renaissance and in the movement for the revival and renewal of Punjabi literary traditioin. His identification with all the important concerns of modern Sikhism was so complete that he came to be canonized as Bh&#257&#299, the Brother of the Sikh Order, very early in his career. For his pioneering work in its several different genres, he is acknowledged as the creator of modern Punjabi literature.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Born on 5 December 1872, in Amritsar, Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh was the eldest of Dr Charan Si&#7749gh's three sons. The family traces its ancestry back to D&#299w&#257n Kau&#7771&#257 Mall (d. 1752), who rose to the position of vice-governor of Mult&#257n, under Naw&#257b M&#299r Mu&#8217in ul-Mulk, with the title of Mah&#257r&#257j&#257 Bah&#257dur B&#257b&#257 K&#257hn Si&#7749gh (1788-1878) was perhaps the first in the family to be regularly sworn a Sikh. He turned a recluse when he was still in his early teens and spent his entire youth in monasteries at Haridv&#257r and Amritsar acquiring training in traditional Sikh learning. His mother's affection ultimately reclaimed him to the life of a householder at the age of 40, when he got married. Adept in versification in Sanskrit and Braj as well as in the oriental system of medicine, B&#257b&#257 K&#257hn Si&#7749gh passed on his interests to his only son, Dr Charan Si&#7749gh. Apart from his sustained involvement in literary and scholarly pursuits, mainly as a Braj poet, Punjabi prose writer, musicologist, prosodist and lexicographer, Dr Charan Si&#7749gh took active interest in the affairs of the Sikh community, then experiencing a new urge for restoration as well as for change.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;To this patrimony of Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh was added from his mother's side a living kinship with another rich tradition of scholarship in exegesis of the Gi&#257n&#299 school, going back to the times of Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh. His maternal grandfather Gi&#257n&#299 Haz&#257r&#257 Si&#7749gh compiled a lexicon of Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib, and wrote a commentary on Bh&#257&#299 Gurd&#257s' <i>Var&#257&#7749</i>. As a schoolboy, Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh used to spend a great deal of his time in the company of Gi&#257n&#299 Haz&#257r&#257 Si&#7749gh under whose guidance he not only learnt the classical and neo-classical languages, Sanskrit, Persian and Braj, but also received grounding, both theoretical and practical, in the science of Sikh exegesis.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh was the child of an age in ferment. The extinction of Sikh sovereignty in the Punjab, the decline in the fortunes of Sikh aristocracy, the gradual emergence of urban middle classes, the dissipation of the "national intellectual life" of the Punjab owing to the neglect and decay of indigenous education of the local people from their political destiny aroused among the Sikhs concern for survival and for redefining the boundaries of their faith. Further challenges arose in the shape of modernization, of Christian, Muslim and Hindu movements of proselytization and the agnostic cults such as Brahmo Sam&#257j. Parallel to the developments foreboding gradual appropriation of Sikhism by the Hindu social order emerged a powerful trend towards Braj classicism in the Sikh literary and scholarly tradition. Mythologization of the persons of Sikh Gur&#363s, mixing of fiction with historical fact and interweaving of Vedantic and Vai&#7779&#7751avite motifs into the essential Sikh teaching were its typical features. In response arose in Sikhism several movements ---Nira&#7749k&#257r&#299 (puritanism), N&#257mdh&#257r&#299 (militant protestantism), Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 (revivalism and renaissance) and Pañch <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 D&#299w&#257n (aggressive fundamentalism).</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh had the benefit of both the traditional indigenous learning as well as of modern English education. He learnt Persian and Urdu from a Muslim Maulaw&#299 in a mosque and was apprenticed to Gi&#257n&#299 Harbhajan Si&#7749gh, a leading classical scholar, for Sanskrit and Sikh literature. He then joined the Church Mission School, Amritsar, and took his matriculation examination in 1891. At school, the conversion of some of the students proved a crucial experience which strengthened his own religious conviction. From the Christian missionaries' emphasis on literary resources, he learnt how efficacious the written word could be as a means of informing and influencing a person's innermost being. Through his English courses, he acquired familiarity with modern literary forms, especially short lyric. While still at school, Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh was married at the age of 17 to Chatar Kaur, daughter of Sard&#257r Narai&#7751 Si&#7749gh of Amritsar.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Unlike the educated young men of his time, Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh was not tempted by prospect of a career in government service. He chose for himself the calling of a writer and created material conditions for a single-minded pursuit of it. An year after his passing the matriculation examination, he set up a lithograph press in collaboration with Bh&#257&#299 Waz&#299r Si&#7749gh, a friend of his father's. As his first essays in the literary field, Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh composed some Geography textbooks for schools.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh began taking active interest in the affairs of Si&#7749gh Sabh&#257 movement. To promote its aims and objects, he launched in 1894 the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 Tract Society. In November 1899, he started a Punjabi weekly, the <i><u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 Sam&#257ch&#257r</i>. He was among the principal promoters of several of the Sikh institutions, such as Chief <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 D&#299w&#257n (1902), Sikh Educational Society (1908) and the Punjab and Sind Bank (1908). Interest in corporate activity directed towards community development remained Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh's constant concern, simultaneously with his creative and scholarly pursuits. In this engagement and, at the same time, in his eschewal of political activity, the Christian missionary example was apparently his model.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In determining the basic parameters of the modern phase of Sikhism, Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh stressed the autonomy of Sikh faith nourished and sustained by an awakening amongst the Sikhs of the awareness of their distinct theological and cultural identity. Secondly, he aimed at reorienting the Sikhs' understanding of their faith in such a manner as to help them assimilate the different modernizing influences to their historical memory and cultural heritage. Education of the masses was the first requirement for the fulfilment of these objectives. In the meanwhile, the old educational system which had till then served as a channel for communication of the traditional knowledge to the youth of the race had broken down with the withdrawal, under British dispensation, of state patronage from the indigenous institutions. As if to fill the vacuum as well as to build new channels of intra-community communication, Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh through his single-minded cultivation of Punjabi language as the medium of his theological, scholarly and creative work, resolved the cultural dilemma which the Sikhs faced at the turn of the century. On the one hand was the Sikh literary tradition in Braj language which had collected unmatched riches in multiple directions during the course of its three-centuries-long elitist career, on the other were the compulsions for mobilizing the common Sikhs through their own language. By drawing upon the Sikh tradition of Braj literature for his basic inspiration and cultural motivation and upon the Punjabi literary tradition for its linguistic component, Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh initiated a new literary idiom distinctly different from both. The tracts produced by the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 Tract Society introduced a down-to-earth literary Punjabi remarkable for lightness of touch as well as for freshness of expression. In this writing lay the beginnings of modern Punjabi prose.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 Tract Society periodically made available under the title <i>Nirgu&#7751i&#257r&#257</i> low-cost publications on Sikh theology, history and philosophy and on social and religious reform. Through this journal Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh established a living contact with an ever-expanding circle of readers. He used the <i>Nirgu&#7751i&#257r&#257</i> as a vehicle for his own self-expression and some of his major creative works such as the epic <i>R&#257&#7751&#257 S&#363rat Si&#7749gh</i>, the novel <i>B&#257b&#257 Naudh Si&#7749gh</i>, and the lives of the Gur&#363s <i>Sr&#299 Gur&#363 N&#257nak Chamatk&#257r</i> and <i>Sr&#299 Gur&#363 Kalg&#299dhar Chamatk&#257r</i> were originally serialized in its columns.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In literature, Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh started as a writer of romances which proved to be the forerunners of the Punjabi novel. His writings in this genre---<i>Sundar&#299</i> (1898), <i>Bijay Si&#7749gh</i> (1899), <i>Satvant Kaur</i> (published in two parts, I in 1900 and II, in 1927)---were aimed at recreating the heroic period (eighteenth century) of Sikh history. Through these novels he made available to his readers typical models of courage, fortitude and human dignity.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Subh&#257g j&#299 d&#257 Sudh&#257r Hath&#299&#7749 B&#257b&#257 Naud Si&#7749gh</i>, popularly known as <i>B&#257b&#257 Naudh Si&#7749gh</i> (serialized in <i>Nirgu&#7751i&#257r&#257</i> from 1907 onwards and published in book form in 1921) shares with <i>R&#257&#7751&#257 S&#363rat Si&#7749gh</i> (which he had started serializing two years earlier), Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh's fascination with the theme of widow's desperate urge for a re-union with her dead husband. But in <i>B&#257b&#257 Naudh Si&#7749gh</i> this search is situated in a more mundane setting. This makes all the difference. The narrative here is more realistic in tone, and almost contemporary in its appeal. Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh weaves into the narrative numerous motifs of social reform, moral teaching and religious preaching and depicts several situations of inter-communal and urban-rural confrontation.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In 1905, Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh started serializing through tracts <i>R&#257&#7751&#257 S&#363rat Si&#7749gh</i>, the first Punjabi epic, written in blank verse of Sirkha&#7751&#7693&#299 variety. This long narrative of over 14,000 lines is a striking imaginative evocation of the situation of the Sikhs through a symbolic tale of a widowed queen in quest of her lost paradise. The spiritual voyage of R&#257&#7751&#299 R&#257j Kaur, the main protagonist of the poem, from external factuality to internal essence has been described by Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh in the form of a fantasy of spiritual ascension. Apart from living out her earthly destiny of suffering and pain, she symbolized the total ethos of the Sikh people at that historical moment when they were emerging out of their sense of defeat and' despair into an era of a fresh beginning.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh's quest for new forms of expression continued. Soon after the publication of <i>R&#257&#7751&#257 S&#363rat Si&#7749gh</i> in book form in 1919, he turned to shorter poems and lyrics. In quick succession came <i>Dil Tara&#7749g</i> (1920), <i>Tarel Tupke</i> (1921), <i>Lahir&#257&#7749 de H&#257r</i> (1921), <i>Ma&#7789ak Hul&#257re</i> (1922), and <i>Bijl&#299&#257&#7749 de H&#257r</i> (1927). Following at some distance was <i>Mere S&#257&#299&#257&#7749 J&#299o</i> (1953). In this poetry, Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh's concerns were more aesthetic than didactic, metaphysical or mystical. He refined the old verse forms and created new ones. The metrical patterns K&#257bit, Sora&#7789h&#257, Baint, etc., which he inherited from classical Punjabi literature, were transformed into light, nimble measures. Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh also naturalized in Punjabi the Rub&#257&#299 which he borrowed from Urdu. By grafting Sora&#7789h&#257 and Sirkha&#7751&#7693&#299 forms on English blank verse, he paved the way for the emergence of Punjabi poem. As it happened, the first play written in Punjabi, <i>R&#257j&#257 Lakhd&#257t&#257 Si&#7749gh</i> (1910), also came from the pen of Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh. Tentative in form, the play did reveal the author's powers of constructing crisp and witty dialogues.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Change-over from Braj Bh&#257s&#257 to Punjabi as the main medium of Sikh literary and scholarly expression created the need for new materials such as glossaries, lexicons, encyclopaedias and exegetical works. Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh himself provided several of the tools. He revised and enlarged Gi&#257n&#299 Haz&#257r&#257 Si&#7749gh's dictionary, <i>Sr&#299 Gur&#363 Granth Kosh</i>, originally published in 1898. The revised version, published in 1927, gave evidence of Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh's command of the science of etymology and of the classical and modern languages. He published critical editions of some of the old Sikh texts such as <i>Sikh&#257&#7749 d&#299 Bhagat M&#257l&#257</i> (1912), <i>Pr&#257ch&#299n Panth Prak&#257sh</i> (1914), <i>Pur&#257tan Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> (1926) and <i>S&#257kh&#299 Poth&#299</i> (1950).</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Monumental in size and scholarship was his annotation of Bh&#257&#299 Santokh Si&#7749gh's <i>magnum opus, Sr&#299 Gur Prat&#257p S&#363raj Granth</i>, published from 1927 to 1935 in fourteen volumes covering 6668 pages.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;No sooner was the <i>Sr&#299 Gur Prat&#257p S&#363raj Granth</i> completed than Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh launched on an even more arduous task. This was a detailed commentary on the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib. In a way, exegesis had been his lifelong occupation. Early in his career he had annotated selections from the Holy Book published in 1906 under the title Pañj Granth&#299 Sa&#7789ik, and, as he himself declared, all of his writing was an exposition of the Sikh Scripture. He devoted himself unsparingly to the commentary, but it remained unfinished. A lifetime of unrelieved hard work and the weight of advancing years at last began to tell. In early 1957 signs of fatigue and weakness appeared. He was taken ill with a fever and died in his home in Amritsar on 10 June 1957. The portion of the commentary--nearly one half of the Holy Book--he had completed was published posthumously in seven large volumes.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Talib, Gurbachan Singh and Attar Singh, ed., <i>Bhai Vir Si&#7749gh : Life, Times and Works</i>. Chandigarh, 1973<BR> <li class="C1"> Harbans Singh, <i>Bhai Vir Singh</i>. Delhi, 1972<BR> <li class="C1"> Harbans Singh and Talib, Gurbachan Singh, <i>Bhai Vir Singh : Poet of the Sikhs</i>.<BR> <li class="C1"> Harbans Singh, ed., <i>Bhai Vir Si&#7749gh Commemoration Volume</i>. Delhi, 1954<BR> <li class="C1"> Guleria, J.S., <i>Bhai Vir Si&#7749gh : A Literary Portrait</i>. Delhi, 1985<BR> <li class="C1"> Parkash Singh <i>Continuing Influence of Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh</i>. Amritsar, 1972<BR> <li class="C1"> Satinder Si&#7749gh, <i>Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh : J&#299van te Rachn&#257</i>. Patiala, 1982<BR> <li class="C1"> Sekhon, Sant Si&#7749gh, <i>Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh te Unha&#7749 d&#257 Yug</i>. Ludhiana, 1962<BR> <li class="C1"> Manmohan Si&#7749gh, <i>Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh--Kavi d&#257 Darshnik Vishlesha&#7751</i>. Delhi, 1975<BR> <li class="C1"> D&#299p, Dal&#299p Si&#7749gh, <i>Bh&#257&#299 V&#299r Si&#7749gh : J&#299van te K&#257vi Chintan</i>. Ludhiana, 1974<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Attar Si&#7749gh<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>