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Appendix 2 Adi Granth or the Granth Sahib
T
he Adi Granth or Granth Sahib, as it is popularly known, was compiled by the fifth guru, Aijun, at Amritsar. His immediate problem was to get hold of the genuine compositions of his predecessors and to weed out the spurious writing which had been introduced by some of the unsuccessful aspirants to guruship and their followers. Arjun expanded this task t0 preparing a sacred book for the community. He sent out scouts to locate and collect all the available texts and went personally to Mohan, the son of the third guru, Amar Das, and persuaded him to hand over the writings of the first three gurus which were in his possession. (This process of collecting the writings of the preceding guru had been started by the second guru and was followed by the third and fourth.) Arjun also invited followers of other religious denominations and contemporary writers of religious verse to send in conuibutions for consideration. When all thls material had been collected, the Guru selected a spot south of the city called Ramsar and began to dictate the text to Bhai Gurdas. They finished their great task in August 1604. The Granth was then formally installed in the Harimandir with Bhai Buddha (1518-1631) as the head Granthi. Since communities of disciples were scattered all over northern India, it became necessary to have copies of the Granth made available to them. In the very first transcription, minor changes were made by the copyists. Editions based on the transcription are consequently not the same as the original dictated by Arjun. Exactly a hundred years later, the last guru, Gobind Singh, took upon himself to compile a final and revised version of the Adi Granth with the compositions ofhis father, the
Appendix 2 Adi Granth or the Granth Sahib
T
he Adi Granth or Granth Sahib, as it is popularly known, was compiled by the fifth guru, Aijun, at Amritsar. His immediate problem was to get hold of the genuine compositions of his predecessors and to weed out the spurious writing which had been introduced by some of the unsuccessful aspirants to guruship and their followers. Arjun expanded this task t0 preparing a sacred book for the community. He sent out scouts to locate and collect all the available texts and went personally to Mohan, the son of the third guru, Amar Das, and persuaded him to hand over the writings of the first three gurus which were in his possession. (This process of collecting the writings of the preceding guru had been started by the second guru and was followed by the third and fourth.) Arjun also invited followers of other religious denominations and contemporary writers of religious verse to send in conuibutions for consideration. When all thls material had been collected, the Guru selected a spot south of the city called Ramsar and began to dictate the text to Bhai Gurdas. They finished their great task in August 1604. The Granth was then formally installed in the Harimandir with Bhai Buddha (1518-1631) as the head Granthi. Since communities of disciples were scattered all over northern India, it became necessary to have copies of the Granth made available to them. In the very first transcription, minor changes were made by the copyists. Editions based on the transcription are consequently not the same as the original dictated by Arjun. Exactly a hundred years later, the last guru, Gobind Singh, took upon himself to compile a final and revised version of the Adi Granth with the compositions ofhis father, the
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