Tempo:
298
Appendix 2
the morning, it is opened with elaborate ritual, which is repeated in the evening, when it is wrapped up and put away for the night. On special occasions, there is a non-stop reading of the hymns (akhaiu!- path) by a relay of readers. This takes two days and nights. A seven-<lay reading is known as the saptiih pa(h. Another variation is to read a favourite hymn after each one in the Granth. A non-stop reading of this kind (sam/J(4 piiJh) can take fifteen days. None of these forms of ceremoniaJ recitation have the sanction of the gurus and apparently came into vogue in the latter part of the 19th century. (There is no mention of ceremonies of these sorts in the diaries of Ranjit Singh's coun.) On the birthdays of some of the gurus, the martyrdom of the fifth and ninth gurus and those of the two younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh, the Granth is taken out in a procession in the bigger cities. Despite these customs, the Granth is even today not like the idol in a Hindu temple nor the statue of the Virgin in a Catholic cathedral. It is the means and not the object of worship.
Language and Literary Quality The Granth contains the writings of poets of many parts of India speaking different languages. The earliest contributor, Jai Dev, lived in the 12th century; the last guru, Tegh Bahadur, in the l 7th. Despite a span of five centuries between the earliest and latest compositions and the distant regions from which they were gathered, there is a certain unity of theme and language in them. Guru Arjun chose only those hymns which echoed sentiments he wanted to inculcate in his own community. He did not have much difficulty with the language, since most saint-poets of northern India wrote in the Sant Bhlisa, which was a sort of esperanto composed of a vocabulary common to northern Indian languages and used extensively for writing religious verse. In addition, as already stated, whether the poems were from Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, or Maharashtra, the version which was accepted by Guru Arjun was obviously one which the Punjabis could understand. Although the language is now somewhat obsolete, it is easily intelligible to anyone with a knowledge of Hindi and a background of Hinduism. The main appeal of the Granth as a scripture is its non-esoteric character and its utter simplicity. The Adi Granth has some of the greatest writing in the Punjabi language. Its two chief contributors, Nanak and Arjun, have been the inspiration of many later poets.
Appendix 2
the morning, it is opened with elaborate ritual, which is repeated in the evening, when it is wrapped up and put away for the night. On special occasions, there is a non-stop reading of the hymns (akhaiu!- path) by a relay of readers. This takes two days and nights. A seven-<lay reading is known as the saptiih pa(h. Another variation is to read a favourite hymn after each one in the Granth. A non-stop reading of this kind (sam/J(4 piiJh) can take fifteen days. None of these forms of ceremoniaJ recitation have the sanction of the gurus and apparently came into vogue in the latter part of the 19th century. (There is no mention of ceremonies of these sorts in the diaries of Ranjit Singh's coun.) On the birthdays of some of the gurus, the martyrdom of the fifth and ninth gurus and those of the two younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh, the Granth is taken out in a procession in the bigger cities. Despite these customs, the Granth is even today not like the idol in a Hindu temple nor the statue of the Virgin in a Catholic cathedral. It is the means and not the object of worship.
Language and Literary Quality The Granth contains the writings of poets of many parts of India speaking different languages. The earliest contributor, Jai Dev, lived in the 12th century; the last guru, Tegh Bahadur, in the l 7th. Despite a span of five centuries between the earliest and latest compositions and the distant regions from which they were gathered, there is a certain unity of theme and language in them. Guru Arjun chose only those hymns which echoed sentiments he wanted to inculcate in his own community. He did not have much difficulty with the language, since most saint-poets of northern India wrote in the Sant Bhlisa, which was a sort of esperanto composed of a vocabulary common to northern Indian languages and used extensively for writing religious verse. In addition, as already stated, whether the poems were from Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, or Maharashtra, the version which was accepted by Guru Arjun was obviously one which the Punjabis could understand. Although the language is now somewhat obsolete, it is easily intelligible to anyone with a knowledge of Hindi and a background of Hinduism. The main appeal of the Granth as a scripture is its non-esoteric character and its utter simplicity. The Adi Granth has some of the greatest writing in the Punjabi language. Its two chief contributors, Nanak and Arjun, have been the inspiration of many later poets.
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