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Sūrdās: poet and text in the Sikh tradition1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Jeevan Deol
Jeevan Deol
Affiliation:
St. John's College, Cambridge
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Extract

Pre-twentieth century Sikh tradition says that Bhāī Gurdās, the scribe of Guru Arjanās text of the Adi Granth, was troubled by a major doubt as he wrote the words the Guru dictated to him: faced with poems attributed to figures like Kabīr and Nāmdev (collectively known as bhagats in the tradition), Gurdās began to wonder whether Guru Arjan was not composing the poems himself and ascribing them to the bhagats. Realizing what was troubling Bhāī Gurdās, the Guru instructed the scribe to rise early the next morning and wait outside the tent where the dictation of the Granth took place every day. When he did, Gurdās was surprised to see the Guru conversing with a number of the ībhagats in ‘spiritual form’. The bhagats, it turned out, came to the tent every morning to ensure that their compositions were included in Guru Arjan's Granth. Gurdās was suitably impressed by the display and acknowledged without further question the authenticity of their compositions.

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Articles
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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 63 , Issue 2 , January 2000 , pp. 169 - 193
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Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 2000

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References

2 For versions of this legend, see: Bhallā, Sarūpdās, Mahimā prakāsha (1776), ed. Lamba, Gobind Singh and Singh, Khazan, 2 vols. (Patiala: Bhasha Vibhag, 1970–1971), 2: 369–371Google Scholar; Singh, Santokh, Srī Gura pratāpa sūraja grantha (1844), ed. Singh, Bhāī Vir, 14 vols, 4th ed. (Amritsar: Khalsa Samachar, 1963), 6: 2089–2092Google Scholar (rāsi 3.42.1–27); Singh, Bhagat, Gurabilāsa Pātashāhī-6 krita Bhagata Singha (ca. 1834–44), ed. Singh, Gurmukh (Patiala: Punjabi University, 1997), 128–130 (4: 250–9)Google Scholar. The story is also represented in nineteenth-century wall paintings in shrines such as Gurdwārā Bābā Atal in Amritsar.

3 For the argument that the compositions were collected by Guru Nanak, see Singh, Sāhib, Ādi bīr bāre (Amritsar: Singh Brothers, 1970)Google Scholar. For the argument that the collection was done by Guru Amardas, see Singh, Giānī Gurditt, Itihās Srī Gurū Granth Sāhib: Bhagat bānī bhāg (Chandigarh: Sikh Sāhit Sansthan, 1990)Google Scholar and Mann, Gurinder Singh, The Goindval Poṫhis: the earliest extant source of the Sikh canon (Harvard Oriental Series, 51.) (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996).Google Scholar

4 For an edition of the Sūrasāgara, see Jagannāthdās, ‘Ratnākar’ et al. (ed.), Sūrasāgara. 2 vols 4th ed. (Benares: Nagari Pracharini Sabha, 2021–26 VS/1964–1969).Google Scholar

5 Hawley, John Stratton, Sur Das: poet, singer, saint (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1984), 7Google Scholar. Hindi editions of the Vārtā include: Pārikh, Dvārkaādās (ed.), Chaurāsī Vaiṣṇavana kī vārtā (Mathura: Shrī Bajrang Pustakālay, 1970)Google Scholar and Ṭaṇḍan, Premnarāyaṇ (ed.), Sūrdās kī vārtā (Lucknow: Nandan Prakashan, 1968)Google Scholar. An English translation of the Sūrdās vārtā, without the inserted poems, is contained in Barz, Richard, The Bhakti sect of Vallabhacarya (Faridabad: Thompson Press, 1976), 105–139.Google Scholar

6 Nābhadās, , Bhaktamala, chhappaya 73 published as Shrīnābhādāsjīkṛt Shrībhaktamāla Shrīpriyādāsjīkṛt Bhaktirasabodhinī ṭīkā sahit (Bombay: Gangāviṣṇu Shrīkṛṣṇadās Prakāshan, 1989), 83Google Scholar; Rāghavdās, , Rāghavdās kṛt Bhaktamāla (Chaturdās kṛt ṭīkā sahit), ed. Nāhtā, Agarchand. Rājasthān Purātan Granthmālā, no. 78 (Jodhpur: Rājasthān Prāchyavidyā Pratisṭhān, 1965), 133–134Google Scholar (mūl 263–5). Although Winand M. Callewaert dates the text to 1777 VS/1720 (‘ Dadu and the Dadupanth: the sources’ in McLeod, W. H. and Schomer, Karine (ed.), The Sants: studies in a devotional tradition of India (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1987), 186)Google Scholar, the colophon of the text bears the date 1717 VS/1660 (246, mūl 555). The colophon's date is at least somewhat misleading, since the account of the Sikh Gurus given in the mūl text goes up to the eighth Guru Harikrishan (176, mūl 348), who became Guru in 1661 and died in 1664.

7 A Persian ՚arẓdāsht dated 27 Ratī՚ us-sānī 994 A.H. (7 April 1568) contains the complaint of an individual named Sūrdās that one qāẓī ῾Abdur Razzāq of Saṇḍīlā has denied him a madadi ma՚āsh grant in Mahsoyah by placing the relevant land in the ālisah (National Archives of India, New Delhi, ace. no. 1438). It is unclear whether this Sūrdās is the same person as the Mughal administrator of the hagiographies.

8 Hawley, , Sur Das, 23Google Scholar; Nābhādās, Bhaktamāla, 127 (chhappaya 126).

9 Priyādās, Bhaktirasabodhinī, verses 498–502 published as Nābhādās, Bhaktamāla, 128–9. The title ‘Achārya Mahāprabhu’ is used for both Vallabha and Kṛṣṇa Chaitanya by their respective adherents. Since Priyādās begins his text with an invocation to Kṛṣṇa Chaitanya, it is likely that he is meant here.

10 Rāghavdās, , Bhaktamāla, 119–120Google Scholar (mūl 236–7, ṭīkā 361–5).

11 Fazl, Abՙl ՙAllāmī, The Āՙīn-i-Akbarī, tr. Blochmann, J., ed. Phillot, D. C., 2nd. ed. (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1927), 682Google Scholar. Badāyūnī states that Rām Dās of Lucknow was a musician at the court of Islām Shāh Sūrī in Delhi, see Lowe, W. H., (tr.), Munta ab ut-tavārī. 2nd ed. (Calcutta: ASB, 1924), 2: 37.Google Scholar

12 Vaudeville, Charlotte, Pastorales par Soûr-dâs (Paris: Gallimard, 1971), 35–37.Google Scholar

13 See for example the commentary on the single line in Ādi Srī Gurū Granth Sāhib jī saṭīk (Farīdkoṭ vālā ṭīkā), 4th ed. (Patiala: Bhasha Vibhag, 1992), 4:2552Google Scholar. The commentary was written by Giānī Badan Singh Sekhv in 1883 and subsequently revised by a panel of traditional scholars.

14 Nābhā, Kāhn Singh, Gurushabad ratnākar Mahān kosh (1931) (Delhi: National Bookshop, 1990), 225.Google Scholar

15 Singh, Gianī Gurditt, Itihās, 325, 329Google Scholar. The second addition appears to be the result of a misreading of Rāghavdas's account of the south Indian bhakta Bilvamangal: verses 263–4 of the mul about Surdas are followed by one verse of mul about Bilvamangal and 12 verses of commentary that tell his story (Rāghavdās, Bhaktamāla, 133–5). Gurditt Singh seems not to have realized that Bilvamangal was a separate individual. It may also be that Gurditt Singh has followed Giān Singh's Gurmati anusāra bhagatamālā (see below).

16 The bhaktamāla format seems, however, to have had a certain degree of influence on premodern Sikh literature: an eighteenth-century prose commentary on Bhāī Gurdās's eleventh vāra on pre-eminent Sikhs of the first six Gurus bears the title Sikkh dī bhagatamālā. The text has been published as Bedī, Tarlochan Singh (ed.), Sikkh dī bhagatamālā (Patiala: Punjabi University, 1986).Google Scholar

17 For examples of compositions which.mention the bhagats, see Sirīrāgu M3 22 (p. 76); Sūhī M4 8 (p. 733); Bilāvalu M4 7 (p. 835); Āsā Dhannā M5 1 (pp. 487–8); Basantu M5 gharu 1 dutukīā 1 (p. 1192), Sārangu M5 18 (p. 1207); Kala, Savayye Mahale Pahale ke 8 (p. 1390); Jālapa, Savayye Mahale Tīje ke 13 (p. 1394).

18 Gurdās, Bhāī, Vār Bhāī Guradāsa (sampādan ate pāṭh-nirdhāran), ed. Jaggī, Gursharan Kaur (Patiala: Punjabi University, 1987)Google Scholar; Kabitta savaiye Bhāī Guradāsa: pāṭh, tuk-tatkarā, anukramaṇikā ate kosh, ed. Singh, Oankār (Patiala: Punjabi University, 1993).Google Scholar

19 Prema ambodha pothī, ed. Usāhaṇ, Devindar Singh (Patiala: Punjabi University, 1989)Google Scholar. On the basis of rather flimsy internal evidence, Usāhan attributes the text to an author named Kevaldās. He also notes that many manuscripts of the work attribute it to Guru Gobind Singh. Some have claimed on the basis of a couplet available in only two of the 33 manuscripts used in his edition that it is by Guru Gobind Singh's court scribe Haridās (ibid., 2–3).

20 See the text published as Jaggī, Ratan Singh and Jaggī, Gursharan Kaur, ed., Purātan janamsākhī (Patiala: Pavittar Pramāṇik Prakāshan, 1984).Google Scholar

21 In his description of one of the two extant volumes said to comprise the ‘ Goindval pothīs’, Pritam Singh notes four headings of shabads that refer to Kabīr and Nāmdev as ‘ bhagats of Bābā’ (most likely Guru Nanak, although the term is also used in the headings of the pothī to refer to Guru Amardas); it is clear from his table of headings in the volume as a whole that the pairing of Kabīr and Nāmdev is used in the manuscript to mean the bhagats as a group, see Singh, Pritam, ed., Ahīāpur vālī pothī (Bābā Mohan jī vālī j Goindvāl vātī pahlī pothī), vol. I (Amritsar: Guru Nanak Dev University, 1998), 288–295Google Scholar. Gurditt Singh argues somewhat improbably on the basis of these headings that Kabīr and Nāmdev were followers of Guru Nanak (Itihās, 565).

22 See Singh, Pashaura, ‘The text and meaning of the Adi Granth’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto, 1991), 81–91. For the recensions of the Adi Granth, see below.Google Scholar

23 Santokh Singh, Gura pratāpa sūraja, 6:2087 (rāsi 3.41.47); Sarūpdās Bhallā, Mahimā prakāsha, 2:371; Bhagat Singh, Gurabilāsa, 129 (adhyāya 4:255).

24 See Deol, Jeevan, ‘The Mīṇās and their literature’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 118/2, April–June 1998, 172–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25 Since the Mīṇās recognized the first five Sikh Gurus, Prithī Chand was their sixth guru, his son Miharbān their seventh, his grandson Harijī their eighth, and so on. The Mīṇā gurus will be referred to according to this numbering scheme in the text of the paper.

26 Harijī, , Gosaṭi Guru Miharabāna, ed. Rājguru, Govindnāth (Chandigarh: Punjab University, 1974), 336.Google Scholar

27 Janamasākhī Srī Gurū Nānaka Deva jī likhita Srī Miharbāna jī, ed. Singh, Kirpal and Singh, Shamsher ‘Ashok’. 2 vols. (Amritsar: Khalsa College, 1962–1969)Google Scholar; Janamasākhī Bhagata Kabīra iī kī (mūlpāṭh te vivechan), ed. Bhāṭīā, Narindar Kaur (Amritsar: Guru Nanak Dev University, 1995).Google Scholar

28 Bansal, Krishna Kumari, ‘A critical and comprehensive editing of Sahansar Nam Mala by Hariji’ (Ph.D. thesis, Punjabi University, Patiala, 1976), 638 (Miharbān) and 674 (Harijī).Google Scholar

29 Vibhag, Bhasha, Patiala ms. 359. For an edition of another of the texts in the volume, see Singh, Sant Indar ‘Chakravarti’ (ed.), Mask Shekh Pharīd ke (Patiala: Bhasha Vibhag, 1962).Google Scholar

30 Bhasha Vibhag, Patiala ms. 359, ff. 363a–67b. The first Dhanāsarī composition appears as pada 120 of the ‘ Ratnākar ’ edition (1:39) and in the Fatehpur manuscript from Rajasthan dated 1582, available in a facsimile edition as Bahura, Gopal Narayan and Bryant, Ken (ed.), Pada Sūradūsajī kā/The padas of Surdas. (Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Memorial Series, no. 6.) (Jaipur: Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum, 1984), 101Google Scholar. It also appears in a nineteenth-century Mīṇā compilation of compositions of the Sikh Gurus, the Mīṇā gurus and the bhagats, (Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar ms. 1003, f. 138b). The second Dhanāsarī composition appears as pada 11 of the ‘ Ratnākar ’ edition (1 : 36). The text of the Sāranga, Naṭa and second Dhanāsarī padas is given separately below.

31 For an edition of another of the sections of the Pothī, see Singh, Jathedār Kirpāl (ed.), MājhBhāī Darbārī (Patiala: Punjabi University, 1988).Google Scholar

32 Dās, Darbārī, Bhāī Darbārī Dās rachit Parachībhagat kī (Pothī Harijasa), ed. Singh, Gurcharan ‘Sek’ (Patiala: Punjabi University, 1991), 498–517.Google Scholar

33 Chhibbar, Kesar Singh, Bhāī Kesar Singh Chhibbar krit Bansāvalīnāmā das Pātashahi kā, ed. Padam, Piārā Singh (Amritsar: Singh Brothers, 1997), 56 (charana 2 : 77).Google Scholar

34 For the Udāsīs, see the works of Singh, Sulakhan: ‘Udasis under the Sikh rule (1750–1850)’, (Ph.D. dissertation, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, 1985)Google Scholar; ‘Udasi establishments under Sikh rule ’. Journal of Regional History, 1, 1980: 70–87; ‘ The Udasis in the early nineteenth century,’ JRH, 2, 1981: 35–42; ‘ Udasi beliefs and practices’, JRH, 4, 1983: 78–93.

35 Singh, Hari (ed.), Parachī (Patiala: Bhasha Vibhag, 1978)Google Scholar and Piara Singh Padam (ed.), Parachī Pātashāhī Dasav kī (Patiala: the author, 1988). Neither edition can be called critical. For Bidhī Dās's text, see Sābar, Jasbīr Singh, Bhagat Ravidās srot pustak (Amritsar: Guru Nanak Dev University, 1984), 164–165Google Scholar. The only manuscript of the work was in the Sikh Reference Library, Amritsar before the Library's destruction in the Indian Army's attack on the Golden Temple complex in June 1984.

36 Wilson, H. H., Religious sects of the Hindus, Reprint (Calcutta: Sushil Gupta, 1958), 149–150Google Scholar, also quoted in Sulakhan Singh, ‘Udasi beliefs and practices’, 79. It may well be, however, that Wilson has transposed onto his account of the Udāsīs a listing of the contents of the Banno recension of the Granth that included the Sūrdās pada. For Udāsī bhagat-compositions, see for example Dās, Rām, Bāṇī Bābā Rāma Dāsa, ed. Sābar, Jasbīr Singh (Patiala: Punjabi University, 1989), 50Google Scholar. The Guru Arjan composition they imitated is Basantu M5 gharu 1 dutukīā 1 (AG, 1192).

37 For information on Jassā Singh, see Sābar, , Bhagat Ravidās, 139Google Scholar; the only known manuscript was at the Sikh Reference Library.

38 Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar ms. 702; Singh, Kīrat, Bhagat mālā satīk (n.p.: Vazir Hind Press, n.d.), 512–514Google Scholar. Other manuscripts of the work include: Guru Nanak Ḋev University Amritsar ms. 941; Central State Library, Patiala mss. 1928 and 2573; Punjabi University, Patiala ms. 115402; and the no longer extant Sikh Reference Library 31/780 (see Sūchī purātan kharari (hath likhat Panjābī pustak dī) Sikkh Raifrains Lāibrerī (Amritsar: Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, 1957), 3.

39 Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar ms. 702, ff. 390b–92a, 320b.

40 Khalsa College, Amritsar ms. 1595, ff. 104b–5a. The chronogram at the end of the text reads, ‘sammata purāṇā ara dakhasutānī ke pahichāno/adhaka manobhava sara puna beda ananda jī chīno’. Its value is complicated by the fact that ‘ the daughters of Dakṣa’ (dakhasutānī) can be taken as either 50 or 60 and Manobhava/Kāma as either six or 13. I have taken their values to be 50 and 13 respectively. I am not aware of a numerical value for ananda.

41 Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar ms. 611, f. 122a. The poem is pada 4527 of the Ratnākar edition of the Sūrasāgara (2:1482). Presumably influenced by the administrative terminology of Raṇjīt Singh's Lahore state, the commentary states that Sūrdās was the kārdār of Saṇḍīlā.

42 Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar ms. 611, ff. 181ab.

43 The text of the pada as given in the manuscript reads

chhāda mana hari bimukhana ko sanga

jā kai milai kubudha upajata hai parata bhajana mai bhanga. 1. rahāu.

kahā bhae pīp i païāe bikha na tajai bhujanga.

kāgā kāhā kapūra chugāvata suāna navāe gangā.

khara kau kāh agara jā lepana markaṭa bhūkhana angā. 1.

patata pakhāna bāna n hī bedhe rīte bhae nikhanga.

sūradāsa kārī kamarīā charata na dusara ranga. 2.

44 The first of the three poems is ‘ Ratnākar ’ pada 137 (1:45). The other two padas are not in the printed Sūrasāgara, but I have not reproduced them in the paper owing to the relatively late date of the manuscript.

45 Panjab University, Chandigarh ms. 1179, ff. 80a–83b. The text is in two volumes, the first of which is Panjab University, Chandigarh ms. 1178. The colophon of the second volume has had the name of the author altered from Gian Singh to Dhian Singh (ms. 1179, f. 192b).

46 Singh, Bhagat Laksman, Bhagat Lakshman Singh autobiography ed. Singh, Ganda (Calcutta: Sikh Cultural Centre, 1965), 1–7.Google Scholar

47 The term shabad (here sabadu) appears in this sense as a heading to Mārū M1 1 (AG, 989).

48 For sahaskritī see Shackle, C., ‘The Sahaskritī poetic idiom in the Ādi Granth’, BSOAS XLI 2, 1978, 297–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49 Consisting of four, two, three and five verses plus rahāu respectively.

50 For further information on the recensions of the Adi Granth, see Jeevan Deol ‘ Text and lineage in early Sikh tradition’ Modern Asian Studies (forthcoming).

51 See for example Central State Library, Patiala mss. 535, 536, 544, 587, 1870, 1927, 2176, 2736 and 2880; Guru Nanak Dev University mss. 116, 121, 774 and 989; Khalsa College, Amritsar mss. 1573 and 1592; Punjab University, Chandigarh ms. 89; Punjabi University, Patiala mss. 115398 and 115393; Moti Bagh Library, Patiala mss. 21 and 233 (for the last two, see Ashok, Shamsher Singh, Panjābī hatth likht dī sūchī. 2 vols. (Patiala: Bhasha Vibhag, 1961–1963), 1:86)Google Scholar; Sikh Reference Library mss. 126/2432 and 264/5027 (see Sūchī purātan kharaṛi , 10, 17); and Dr Balbir Singh Sahitya Kendra, Dehra Dun ms. 305.

52 Central State Library, Patiala ms. 2880. For the manuscript by Guru Gobind Singhās court scribes, see Suchī purātan kharaṛi , 17 and Padam, Piara Singh, Gurū Gobind Singh jī de darbarīratan (Patiala: the author, 1976), 144, 253Google Scholar. It is unclear from either description whether the manuscript included the whole text or merely portions of it. Ashok claims that the two Moti Bagh Library manuscripts he cites are sixteenth- and seventeenth-century vikramī respectively (see footnote 50 above), but his catalogue often gives the dates of composition of texts in place of copy dates.

53 Anthologies with verses attributed to poets with the chhāpa Sūrdās include Punjabi University, Patiala mss. 115661 and 115671, Panjab University, Chandigarh mss. 393 and 1201 and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar mss. 22 and 133. The first four manuscripts include some padas, found in the Sūrasāgara and others with the same first lines as Sūrasāgara padas whose text is different from the Sūrasāgara versions. For a text of the mājha, see Padam, Piara Singh, Panjābī mājh (bavanjā kavīdī aprakāshit kavitā) (Patiala: Sardār Sāhitt Bhavan, 1960), 52, 16Google Scholar. Ashok mentions a manuscript of the Rām Krisana autāra ustati in his own collection and a manuscript containing Dhruvalīlā at the Central State Library, Patiala, both of which I was unable to locate (Panjābī hatth likht dī sūchī, 2 : 114, 1 : 542–43). The Bārā māh Srī Rāma jī kā is available in Punjabi University, Patiala ms. 115638 and National Museum, New Delhi N.M. 62.201, and the Bamsarī Kisana kī in Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar ms. 27.

54 McGregor, Ronald Stuart, Hindi literature from its beginnings to the nineteenth century vol. VIII, fasc. 6 of Gonda, Jan (ed.), A history of Indian literature (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1984), 152.Google Scholar

55 On the Saiṇa sāgara grantha see Gurditt Singh, Itihās, 592. For the shabad of Guru Tegh Bahadur, see Adi Granth, p. 634 and ‘ Ratnākar’ et al., Sūrasāgara, pada 79, 1:26. I am thankful to Dr Darshan Singh of Punjabi University, Patiala for pointing out the Sūrasāgara reference.

56 A photograph of the pada in the pothī manuscript is reproduced in Gurditt Singh, Itihās, 10 and transliterated on page 584. The manuscript was supposedly stolen from a railway carriage in 1973 and is therefore no longer accessible for scholarly examination. The portion containing the works of the bhagats was apparently in a different hand and therefore presumably more recent than the portion containing the works of the Gurus (Gurditt Singh, Itihās, 558, 561, 578).

57 Gurditt Singh transcribes this word as ‘cheta’ (Itihās, 584). The manuscript is unclear at this point.

58 This word has been run together with those preceding and following it in the text and is difficult to read. Gurditt Singh (Itihās, 584) reads the line as ‘dukhadāī kuṭumba ko hai ākhata bhūla sanjoga’, which is clearly incorrect.

59 The final numbering of the pada is obscured and it is followed by a blank space.

60 The syntax of the second half of the line is somewhat problematic.

61 The syntax of the second half of the line is somewhat problematic.

62 Alternatively, ‘ this is your yoga’. I have not translated the incomplete rahāu verse.

63 I owe my information on the Hindi Sūrdās manuscripts to Prof. Kenneth E. Bryant of the University of British Columbia.

64 f. 363b. The text has been obscured at a number of places due to paper having been glued on top of the folio.

65 I have not translated this line, as the second half is not legible.

66 ff. 364ab. The pada also appears in a nineteenth-century anthology of the works of a number of poets, Panjab University Chandigarh ms. 393, ff. 119ab:

kahāvata aise tiāgī dāna

chāra padāratha dīe sudāmahi aru gura ke suta na. rahāu.

rāvana ke dasa masataka chhede kara gahi sāringaprāna.

vibhīkhana kau tumu lankā dīnī pūrabalī pahichāna.

vipra sudāmd kīyo ajāchī prīta purātana jāna.

sūradāsa sau kahā niṭhura bhae nainana hū kī hāni.

67 The commentary to the pada seems to use the word ‘triāgu’ to mean ‘gift’ or ‘favour’.

68 The commentary to this verse reads ‘and you brought the drowning child from the sea and gave him to the guru’ (f. 364a).

69 The commentary takes the line to mean ‘ You made Dhruva and Prahalāda immortal and placed them above the gods’.

70 For the Sūrasāgara version, see ‘ Ratnākar ’ et al., Sūrasāgara, pada 111, 1:36.

71 ff. 365a–6a. The pada is also found in a nineteenth-century anthology of the works of various poets (Panjab University, Chandigarh ms. 393, ff. 114a–15b):

prabha mere guna avaguna na bichāro.

kījai lāja sarana āe kī ravasuta trāsa nivāro. rahāu.

joga jagya japata puna hī kīno veda bimala nahi bhākhyo.

ati rasa lubhata svāna jūṭhana jyo kahū nahī chita rākhyo.

jiṃha jimha joni paryo sankaṭi basa tiὃha tiὃha yahi kamāyo.

kāma krodha mada locha grasata mai vikhai parama vikha khāyo.

jo girapati masi ghori udadhi mai lai suratara nija hātha.

mama krita dokha likhau basudhā bhari taū nahī mita nātha.

kāmī kuṭala kuchīla kudarasana aparādhī mata h na.

tohi sam na aura nahī dūjo jāhi bhajyo hvai dīna.

akhala ananta dayāla kripānidhi abanāsī sukharāsa.

bhajana pratāpa n hi mai jānyo bandhyo moha kī phāsa.

tuma sarbaggya saba hī bidha samratha asarana sarana murāra.

mohi samundra sūra būḍata hai dījai bhujā pasāra.

72 Here gani has a punning association with both the root gin- (‘ to count’) and the phrase guna avaguna ‘ good and bad qualities’), yielding the alternate reading ‘ Sir, don't dwell on my bad qualities’.

73 It is not clear what the ‘ bibala’ of the poem's text is. The commentary reads ‘ I have not done remembrance (japu), austerities (tapu), [reading of the] Vedas and Shastras, or any good action (krita) (f. 365b). I have assumed that the intended reading is ‘bimala’ (Sanskrit vimala), meaning ‘ pure’.

74 The monkey believes that the tree's red flowers are flames. I have followed the commentary on the pada in translating this line.

75 The meaning of the first quarter of the line is unclear. The second half of the line presumably means that even demons are saved if they seek shelter.

76 This is the standard form of invocation found before shabads in the Adi Granth.

77 The meaning of this line is somewhat unclear. Commentaries on the Adi Granth normally take the first half of this line to mean ‘ Surdas, the Lord has taken my mind in hand’, see for example Singh, Sāhib, Srī Gurū Granth Sāhib darpan. Vol. 9 (Jalandhar: Rāj Publishers, 1964), 131.Google Scholar

78 It is also technically possible that the single line was considered part of a composition by Kabīr (whose compositions precede the line by Sūrdās) and was not given a heading for this reason. This is, however, a rather unlikely possibility.

79 Singh, Gurditt, Itihās 584–585; Mann, The Goindval Pothis.Google Scholar

80 Prof. Kenneth E. Bryant of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada kindly provided me with a facsimile of the relevant folio of the earliest ‘Mathura’ family Surdās manuscript (dated 1638) that he found in the course of his research; the published text of the pada is available as ‘ Ratnākar ’ pada 332, 1:110. In the text of t he Adi Granth pada presented here, I have excluded the readings found in the following seventeenth-century Banno manuscripts, in which the text of the entire pada has been added to the volume later: the Banno manuscript, Kanpur (1699 VS/1642); Punjab State Archives, Patiala ms. 341 (1723 VS/1666); Punjab University, Patiala ms. 115152 (1744 VS/1697); a Lahore recension manuscript at Takht Sri Harmandir Sahib, Patna dating from the period 1665–75 and another Lahore manuscript at Takht Sri Harimandir Sahib, Patna that appears to predate the third quarter of the seventeenth century. The text presented is based on the reading given on f. 574b of a manuscript at Takht Harimandir Sahib, Patna (hereafter abbreviated as Patna) dated Pūs sudī 13, 1755 VS/1699, designated as ‘A’ in the critical apparatus below. The other manuscripts used are: B: f. 499a of a manuscript with Prof. Madanjit Kaur of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar dated Jeṭh sudī 1, 1758 VS/1701; C: f. 618b of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar ms. 73 dated Māgh sudī 12, 1760 VS/1704; D: ff. 996b–97a of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar ms. G-72 (originally from Benares) dated Asādh vadī 7, 1764 VS/1708; E: ff. 715b–16a of a manuscript at Patna dated Chet vadī 2, 1784 VS/1727; F: f. 885b of a manuscript at Patna dated Chet vadī, 1784 VS/1727 (date in another hand); G: f. 717b of a manuscript dated Chet sudī 3, 1787/1730 with Piara Singh Padam of Patiala; H: f. 949b of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar ms. G-67 (originally from Benares) dated Agahan sudī 4, 1791 VS/1734; I: f. 719a of a manuscript at Patna dated Kātak vadī 5, 1801/1744; J: f. 687a of a manuscript at Patna dated Chait sudī 5, 1805/1748; K: f. 556b of a manuscript at Patna dated Asāṛ vadī 3, 1809 VS/1752; L: ff. 923b–24a of a manuscript dated Chait vadī, 1817 VS/1760 with Piara Singh Padam; M: f. 890a of a manuscript at Patna dated Chet sudī 1, 1817 VS/1760; N: f. 559a of a manuscript at Patna dated Māgh vadī 1, 1821 VS/1765; O: f. 503a of Bhai Vir Singh Sahitya Sadan, New Delhi ms. 7 dated Māgh vadī 8, 1842 VS/1786; P: f. 742a of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar ms. G-62 (originally from Benares) dated Māgh badī 12, 1842 VS/1786, copied from a text dated Kārtik sudī 1, 1788 VS/1731; Q: f. 589b of Punjabi University, Patiala ms. 115465 dated Phagan 3, 1847 VS/1791; R: f. 920a of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar ms. G-65 (originally from Benares) dated Phāgun sudī 6, 1852 VS/1796, copied from a text dated Bhādau sudī 5, 1794 VS/1737.

81 All of these groups exhibit an affinity greater than 90 per cent.

82 : B

83 ako; D; kau: H

84 sangu: D, G, H, L, O, P

85 kah B

86 pīpāi: D, G, H, I, L, N ; p i K; pai pāna: O, P, R; pīap i B

87 pīāe: B, D, H, P, Q, R

88 bikha: D, H, Q, R

89 nahī: A, O

90 tajata: C, O, R

91 bhuanga: C, J, O

92 kāg G

93 kaha: E

94 chugāe: G, I, K, L, N, Q; chagāe: H; charāe: P, R; chuga B

95 navāe: B, O

96 ko: P, R; kou: H

97 kaha: L

98 aragajā (replacing the phrase agara ko): D, P

99 lepana: A, C, R

100 patita: O, P, R

101 pakhāna: O, P, R

102 na: B, F, G, H, K, L, Q

103 beda: G; bedhata: D, P, R

104 rīto: C, F, M, N

105 bhae: D, E, I, O, P, R (D has the reading hoi erased with haṛtāl); hoi: C, F, G, J, L, M, N

106 nikhaga: J; nikhangu: B

107 vai: C, I; –: O, R

108 kāra: O

109 kāmarī: K, Q; kamarīā: I, O, P; kamarīa: D

110 charata: I, O, R; chaḍhata: P

111 dūjo: B, C, J, R; dūsara: I, O, P; dūjai: M; dūjā: Q

112 rangu: B

113 The meaning of the word pīp i is unclear; I have translated the variant reading pai pana.

114 This line admits a number of readings: it can also be read as ‘An arrow canāt pierce a stone or a fallen [person] even if quivers are emptied’. Some manuscripts have the reading ‘even if the quiver is emptied’.

115 Punjabi University, Patiala ms. 115464, a Banno text dated Sāvaṇ 20, 1825 VS/1768.

116 Or, ‘ Sūrdās [says,] “ O Lord …” ’.

117 AG, p. 481; Bhāī Gurdās, Vār , 372–3.

118 British Museum ms. Or. 2755, f. 130b (prayoga 4 : 12). Some manuscripts refer to the author as Diāl Anemī and to the text as Abagata hulāsa.

119 Bhāī Jodh Singh, Srī Kartārpurī bīṛ, 113; Pashaura Singh, ‘ The text and meaning’, 32, 36–7.

120 The manuscript is on display at the Central Sikh Museum, Amritsar. It contains the portion of the Adi Granth from Bilāvalu rāga to the end of the text, but is numbered continuously from f. 1 as if it is a complete manuscript.

121 f. 589b of an undated manuscript at Gurdwara Singh Sabha, Dehra Dun bearing the death dates of Rām Rāi and his wife Mātā Panjābo said to have formerly been in possession of the shrine in Dehra Dun dedicated to Rām Rāi. Svāmī Harinām Dās Udāsīn, Purātani bi¯ṛ, 1: 111. Harinām Dās discusses a manuscript dated 1763 VS/1708 bearing the death date of Rām Rāi in its list of the death dates of the Gurus.

122 Piar Singh cites a manuscript dated 1711 VS/1654, later converted into a Banno text, that has only the second shabad (Gāthā, 255). Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar ms. 1084 (dated 1723 VS/1666) also contains only the second shabad, but with a heading that attributes it to Sūrdās. A manuscript at Takht Harimandir Sahib, Patna, dated 1748 VS/1692–93 and written by a scribe named Rām Rāi whose index indicates that it is of the Lahore recension does not contain the Sūrdās pada. The index and text to Mārū rāga are in the hand of the original scribe and the subsequent portion of the text (including Sāranga raga) is in another hand. It later had the compositions usually found at the end of Banno manuscripts added to the end of the volume. A further undated Lahore manuscript at the shrine that appears to predate the fourth quarter of the seventeenth century contains only the M5 Sūrdās shabad. An undated manuscript with Baba Sarbjot Singh Bedi of Una that predates the fourth quarter of the seventeenth century has had the single line added in another hand. This is also the case with a no longer extant manuscript dated 1745 VS/1688 cited by Piar Singh (Gāthā, 335). Early Lahore recension manuscripts with the single line include Punjabi University, Patiala ms. 115338 dated 1724 VS/1687; Punjabi University Museum, Patiala ms. 6 dated 1749 VS/1692; and a manuscript with the late Trilochan Singh of Ludhiana dated 1762 VS/1705 (the last two cited in Piar Singh, Gāthā, 347 and 371).

123 Piar Singh cites a no longer extant manuscript dated 1667 VS/1610–11 that has had the pada added in another hand (Gāthā, 223). A manuscript at Takht Sri Harimandir Sahib, Patna, that appears to date from the period 1665–75 and another that appears to predate the fourth quarter of the seventeenth century have also had the pada added in another hand.

124 Early Banno manuscripts containing only the single line include a manuscript at Dera Bhai Ramkishan, Patiala, dated 1710 VS/1653; Punjab State Archives Patiala ms. 341 dated 1723 VS/1666; Dr Balbir Singh Sahitya Kendra, Dehra Dun acc. no. 4982 dated 1736 VS/1679; and Punjab University, Chandigarh ms. 1189 dated 1748 VS/1691. Piar Singh cites a no longer extant manuscript dated 1732 VS/1675 that had only the single line (Gāthā, 312). The entire pada has been added in another hand to Punjabi University, Patiala ms. 115152 dated 1744 VS/1687 and the Nand Chand manuscript dated 1745 VS/1688 now at the village of Bhai ki Daroli, district Faridkot (the last cited in Piar Singh, Gāthā, 331). For the Banno manuscript, see Pritam Singh, ‘Bhāī Bannoās copy’.

125 Manuscript with Prof. Madanjit Kaur of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, f. 499a. Gurditt Singh notes that in a number of Banno manuscripts that originally contained the entire pada, all but the first line were later deleted with correction paste (Itihās, 327).

126 For published descriptions of the Haridās manuscript, see Piar Singh, Gāthā Srī Ādi Granth, 348–50; Svāmī Harinām Dās Udāsīn, Purātani bīṛ1: 109, 2: 79; Singh, Haribhajan, Gurbāṇī sampādan nirṇai (Chandigarh: Satinām Prakāshan, 1981), 85, 117, 127, 150.Google Scholar

127 Manuscripts bearing only the single line in the hand of the original scribe are Panjab University Chandigarh ms. 1191, f. 601b; Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar ms. G-98, f. 657b; Dr Balbir Singh Sahitya Kendra, Dehra Dun ace. no. 4993, f. 499a; and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar ms. 729, f. 656b. The single line has been erased with haṛtāl (correction paste) in the Chandigarh manuscript. The manuscript to which the single line has been added is Dr Balbir Singh Sahitya Kendra, Dehra Dun acc. no. 5005, f. 792a.

128 Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar ms. 1229, f. 589b. The manuscript is originally from the village of Sāranke, district Lahore.

129 The Adi Granth manuscript in question is now at Takht Sri Harimandir Sahib, Patna. A note on f. 27a (now bound at the end of the manuscript) traces its textual lineage to a manuscript in Pushkar corrected against the Granths of Bhāī Gurdās and one Jagnā Brahman. For a published transcription off. 27a, see Singh, Piara ‘Padam’, Srī Gurū Granth prakāsh, 105Google Scholar; for a published description of the text, see Singh, Piar, Gāthā Srī Ādi Granth, 339–342.Google Scholar

130 Chhibbar, Kesar Singh, Bansāvalīnāmā, 244–5 (charana 14: 264–269)Google Scholar, where both the Adi and the Dasam Granth are considered Guru, and the rahitnāmā attributed to Chaupā Singh Chhibbar, where the injunction is to ‘regard the Granth Sāhib as Gurū’ (McLeod, , The Chaupa Singh Rahitnāmā, 74, 76)Google Scholar. In this case, the spurious works are those of the Mīṇās.

131 Santokh Singh, Sri Gura pratāpa suraja, 6:2140 (rasi 3.50.6); Bhagat Singh, Gurabilāsa, 151 (adhyāya 4:409–10).

132 India Office Library MS Panj. E 2, described in Pashaura Singh, ‘ The text and meaning’, 84–6. Pashaura Singh incorrectly states that the manuscript was created for presentation to Queen Victoria; in fact it was presented through the Deputy Commissioner of Jalandhar for onward transmission to London as part of a project to translate the Adi Granth into English (India Political Dispatch no. 34 from Secretary of State for India to Governor-General dated 24 April 1860).

133 For other examples of scribal attempts to ‘ rationalize’ a text, in this case by changing headings, see Singh, Pashaura, ‘ The text and meaning’, 97, 151.Google Scholar

134 For example, the first saloka of Guru Nanakās Japu (p. 1) with the saloka preceding asṭapadī 17 of Gauṛī Sukhamanī M5 (p. 285); the final saloka of Japu (p. 8) with Mdjha kī vāra M1 saloku M2 2 : 18 (p. 146); Srīrāga kī vāra M4 saloku M3 2:11 (p. 86–7) and Saloka vārā te vadhīka M4 28 (p. 1424); Gauṛī kī vāra M4 pauṛī M4 12 (p. 306) and pauṛī M5 31 of the same vāra (pp. 316–7); Saloka Sahaskriti M1 2–4 (p. 1353) with Mājha kī vāra M1 saloku M2 2:23 (p. 148) and Āsā kī vāra M1 saloku M2 2–3:12 (p. 469); the saloku to Maru M1 5 (p. 990) with Gūjarī kī vāra M5 saloku M5 2:4 (p. 518); and salokas with the chhāpas of Nāmdev, Ravidās and Trilochan in the saloka sequence of Kabīr (salokas 212–3, pp. 241–2).

135 In Saloka Pharīda jīu ke (pp. 1381–4), salokas 32, 113, 120, 124 (M1); 13, 52, 104, 122, 123 (M3); 121 (M4). There is also a saloka marked M3 with the chhāpa Nanak in the sequence of salokas by Kabīr (saloku 220, p. 1376); the 65th saloku of the sequence (p. 1367), which has the chhāpa Kabīr, appears on p. 947 of the Adi Granth as a M3 saloku with the chhāpa Nanak. Neither of these salokas appears in any of the other published texts of Kabīr.

136 For example, Āsā kī vāra M1 saloku M1 1: 1 (pp. 462–3) with Kabīr Granthāvatī (Das) 1 : 2 and (Tivāṛī) 1 : 11 in Charlotte Vaudeville (ed.), Kabīr-Vāṇī: western recension (Pondicherry: Institut Français dāIndologie, 1982), pp. 3, 55; Gauṛī M1 4 (p. 152) and Granthavali (Das) pada 42 (Vaudeville, Kabīr-vānī, 125); salokas 36 and 103 of Saloka Pharīd jīu ke (pp. 1377–84), which correspond to sākhīs 3 : 21 and 41 of the Dās Granthāvalī (Vaudeville, Kabīr- Vāṇī, 7–8).

137 Farīd salokas 75, 82, 83, 105, 108–11 (pp. 1377–84); Kabīr salokas 209–11, 214, 221 (pp. 1375–6); Āsā (Dhannā) M5 2 (pp. 487–88); Bhairau M5 gharu 1 3 (p. 1136); Bhairau (Kabīr) M5 12 (p. 1160); and, of course, Sāranga M5 Sūrdās (p. 1253).

138 AG, pp. 326, 487–8, 1136, 1160 and 1253 respectively.

139 Bhairau M5 gharu 1 3 (p. 1136) is a significant variation of Gopāldās Sarvāngī 54 : 5 (in Callewaert, Winand M. (ed.), The Sarv gī of Gopāldās: a 17th century anthology of Bhakti literature (Delhi: Manohar, 1993), 288)Google Scholar and Kabīr Granthāvalī (Das) 338 (in Vaudeville, Kabīr-Vāṇī, 205); the Adi Granth version has a verse not in the Sarvāngī and Granthāvalī versions. Others of the shabads may, of course, be represented in unpublished manuscript traditions outside the Panth.

140 Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar ms. 1245, ff. 106ab. The compilation, which does not include the works of the bhagats, does not contain any of the other shabads with a dual attribution.

141 The shabad is present in the pothī now at Jalandhar, see Mann, , The Goindval Pothis, 79. The two remaining Adi Granth shabads are in Āsā and Gauṛī rāgas, neither of which is represented in the two extant pothīs.Google Scholar

142 AG, p. 326. The shabad uncharacteristically has two verses containing the chhāpa Kabīr. For two interpretations which take the heading to mean that the shabad is Guru Arjanās completion of a Kabīr composition, see Vīr Singh, Bhāī, Santhyā Srī Gurū Granth Sāhib, vol. IV (Amritsar: Khalsa Samachar, 1960)Google Scholar, 1946 and Singh, Sāhib, Srī Gurū Granth Sāhib darpaṇ, vol. II. 2nd ed. (Jalandhar: Raj Publishers, n.d.), 868.Google Scholar

143 A Lahore recension manuscript dated 1723 VS/1666 attributes the shabad to Surdās with the heading ‘ bāṇī bhagata Sūradāsa jīu kī’ (Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar ms. 1084, f. 399a old numbering/384a new numbering). The manuscript dated 1758 VS/1701 with Prof. Madanjit Kaur of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar (f. 499a) and the Sāranke manuscript dated 1728 VS/1671–2 attribute the shabad to Sūrdās by excluding reference to Guru Arjan through the simple heading ‘Sāranga’ (Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar ms. 1229, f. 589b). An undated Lahore recension manuscript from Benares and a Banno manuscript also from Benares dated 1842 VS/1785 (copied from a text dated 1788 VS/1731) both head the shabad ‘Sāranga Mahalā 5’ (Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar mss. G-74, f. 525a and G-62, f. 742a).

144 Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar ms. 1245, ff. 565b and 561a. Pashaura Singh notes a number of other manuscripts which attribute this shabad to Guru Amardas–including the ‘ Goindvāl’ and Kartārpur texts—but does not state whether they also have headings with a dual attribution (‘The text and meaning’, 151 note 25).

145 Sevā Das, Parachī, 31–3.