[{"t":"Question 1: O King, how does one make their five sense organs great or pure?","u":"/arths/#q1","k":"Arths","s":"ਰਾਗ ਏਕ ਸੰਗਿ ਪੰਚ ਬਰੰਗਨ ॥ Raag Ek Sang Panch Barangan","b":"Raag = love, Ek = one God who is without duality, Sang = with, Panch = five, Barangan = nerves The sense organs can become great by having love and devotion for the one Lord. The five sense organs are the tongue, eyes, nose, ears and skin. ਲੋਇਣ ਰਤੇ ਲੋਇਣੀ ਕੰਨੀ ਸੁਰਤਿ ਸਮਾਇ ॥ ਜੀਭ ਰਸਾਇਣਿ ਚੂਨੜੀ ਰਤੀ ਲਾਲ ਲਵਾਇ ॥ If a persons eyes and imbued into the Lord and the ears listen to the praise of the Lord then their consciousness merges with God. The tongue of the individual tastes the nectar of the name of God as it continually recites it. Salok Mahalla 1: Page 1091 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji ਅੰਦਰੁ ਮੁਸਕਿ ਝਕੋਲਿਆ ਕੀਮਤਿ ਕਹੀ ਨ ਜਾਇ ॥੨॥ From within the individual who meditates on the Lord with their mind there is a sweet smelling fragrance gained through the name of God. No one can fully understand the virtues of this individual. 2. Vaar Maaroo Pehila: Page 1091 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 2: Who remembers the one Lord?","u":"/arths/#q2","k":"Arths","s":"ਸੰਗਿ ਅਲਾਪਹਿ ਆਠਉ ਨੰਦਨ ॥","b":"Sang = congregation, Alaphi = to recite, Aathou = eight quarters (24 hours), Nandan = son (world) The true congregation sits in the world and repeats the name of God continuously over the 24 hour period. The world is considered the son of the almighty Lord. ਸੰਤ ਅਰਾਧਨਿ ਸਦ ਸਦਾ ਸਭਨਾ ਕਾ ਬਖਸਿੰਦੁ ॥ God is the pardoner of all is remembered by the saints continuously. Maajh Din Rein Mahalla 5, Page 137 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 3: How does a person initially gain love or fall in love with God?","u":"/arths/#q3","k":"Arths","s":"ਪ੍ਰਥਮ ਰਾਗ ਭੈਰਉ ਵੈ ਕਰਹੀ ॥ Pratham Raag Bhairou Vai Karhee","b":"Pratham = first, initially, Raag = love, Bhairou = by creating fear, Vai = him, Karhee = to do Initially what the individual needs to do is create a feeling of fear from within themselves for the Lord. If one creates this fear then they will gain love for God, eventually falling in love with God. ਨਾਨਕ ਜਿਨ੍ਹ੍ਹ ਮਨਿ ਭਉ ਤਿਨ੍ਹ੍ਹਾ ਮਨਿ ਭਾਉ ॥੨॥ Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji states that those people who have created a sense of fear within themselves have later gained a state of love within them. 2. Aasaa Di Vaar Mahalla 1, Page 465 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 4: How should a person recite the name of God?","u":"/arths/#q4","k":"Arths","s":"ਪੰਚ ਰਾਗਨੀ ਸੰਗਿ ਉਚਰਹੀ ॥ Panch Raagnee Sang Ucharhee","b":"Panch = great, Raagnee = love, Sang = with, Ucharhee = recite With great or superior love an individual should recite the name of God. ਪ੍ਰਭ ਕੀ ਪ੍ਰੀਤਿ ਰਿਦੈ ਨਿਰਮਲ ਨਾਮ ॥ Due to the love of God within the individual the name of the Lord resides within their heart. Aasaa Mahalla 5: Page 391 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 5: How does the individual gain a blissful state?","u":"/arths/#q5","k":"Arths","s":"ਪ੍ਰਥਮ ਭੈਰਵੀ ਬਿਲਾਵਲੀ ॥ Pratham Bhairvee Bilavalee","b":"Pratham = beginning, birth, Bhairvee = create fear, Bilavalee = bliss In the beginning, from the moment a person is born, as long as they create a sense of fear of God and remain in it then they can gain a blissful state. ਕਰਿ ਕਿਰਪਾ ਕਿਲਵਿਖ ਕਟੇ ਗਿਆਨ ਅੰਜਨੁ ਸਾਰਿਆ ॥ Through the grace of the spiritual master all of the sins are eradicated and then the bliss of knowledge is placed in the individuals eyes. Raamkali Mahalla 3 Anand Sahib, Page 917 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji ਅਨੰਦੁ ਭਇਆ ਮੇਰੀ ਮਾਏ ਸਤਿਗੁਰੂ ਮੈ ਪਾਇਆ ॥ O my brother, I gained a state of bliss on the day I received a spiritual discourse and a glimpse of Sri Guru Angad Dev Ji. Raamkali Mahalla 3 Anand Sahib, Page 917 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 6: How does duality disappear or become eradicated?","u":"/arths/#q6","k":"Arths","s":"ਪੁੰਨਿਆਕੀ ਗਾਵਹਿ ਬੰਗਲੀ ॥ Puniyakee Gavhe Banglee","b":"Puniyakee = the intellect of virtuous people, Gavhe = to sing, Banglee = duality disappears Those people who have the intellect of the virtuous sing the praises of God. Due to singing the praises of God their duality disappears. ਪ੍ਰਭ ਕੈ ਸਿਮਰਨਿ ਬਿਨਸੈ ਦੂਜਾ ॥ Through the meditation of the name of God the cause of duality is eradicated. Gauree Mahalla 5 Sukhmani Sahib, Page 262 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 7: How can the individual's meditation become a continuous flow of the Lord's name?","u":"/arths/#q7","k":"Arths","s":"ਪੁਨਿ ਅਸਲੇਖੀ ਕੀ ਭਈ ਬਾਰੀ ॥ Pun Aslekhee Kee Bhaee Baree","b":"Pun = pure, Aslekhee = As = pure form, Lekhee = written, Kee = belonging to, Bhaee = become, Baree = stream Those people who have taken the pure form of the spiritual master and written it into their heart, their concentration becomes like a small stream and merges with the flow of the name of God. Once it merges with the name of God which it belongs to, the concentration becomes pure. ਲੇਖਾ ਲਿਖੀਐ ਮਨ ਕੈ ਭਾਇ ॥ Due to the love the individual has for the pure form of the Lord within their mind they are able to give a written account when they go into the next world. Saarang Mahalla 1: Page 1237 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 8: How does one bring their mind become under subjection?","u":"/arths/#q8","k":"Arths","s":"ਏ ਭੈਰਉ ਕੀ ਪਾਚਉ ਨਾਰੀ ॥ Eh Bhairou Kee Pachou Naree","b":"Eh = in this way, Bhairou = remain in fear, Kee = the, Pachou = five, Naree = attention (metaphorically it means females) In this way the Sikhs that remain living with the fear of God bring the five types of attention who are the forms of a female counterpart under subjection. The five types of attention or thought by the practical mind are the following: a) Parmaan: to focus your concentration on a material object this, can be seen by the individual. b) Viparjay: to think differently to the spiritual master's teachings. c) Nindra: when the mind focuses on sleep. d) Simritee: when a person remembers or consciously recalls previous actions. e) Vikalap: where one thinks of something else whilst supposedly concentrating on another. This is where the individual does little but expects to be richly rewarded.[2] [2] It is important to note that another type of attention is Sankalp which is the opposite of Vikalap. These are the five different types of 'vritti' which is the mental modification. ਗੁਰ ਪਰਸਾਦੀ ਭਉ ਪਇਆ ਵਡਭਾਗਿ ਵਸਿਆ ਮਨਿ ਆਇ ॥ ਭੈ ਪਇਐ ਮਨੁ ਵਸਿ ਹੋਆ ਹਉਮੈ ਸਬਦਿ ਜਲਾਇ ॥ Through the grace of the Lord the fear is embedded in the heart of the devotee. Due to this the Lord has found a place within the individuals mind. Due to the sense of fear the mind has come under the subjection of the individual. The holy words from the spiritual master have also decimated the sense of ego. Sorath Kee Vaar Mahalla 3, Page 645 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 9: How does one adopt the five elements? When does the individual become similar to the five elements?","u":"/arths/#q9","k":"Arths","s":"ਪੰਚਮ ਹਰਖ ਦਿਸਾਖ ਸੁਨਾਵਹਿ ॥ Pancham Harakh Disaakh Sunaavhi","b":"Pancham = Panch = five elements, Am = me, my, Harakhdi = delightful, pleasing, Saakh = eulogy, story, Sunaavhi = tell, explain, talk To talk about the individuals that have merged or become one with the elements fills me with delight. It is difficult to eulogise the nature of these individuals as they become humble like water, merciful like the earth, radiant like fire, without layers like the wind and undisturbed by thought like the ether. It brings me so much pleasure to talk about these individuals that it gives me a feeling of bliss. ਸਹਨ ਸੀਲ ਪਵਨ ਅਰੁ ਪਾਣੀ ਬਸੁਧਾ ਖਿਮਾ ਨਿਭਰਾਤੇ ॥ The element of wind is like tolerance, the element of water is soothing, the element of fire eradicates fear, the element of ether is similar to being alone and the element of earth is like mercy. In the elements there is no virtue of evil. Maaroo Mahalla 5: Page 999 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji ਮਾਰੂ ਮਹਲਾ ੫ ॥ ਸਸਤ੍ਰਿ ਤੀਖਣਿ ਕਾਟਿ ਡਾਰਿਓ ਮਨਿ ਨ ਕੀਨੋ ਰੋਸੁ ॥ ਕਾਜੁ ਉਆ ਕੋ ਲੇ ਸਵਾਰਿਓ ਤਿਲੁ ਨ ਦੀਨੋ ਦੋਸੁ ॥੧॥ ਮਨ ਮੇਰੇ ਰਾਮ ਰਉ ਨਿਤ ਨੀਤਿ ॥ ਦਇਆਲ ਦੇਵ ਕ੍ਰਿਪਾਲ ਗੋਬਿੰਦ ਸੁਨਿ ਸੰਤਨਾ ਕੀ ਰੀਤਿ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥ ਚਰਣ ਤਲੈ ਉਗਾਹਿ ਬੈਸਿਓ ਸ੍ਰਮੁ ਨ ਰਹਿਓ ਸਰੀਰਿ ॥ ਮਹਾ ਸਾਗਰੁ ਨਹ ਵਿਆਪੈ ਖਿਨਹਿ ਉਤਰਿਓ ਤੀਰਿ ॥੨॥ ਚੰਦਨ ਅਗਰ ਕਪੂਰ ਲੇਪਨ ਤਿਸੁ ਸੰਗੇ ਨਹੀ ਪ੍ਰੀਤਿ ॥ ਬਿਸਟਾ ਮੂਤ੍ਰ ਖੋਦਿ ਤਿਲੁ ਤਿਲੁ ਮਨਿ ਨ ਮਨੀ ਬਿਪਰੀਤਿ ॥੩॥ ਊਚ ਨੀਚ ਬਿਕਾਰ ਸੁਕ੍ਰਿਤ ਸੰਲਗਨ ਸਭ ਸੁਖ ਛਤ੍ਰ ॥ ਮਿਤ੍ਰ ਸਤ੍ਰੁ ਨ ਕਛੂ ਜਾਨੈ ਸਰਬ ਜੀਅ ਸਮਤ ॥੪॥ ਕਰਿ ਪ੍ਰਗਾਸੁ ਪ੍ਰਚੰਡ ਪ੍ਰਗਟਿਓ ਅੰਧਕਾਰ ਬਿਨਾਸ ॥ ਪਵਿਤ੍ਰ ਅਪਵਿਤ੍ਰਹ ਕਿਰਣ ਲਾਗੇ ਮਨਿ ਨ ਭਇਓ ਬਿਖਾਦੁ ॥੫॥ ਸੀਤ ਮੰਦ ਸੁਗੰਧ ਚਲਿਓ ਸਰਬ ਥਾਨ ਸਮਾਨ ॥ ਜਹਾ ਸਾ ਕਿਛੁ ਤਹਾ ਲਾਗਿਓ ਤਿਲੁ ਨ ਸੰਕਾ ਮਾਨ ॥੬॥ ਸੁਭਾਇ ਅਭਾਇ ਜੁ ਨਿਕਟਿ ਆਵੈ ਸੀਤੁ ਤਾ ਕਾ ਜਾਇ ॥ ਆਪ ਪਰ ਕਾ ਕਛੁ ਨ ਜਾਣੈ ਸਦਾ ਸਹਜਿ ਸੁਭਾਇ ॥੭॥ ਚਰਣ ਸਰਣ ਸਨਾਥ ਇਹੁ ਮਨੁ ਰੰਗਿ ਰਾਤੇ ਲਾਲ ॥ ਗੋਪਾਲ ਗੁਣ ਨਿਤ ਗਾਉ ਨਾਨਕ ਭਏ ਪ੍ਰਭ ਕਿਰਪਾਲ ॥੮॥੩॥ A hymn is the musical measure of Maroo written by the 5th Nanak, Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji. In the way in which a person has cut the wood of a sandalwood tree with a saw, the tree will show no hostility or anger. The wood does not have any enmity for the woodsman who chopped the tree. O mind you should recite the name of the Lord. The Lord is the form of mercy and the eulogy of the Lord can be heard through the grace of the saints.1. If someone wants to cross the ocean they sit in a boat to cross. Once they are seated in the boat their fatigue goes away. By sitting in the boat one does not forget about the pain of the worldly ocean but they cross the ocean instantly.2. If a person is to puts sandalwood in layers so that the camphor can be placed over them to cover the earth as the individual has no love for the ground. If a person urinates and excretes on the ground or digs it up the earth does not take any offence.3. The sky is like a large canopy covering both the sinners and the faithful. He does not discriminate on who is a friend and who is an enemy. The sky covers regardless of their nature.4. The sun rises and with its illuminations dispels the darkness. The rays of the sun are shone everywhere irrelevant of if the place is pure or impure. The purity or impurity does not affect eh sun or cause it any distress.5. The soothing wind spreads a fragrance from place to place with no distinction to the location. Wherever the location may be the wind will touch it.6. In the way in which any person is to approach a fire irrelevant of if they are a sinner or a saint, the fire will get rid of their cold. The fire eradicates cold, gets rid of fear and provides illumination all without judging it provides for all.7. The saints who are immersed with the name of God by gaining shelter at their feet does a person gain liberation. Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji states that a person should be like the elements of the Lord. If you follow the examples of the elements then one will be graced with the mercy of the Lord.8.3. Maaroo Mahalla 5: Page 1017 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 10: How does one sing and praises of God and at the same time take the praises of the husband of Maya into their heart?","u":"/arths/#q10","k":"Arths","s":"ਬੰਗਾਲਮ ਮਧੁ ਮਾਧਵ ਗਾਵਹਿ ॥੧॥ Bangaalam Madhu Maadhav Gaavhi","b":"Bangaalam = Ban = duality, Gaal = decompose, Am = in, Madhu = heart, Maadhav = husband of Maya, Gaavhi = to sing The individual orientated around the spiritual master destroys all of his duality. The individual then places God who is the husband of Maya into his heart. The individual then begins to sing the praises of God within his heart. ਦੁਬਿਧਾ ਮਾਰਿ ਹਰਿ ਮੰਨਿ ਵਸਾਈ ॥ The holy word has destroyed the duality and taken if from within me. The space has now been filled within the mind with the presence of God. Dhanaasree Mahalla 3: Page 663 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 11: God is the giver of all rewards, how should we understand the divine entity?","u":"/arths/#q11","k":"Arths","s":"ਲਲਤ ਬਿਲਾਵਲ ਗਾਵਹੀ ਅਪੁਨੀ ਅਪੁਨੀ ਭਾਂਤਿ ॥ Lalat Bilaaval Gaavee Apunee Apunee Bhaant","b":"Lalat = beautiful, Bilaaval = bliss, Gaavee = to sing, Apunee Apunee = each and every different view, Bhaant = method, way The people of the world all sing the praises of the beautiful Lord with complete bliss. The people who live according to the actions of karma (cause and effect) sing his praises according to their own method. The saints sing the praises of God according to their method and the knowledgeable ones sing the praises of God through their method. The many people sing the praises of God and they do this with views that are different from each other. ਇਛਾ ਪੂਰਕੁ ਸਰਬ ਸੁਖਦਾਤਾ ਹਰਿ ਜਾ ਕੈ ਵਸਿ ਹੈ ਕਾਮਧੇਨਾ ॥ God is the fulfiller of all the desires and wishes a person desires. God is the giver of peace. Dhanaasree Mahalla 4: Page 669 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 12: Who can be considered to be deserving or entitled?","u":"/arths/#q12","k":"Arths","s":"ਅਸਟ ਪੁਤ੍ਰ ਭੈਰਵ ਕੇ ਗਾਵਹਿ ਗਾਇਨ ਪਾਤ੍ਰ ॥੧॥ Ast Putar Bhairav Ke Gaavhi Gaayin Paatar","b":"Ast = eight, Putar = subject, Bhairav = by creating fear, Ke = they, Gaavhi = to sing, Gaayin = praise, Paatar = deserving The saints who have the eight; the five sins and the three characteristics, under their subjection and control will be able to create a fear for the Lord. After doing this they will be able to sing the praises of the Lord. This person will then be considered as entitled or deserving. The five sins are lust, anger, greed, attachment and ego. The three characteristics are evil, goodness and worldliness. ਪਾਂਚਉ ਲਰਿਕਾ ਜਾਰਿ ਕੈ ਰਹੈ ਰਾਮ ਲਿਵ ਲਾਗਿ ॥੪੨॥ By bringing the five sons under subjection I have been able to place my concentration solely into the name of God. Salok Kabir Ji: Page 1366 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji ਤ੍ਰਿਤੀਆ ਤੀਨੇ ਸਮ ਕਰਿ ਲਿਆਵੈ ॥ One should bring the three characteristics under control to keep them at the same ratio. Gauree Tithee Kabir Ji: Page 343 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 13: How does the individual eradicate scepticism?","u":"/arths/#q13","k":"Arths","s":"ਦੁਤੀਆ ਮਾਲਕਉਸਕ ਆਲਾਪਹਿ ॥ Dutiaa Maalkousak Aalaaphi","b":"Dutiaa = duality, Maalkousak = Maal = destroy, Kousak = Kou = there is, Sak = scepticism, Aalaaphi = to say, to speak of Those people who have eradicated duality do not ever speak of any type of scepticism. Once the duality has gone then no scepticism left. ਦੁਬਿਧਾ ਮੇਟਿ ਖਿਮਾ ਗਹਿ ਰਹਹੁ ॥ By listening to the spiritual discourse of the spiritual master the duality of an individual is eradicated while the virtue of piety is adopted. Gauree Thithee Kabir Ji: Page 343 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 14: How does a person control their organs of action?","u":"/arths/#q14","k":"Arths","s":"ਸੰਗਿ ਰਾਗਨੀ ਪਾਚਉ ਥਾਪਹਿ ॥ Raagni Pachou Thaaphi","b":"Sang = with, Raagni = love, Pachou = five organs of action, Thaaphi = control The individual who is orientated toward the spiritual master is able to control the five organs of actions (hands, feet, mouth, anus and genital organ) through love. ਪਾਂਚਉ ਇੰਦ੍ਰੀ ਨਿਗ੍ਰਹ ਕਰਈ ॥ ਪਾਪੁ ਪੁੰਨੁ ਦੋਊ ਨਿਰਵਰਈ ॥੨੭॥ One should prevent the five organs of action from committing sin. If one does this then they will gain knowledge. Once one has gained the knowledge then both sin and good are of no concern to the individual.27. Gauree Baavan Akhree Bhagat Kabir Ji, Page 341 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 15: How does the individual gain the sweet fragrance of meditation?","u":"/arths/#q15","k":"Arths","s":"ਗੋਂਡਕਰੀ ਅਰੁ ਦੇਵਗੰਧਾਰੀ ॥ Gondkaree Aur Devgandharee","b":"Gondkaree = Gond = deliberate, Karee = do, Aur = those, Devgandharee = Dev = illuminate, Gandharee = fragrance Those people who deliberate on the Lord become an illuminated form from within thus becoming one with God. By meditating on God one also gains this sweet fragrance which comes from within the body. ਸਹਜੇ ਹੀ ਭਗਤਿ ਊਪਜੈ ਸਹਜਿ ਪਿਆਰਿ ਬੈਰਾਗਿ ॥ From knowledge a person attains a state of meditation. From the state of peace a person gains love and dispassion. Siree Raag Astpadia Mahalla 3, Page 68 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji ਨਾਮੈ ਸੁਰਤਿ ਵਜੀ ਹੈ ਦਹ ਦਿਸਿ ਹਰਿ ਮੁਸਕੀ ਮੁਸਕ ਗੰਧਾਰੇ ॥੧॥ The name of God is being propagated all over the world through great love and at the same time the sweet fragrance of the Lord is being disseminated through the world. Natt Mahalla 4: Page 981 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji # ARTH (Meanings): Part 2 of 4 (verbatim from Wix, 29 Sep 2026)"},{"t":"Question 16: Explain what knowledge is!","u":"/arths/#q16","k":"Arths","s":"ਗੰਧਾਰੀ ਸੀਹੁਤੀ ਉਚਾਰੀ ॥ Gandharee Seehutee Ucharee","b":"Gandharee = Gandh = nauseating smell, Aree = enemy, Seehutee = is, Ucharee = recite, utter Knowledge is the enemy of the nauseating smell of sin. Knowledge is uttered through the intellect of the saints. Presently the saints utter and recite knowledge and will also do so in the future. ਕਥੀਐ ਸੰਤਸੰਗਿ ਪ੍ਰਭ ਗਿਆਨੁ ॥ One should listen to the exogenesis of the Lord by meeting the saints. By doing this one will gain the knowledge of self realisation. Kaanraa Mahalla 5: Page 1300 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji ਸੋ ਅੰਤਰਿ ਸੋ ਬਾਹਰਿ ਅਨੰਤ ॥ ਘਟਿ ਘਟਿ ਬਿਆਪਿ ਰਹਿਆ ਭਗਵੰਤ ॥ The infinite Lord is within and at the same time the infinite Lord is outside. The Lord is everywhere and is all pervasive. Gauree Sukhmani Mahalla 5: Page 293 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 17: How do we keep our mind free from the hunger for material objects?","u":"/arths/#q17","k":"Arths","s":"ਧਨਾਸਰੀ ਏ ਪਾਚਉ ਗਾਈ ॥ Dhanasree Ei Pachou Gaee","b":"Dhanasree = wish for material objects, Ei = the, Pachou = destroy, Gaee = to sing The mind which wishes for material objects can have its hunger destroyed if the individual sings the true name of God. ਤ੍ਰਿਸਨਾ ਬੁਝੈ ਹਰਿ ਕੈ ਨਾਮਿ ॥ Due to the meditation of the Lords name the hunger for the material pleasures has died. Dhanaasree Mahalla 5: Page 682 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 18: How does the individual get rid of the attachment to Maya, which is known as the illusion?","u":"/arths/#q18","k":"Arths","s":"ਮਾਲ ਰਾਗ ਕਉਸਕ ਸੰਗਿ ਲਾਈ ॥ Maal Raag Kousak Sang Laee","b":"Maal = wealth, riches, Raag = attachment, Kousak = Kou = the, Sak = doubt, Sang = company, Laee = to discard The individual who is orientated toward the spiritual master has discarded the doubt caused by the attachment to riches and wealth. Attachment and wealth are the very form of Maya. They are able to discard this doubt due to the realisation that these material objects are not real because they cannot go with you when you leave this world. ਮਿਥਿਆ ਕਰਿ ਮਾਇਆ ਤਜੀ ਸੁਖ ਸਹਜ ਬੀਚਾਰਿ ॥ The person who takes Maya to be an illusion only and due to this discards it then they will be able to deliberate with a peaceful soul. Bilaaval Bhagat Kabir Ji: Page 857 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 19: How does the mind become carefree?","u":"/arths/#q19","k":"Arths","s":"ਮਾਰੂ ਮਸਤਅੰਗ ਮੇਵਾਰਾ ॥ Maroo Mastaung Mevaraa","b":"Maroo = to destroy, Mast = carefree, Ang = beloved, Me = in the heart, Varaa = to prevent By preventing the mind from indulging carnal desires, by destroying the thirst for desire, the individual meets his Beloved Lord within his heart and becomes carefree. ਹਰਿ ਰਸੁ ਪੀਵੈ ਅਲਮਸਤੁ ਮਤਵਾਰਾ ॥ Whoever drinks the essence of the name of the Lord will become carefree and have a buoyance of spirit from the intoxication. Aasaa Mahalla 5: Page 377 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 20: What is the merit of obtaining knowledge directly from God?","u":"/arths/#q20","k":"Arths","s":"ਪ੍ਰਬਲਚੰਡ ਕਉਸਕ ਉਭਾਰਾ ॥ Parbalchand Kousak Ubharaa.","b":"Parbalchand = Parbal = one with distinctive strength, Chand = intense, Kou = who, Sak = doubt, Ubharaa = raise The individual with the distinctive strength and intense knowledge gained from the spiritual master, who can raise a doubt about this person's knowledgeable soul? It is not possible to deliberate on or understand the knowledge and the merit that such people. ਗਿਆਨ ਖੰਡ ਮਹਿ ਗਿਆਨੁ ਪਰਚੰਡੁ ॥ The people who are in the realm of knowledge have an excess of copious amounts of knowledge. Jap Ji Sahib: Page 7 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji ਮੋਲੁ ਨਾਹੀ ਕਛੁ ਕਰਣੈ ਜੋਗਾ ਕਿਆ ਕੋ ਕਹੈ ਸੁਣਾਵੈ ॥ ਕਥਨ ਕਹਣ ਕਉ ਸੋਝੀ ਨਾਹੀ ਜੋ ਪੇਖੈ ਤਿਸੁ ਬਣਿ ਆਵੈ ॥੨॥ In this spiritual state there is no comprehension to what their knowledge is. What can a person estimate this state at? The person who tries to explain this spiritual state does not have enough knowledge to comprehend it. This is due to the mind of the spiritual individual being in a state of ecstasy. If a person is to look at this person with faith then they will also feel this ecstatic state. Ramkalee Mahalla 5: Page 883 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 21: Who has removed their sensual desires?","u":"/arths/#q21","k":"Arths","s":"ਖਉਖਟ ਅਉ ਭਉਰਾਨਦ ਗਾਏ ॥ Khoukhat Aou Bhouranad Gaaei","b":"KhouKhat = Khou = destroy, Khat = six (these are the 5 abstract elements of the body and the mind making 6), Aou = then, Bhouranad = the students bliss, Gaaei = explain The individual who is orientated toward his spiritual master has destroyed the carnal desires of the five subtle elements and the sixth which is the mind. As the knower of knowledge, the disciple obtains a state of bliss which is impossible to describe. ਲੋਭ ਮੋਹ ਏਹ ਪਰਸਿ ਨ ਸਾਕੈ ਗਹੀ ਭਗਤਿ ਭਗਵਾਨ ॥੧॥ The greed of material objects and attachment to family members cannot touch me as I have adopted the loving devotion of the Lord.1. Basant Mahalla 9: Page 1186 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 22: How does an individual gain virtues?","u":"/arths/#q22","k":"Arths","s":"ਅਸਟ ਮਾਲਕਉਸਕ ਸੰਗਿ ਲਾਏ ॥੧॥ Ast Maalkousak Sang Laee","b":"Ast = eight (truth, content, mercy, faith, reflection, goodness, consciousness and bliss), Maal = property, Kou = why, Sak = doubt, Sang = with, Laee = to have Those people who have made the eight virtues their possessions have no doubt that these are attainable. They do not have any doubts. Due to being exempt from any doubt they have been able to gain these virtues. ਸੰਤ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ਭਏ ਕਿਰਪਾਲਾ ਹੋਏ ਆਪਿ ਸਹਾਇ ॥ ਗੁਨ ਨਿਧਾਨ ਨਿਤਿ ਗਾਵੈ ਨਾਨਕੁ ਸਹਸਾ ਦੁਖੁ ਮਿਟਾਇ ॥੨॥੩੧॥ Due to the kindness of the saints the Lord has graced me. God is the one who has assisted me. Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji state that the Lord is the treasure trove of good virtues should have his praises sung. If the individual is to do this then they will gain virtues, eradicate pain and doubts. Aasaa Mahalla 5: Page 378 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 23: How does a person eradicate ego?","u":"/arths/#q23","k":"Arths","s":"ਪੁਨਿ ਆਇਅਉ ਹਿੰਡੋਲੁ ਪੰਚ ਨਾਰਿ ਸੰਗਿ ਅਸਟ ਸੁਤ ॥ Puni Aaiyou Hindol Panch Naari Sang Ast Sut","b":"Puni = pure, Aaiyou = come, embed, Hindol = Hin = ego, Dol = to lose, Panch = five, Naari = sheaths, Sang = in company, Ast = eight, Sut = properly adjust Those who embed the name of God within their hearts lose their ego. With their five sheaths they contemplate and with the body they have been able to properly adjust these eight to gain praise. The sheaths (kosh) within the body are the following: a) Ananmay: this is the sheath which is the physical body. The body requires nourishment from food. Within the subtle body are three sheaths. b) Praanmay: this is the sheath with five different types of air. These are Praan, Apaan, Samaan, Biyaan and Udiyaan. c) Manmay: this sheath consists of the five organs of action and the mind. d) Vigyaanmay: this sheath consists of the five knowledge organs and the intellect. e) Anandmay: this is the sheath in which the person feels bliss which is usually experienced in the unconscious state. If we take the physical body then there are the 'sat dhaatoo', the seven ingredients which are the following: a) Bone b) Blood c) Flesh d) Fat e) Bile f) Semen g) Nerve tissue God is distinct and separate from the five sheaths and is within the ingredients of the body. In this way God brings glory and praise to the being. The ਪੰਚ ਨਾਰਿ (five practices) are the following: a) Khechree b) Bhoochree c) Chaachree d) Agochree e) Unmanee The ਅਸਟ ਸੁਤ (eight adjusted parts) within the body are the following: a) Praan b) Biyaan c) Sumaan d) Apaan e) Udiyaan f) Ira g) Pingla h) Sukhmana These are the eight that are properly adjusted and in working order. For those who have the pure name of God within their hearts, these five spiritual states are with them and they have complete control over the different types of air in the body. In this way the individual loses his ego. According to the Yoga school of thought the following meanings are given for the five spiritual states: a) Khechree: where the individual can catch the dripping nectar inside him using his tongue. In this state he can disappear into the sky and become invisible. b) Bhoochree: where the individual can gain focus of the Lord in the point between the nose and the brow. This is where the Praan and the Apaan meet. The Apaan immerses into the Praan and the individual gains the state of Samadhi. In this state they can disappear into the earth. c) Chaachree: where the individual can focus on the Lord at the Trikuti which is the point where the nerves merge in the head. This individual can become the form of the Lord. This is where the individual eradicates duality. d) Agochree: where the individual reaches the tenth gate in the body. All of their senses merge into the Anahad shabad. This individual can hide themselves in water. e) Unmanee: where the individual is within the tenth gate and uses the force of their breath to open the vein known as the Brahamrandhra. Only bliss is experienced here. This location is free of objectification and here the Jiv becomes Parmatma. By doing these things the ascetic becomes powerful and has the power to merge with the five elements. However, their subtle and minute forms still remain. The whole point of the yoga process is to become separate from the body. According to the Yoga school of thought the five types of air along with the Ira, Pingla and Sukhmana are: 1) Praan: the air that is the life force. 2) Biyaan: the air in the whole body. 3) Sumaan: the air behind the naval. 4) Apaan: the air within the rectum. 5) Udiyaan: the air within the throat. 6) Ira: the left nerve to the Trikuti which is related to the moon. 7) Pingla: the right nerve to the Trikuti which is related to the sun. 8) Sukhmana: this is where the Ira and Pingla meet. The point where the air rests in the Trikuti is known as the Sukhmana. According the Yoga school of thought if a person eradicates their ego then the five and eight explained above will connect. According to Gurmat the following explanations are given to the thirteen above: a) Khechree: to believe that God is omnipresent in the sky. b) Bhoochree: to contemplate on the enormous form of God. c) Chaachree: to keep the individuals contemplation in the yearning of God. d) Agochree: to overcome the five organs and senses. e) Unmanee: to achieve the state of turiya. Another explanation for these is given below: a) Khechree: one who sings the praises of God in the true congregation. This is the state of Dharam Khand. b) Bhoochree: one who serves through devotion to God. This is the state of Giyaan Khand. c) Chaachree: one who is a disciple of the spiritual master. This is the state of Saram Khand. d) Agochree: one who accepts the will, wish or command of the spiritual master. This is the state of Karam Khand. e) Unmanee: one who is orientated toward the spiritual master. This is the state of Sach Khand. The translations according to Gurmat for the five types of air and the Ira, Pingla and Sukhmana are given below: 1) Praan: where one recognises God. 2) Biyaan: where one is without duality and doubts. 3) Samaan: where one understands that God is omnipresent. 4) Apaan: where one cannot be noticed by the world. 5) Udiyaan: where one understands the world to be the form of death. 6) + 7) Ira: where the stubbornness for desires are discarded (Pingla) by the mind. 8) Sukhmana: one who meditates and brings peace to the mind. With the Ira (left nostril) one should breathe out, in the same way one should discard their bad actions or deeds. With the Pingla (right nostril) one should breathe in, in the same way that one should take the discourses of the spiritual master and embed them within the heart. The Sukhmana is where the breath rests, in the same way the individual take the teachings of the spiritual master within them. ਹਉਮੈ ਦੀਰਘ ਰੋਗੁ ਹੈ ਦਾਰੂ ਭੀ ਇਸੁ ਮਾਹਿ ॥ ਕਿਰਪਾ ਕਰੇ ਜੇ ਆਪਣੀ ਤਾ ਗੁਰ ਕਾ ਸਬਦੁ ਕਮਾਹਿ ॥ ਨਾਨਕੁ ਕਹੈ ਸੁਣਹੁ ਜਨਹੁ ਇਤੁ ਸੰਜਮਿ ਦੁਖ ਜਾਹਿ ॥੨॥ Pride is the biggest illness that a person can have. To eradicate pride is very difficult. The cure to this pride is found"},{"t":"Question 24: How does somebody eradicate the waves of thoughts and doubts within their mind?","u":"/arths/#q24","k":"Arths","s":"ਉਠਹਿ ਤਾਨ ਕਲੋਲ ਗਾਇਨ ਤਾਰ ਮਿਲਾਵਹੀ ॥੧॥ Oothi Taan Kalol Gaiyan Taar Milaavhee","b":"Taan = body, Kalol = resolve, thought, Taar = concentration Those who sing the praises of God whilst concentrating on the Lord will have all of their thoughts disappear from within their mind and body. ਮਾਈ ਮੈ ਧਨੁ ਪਾਇਓ ਹਰਿ ਨਾਮੁ ॥ ਮਨੁ ਮੇਰੋ ਧਾਵਨ ਤੇ ਛੂਟਿਓ ਕਰਿ ਬੈਠੋ ਬਿਸਰਾਮੁ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥ O brother (saints), I have accumulated the wealth of the Lord's name. Due to this my mind has stopped wandering in thoughts and doubts. The mind has now settled and is at peace. The mind is now settled in the true form.1.Pause. Basant Mahalla 9: Page 1186 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 25: Who is able to worship their own soul?","u":"/arths/#q25","k":"Arths","s":"ਤੇਲੰਗੀ ਦੇਵਕਰੀ ਆਈ ॥ Telangee Devkaree Aaee","b":"Telangee = Te = three, Langee = pass, bypass, Dev = worship, Karee = to do Like the individuals who are orientated toward their spiritual master and have bypassed the three virtues of goodness, worldliness and evil, they are able to worship their own soul. They are able to do this as they are one with God and the soul is the form of God. ਤ੍ਰੈ ਗੁਣ ਰਹਤ ਰਹੈ ਨਿਰਾਰੀ ਸਾਧਿਕ ਸਿਧ ਨ ਜਾਨੈ ॥ ਰਤਨ ਕੋਠੜੀ ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤ ਸੰਪੂਰਨ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਕੈ ਖਜਾਨੈ ॥੧॥ The soul is separate from the three virtues of goodness, worldliness and evil. The devotee and the hermits do not know about this fact. This soul is the treasure trove to the good virtues. Due to the bliss from the nectar within, the soul is complete like the Lord.1. Raamkali Mahalla 5: Page 883 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਹੋਵੈ ਸੁ ਪੂਜਾ ਜਾਣੈ ਭਾਣਾ ਮਨਿ ਵਸਾਈ ॥੧੧॥ The devotee orientated towards the spiritual master knows how to worship. The devotee accepts the will of God and lives in accordance to the will.11. Raamkalee Mahalla 3: Page 910 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 26: What merit does the individual gain by accepting the will of God?","u":"/arths/#q26","k":"Arths","s":"ਬਸੰਤੀ ਸੰਦੂਰ ਸੁਹਾਈ ॥ Basantee Sandoor Suhai","b":"Basantee = Basan = lost, Tee = female, Sandoor = Sun = due to belief, Door = away, Suhai = greatest The ignorance, which takes the form of a female, surrenders. The greatest of the temptresses is also known as Maya, with the blessings of the Lord it goes far away from the individual. ਤੇਰਾ ਭਾਣਾ ਮੰਨੇ ਸੁ ਮਿਲੈ ਤੁਧੁ ਆਏ ॥ ਜਿਸੁ ਭਾਣਾ ਭਾਵੈ ਸੋ ਤੁਝਹਿ ਸਮਾਏ ॥ The person who accepts your will O Lord is the one who is able to meet you. The person who accepts and lives in accordance to your command will eventually become your form. Maroo Mahalla 3: Page 1063 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji ਕਹੁ ਨਾਨਕ ਜਿਨਿ ਜਗਤੁ ਠਗਾਨਾ ਸੁ ਮਾਇਆ ਹਰਿ ਜਨ ਠਾਗੀ ॥੨॥੪੪॥੬੭॥ Guru Arjan Dev Ji state that Maya has cheated the people of the world but then she has been cheated by the saints of the world who follow your will.2.44.67. Saarang Mahalla 5: Page 1217 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 27: How can a person become the illuminated form of the Lord?","u":"/arths/#q27","k":"Arths","s":"ਸਰਸ ਅਹੀਰੀ ਲੈ ਭਾਰਜਾ ॥ Saras Aheeree Lai Bharja","b":"Saras = with the help of love, the assistance of love, Aheeree = Ahee = dreams, Ree = sense organs, Lai = destroy, Bharja = Bha = illuminated form, Ja = satisfied, content The individual who is orientated toward his spiritual master is able to destroy the sense organs with the assistance of love. The sense organs are in the metaphorical form of a snake. The individual then becomes the illuminated form of the Lord and becomes content. ਸਾਚੁ ਕਹੋ ਸੁਨ ਲੇਹੁ ਸਭੈ ਜਿਨ ਪ੍ਰੇਮ ਕੀਓ ਤਿਨ ਹੀ ਪ੍ਰਭ ਪਾਇਓ ॥੯॥੨੯॥ I state the truth and all should listen to this advice, if you truly love the Lord then you will become one with God thus becoming the illuminated form.9.29. Tavparsad Savaiyai: Page 110 of the Sri Dasam Granth"},{"t":"Question 28: What do the individuals who are orientated toward their spiritual master focus upon?","u":"/arths/#q28","k":"Arths","s":"ਸੰਗਿ ਲਾਈ ਪਾਂਚਉ ਆਰਜਾ ॥ Sang Laee Panchou Aarja","b":"Sang = with, Laee = remain, Panchou = conscious, Aarja = great The Lord is the form of supreme consciousness is the greatest of all. It is the Lord who the mentioned individuals focus upon. ਨਿਰਭਉ ਹੋਇ ਰਹੇ ਲਿਵ ਏਕੈ ਨਾਨਕ ਹਰਿ ਮਨੁ ਮਾਨੀ ॥੨॥੧॥ Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji states that they have focused their attention on the one Lord and due to this have no fear. Due to this their mind is focused on the Lord.2.1. Todi Mahalla 5: Page 711 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 29: Where does an individual propagate the Lord?","u":"/arths/#q29","k":"Arths","s":"ਸੁਰਮਾਨੰਦ ਭਾਸਕਰ ਆਏ ॥ Surmaanand Bhaaskar Aaie","b":"Surmaanand = Surmaa = black (maya), Nand = son, Bhaaskar = Bhaas = illuminated, Kar = become The son of Maya is the mind of the individual. Once the mind becomes illuminated with the knowledge of God then the Lord can be propagated. ਮਨ ਮਹਿ ਆਪਿ ਮਨ ਅਪੁਨੇ ਮਾਹਿ ॥ God is within the individual and the individual is within God Gauree Sukhmani Mahalla 5: Page 279 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji ਮਨ ਮਹਿ ਜੋਤਿ ਜੋਤਿ ਮਹਿ ਮਨੂਆ ਪੰਚ ਮਿਲੇ ਗੁਰ ਭਾਈ ॥ Those who have listened to the discourse by the superior spiritual master they realise that the Lord is within the individual and the individual is within the Lord. Raamkalee Mahalla 1: Page 879 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 30: What is the nature of the illuminated light in the heart like?","u":"/arths/#q30","k":"Arths","s":"ਚੰਦ੍ਰਬਿੰਬ ਮੰਗਲਨ ਸੁਹਾਏ ॥ Chandarbinb Mangalan Suhai","b":"Chandarbinb = Chandar = moon, Binb = reflection, Mangalan = blissful In the way that the reflection of the moon can be seen in a pitcher of water, similarly the individual who is focused on the spiritual master has the illuminating and blissful light of the Lord within his heart. This is how the illumination can be described. ਹਭ ਸਮਾਣੀ ਜੋਤਿ ਜਿਉ ਜਲ ਘਟਾਊ ਚੰਦ੍ਰਮਾ ॥ The illuminating light of the Lord is embedded within each being. It is similar to the way that all pitchers full of water show a reflection of the moon. Maroo Mahalla 5: Page 1099 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji ਜਿਉ ਪਸਰੀ ਸੂਰਜ ਕਿਰਣਿ ਜੋਤਿ ॥ ਤਿਉ ਘਟਿ ਘਟਿ ਰਮਈਆ ਓਤਿ ਪੋਤਿ ॥੧॥ In the way that the rays of the candles merge into the rays of the sun similarly in the same way the all pervasive Lord is found every-where.1. Basant Mahalla 4: Page 1177 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji # ARTH (Meanings): Part 3 of 4 (verbatim from Wix, 29 Sep 2026)"},{"t":"Question 31: What are the merits that the arrows of love give when striking the individual?","u":"/arths/#q31","k":"Arths","s":"ਸਰਸਬਾਨ ਅਉ ਆਹਿ ਬਿਨੋਦਾ ॥ Sarasbaan Aou Aahi Binoda","b":"Sarasbaan = Saras = with the assistance of love, Baan = arrows, Aou = then, Aahi = is, Binoda = bliss Those individuals who have had their hearts struck by the arrows of love for God have all of their misconceptions about the Lord dispelled. Due to this they gain a state of bliss and nothing but bliss. ਪ੍ਰੇਮ ਕੇ ਸਰ ਲਾਗੇ ਤਨ ਭੀਤਰਿ ਤਾ ਭ੍ਰਮੁ ਕਾਟਿਆ ਜਾਈ ॥੧॥ When the arrows of love strike the abstract body then all of the misconceptions about the Lord disappear.1. Sorath Mahalla 4: Page 607 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 32: What is the merit of singing the praises of God with love?","u":"/arths/#q32","k":"Arths","s":"ਗਾਵਹਿ ਸਰਸ ਬਸੰਤ ਕਮੋਦਾ ॥ Gaavhi Saras Basant Kamoda","b":"Gaavhi = to sing, Saras = with love, Basant = bliss, Kamoda = poets Those who sing the praises of God with love are similar to the poets. In their hearts they gain the bliss from Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji as one would gain radiance from the moon or the sun. ਸਭੇ ਕਾਜ ਸੁਹੇਲੜੇ ਥੀਏ ਗੁਰੁ ਨਾਨਕੁ ਸਤਿਗੁਰੁ ਤੁਠਾ ॥੧॥ If the individual is to sing the praises of God the Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji state they will gain live and bliss within their mind.1. Gauree Mahalla 5: Page 322 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji ਕਈ ਕੋਟਿਕ ਜਗ ਫਲਾ ਸੁਣਿ ਗਾਵਨਹਾਰੇ ਰਾਮ ॥ If a person is to listen and sing the praises of God then they will be rewarded with the penances of completing many ritual sacrifices. Bihaagraa Mahalla 5: Page 546 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 33: What are the practices such as Vairaag and Vivek?","u":"/arths/#q33","k":"Arths","s":"ਅਸਟ ਪੁਤ੍ਰ ਮੈ ਕਹੇ ਸਵਾਰੀ ॥ Ast Puttar Mai Kahe Savaree","b":"Ast = eight, Puttar = pure, Mai = mine, Savaree = to ride These eight are Vairaag, Vivek, Khat Sampatee, Mokh Icha, Sarvan, Manan, Nidhasan and Tat Tvan. It is the pure saints who use these practices which enables them to gain the pure form of the Lord. ਮਨ ਤਨ ਰੰਗਿ ਰਤੇ ਰੰਗ ਏਕੈ ॥ ਨਾਨਕ ਜਨ ਕੈ ਬਿਰਤਿ ਬਿਬੇਕੈ ॥੫॥ Due to the mind one is imbued with the love of one God. Due to the body one is imbued with the love of one God. Due to the love of the one God with both mind and body the individual remains in a state of bliss. Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji states that the attention of the saints with the Lord is one of Vivek. Gauree Sukhmani Mahalla 5: Page 264 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji Vairaag is when a person is able to renounce all of the material objects in the world. It is when a person has no need or desire for anything other then God. It is referred to as dispassion. Vivek is recognising that God is the only true form in the three domains while everything else succumbs to death. Khat Sampatee is made up of six types of techniques which are: a) Sam: controlling one's mind from sensual thoughts. b) Dam: controlling the organs from committing sin. c) Sarda: to have faith. For example to believe that the words of the spiritual master are true and that they help the devotee gain liberation. This is the type of faith which a person should adopt. d) Samadhan: to destroy the restlessness in a person's mind. e) Upram: to control the mind and body from the thirst of sexual engagement. f) Tatichya: this is where a person is able to endure pain, pleasure, thirst, etc. Mokh Icha is when a person desires to become one with God and due to this is becomes liberated from pain and bondage of the world. Sarvan is when one is to have faith in the discourses of the Vedas (discourses of knowledge from scriptures). Following this one should collect their thinking and listen to the name of God. Manan is when one accepts the will of the Lord and devotes his consciousness to the thought of God. Nidhasan is when one focuses their thought and concentration on nothing but the Lord. Tattvan is when to the soul of the individual becomes the same as the Lord. There is no difference left between them."},{"t":"Question 34: What is the reason for the human birth?","u":"/arths/#q34","k":"Arths","s":"ਪੁਨਿ ਆਈ ਦੀਪਕ ਕੀ ਬਾਰੀ ॥੧॥ Pun Aaee Deepak Kee Baree","b":"Pun = cycle, Deepak = illuminated, Baree = human birth Travelling through the cycle of transmigration one is granted a human birth in order to meet the illuminated form of God. ਭਈ ਪਰਾਪਤਿ ਮਾਨੁਖ ਦੇਹੁਰੀਆ ॥ ਗੋਬਿੰਦ ਮਿਲਣ ਕੀ ਇਹ ਤੇਰੀ ਬਰੀਆ ॥ O brother this human life which you have been granted is the greatest of all of the species in the cycle of transmigration. This life has been given for one sole purpose and that is to meet the illuminated form of the God. Aasaa Mahalla 5: Page 12 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 35: How does a person eradicate ignorance?","u":"/arths/#q35","k":"Arths","s":"ਕਛੇਲੀ ਪਟਮੰਜਰੀ ਟੋਡੀ ਕਹੀ ਅਲਾਪਿ ॥ Kachelee Patmanjaree Todee Kahee Alaapi","b":"Kachelee = Ka = defective, evil, Chelee = mind which tricks, Patmanjaree = Pat = to pull up, Man = in the heart, Jaree = fixed, Todee = complete The defective and evil mind that tricks a person through ignorance is fixed in the heart. This ignorance is uprooted and taken out of the heart. The individual who is orientated toward the spiritual master sings the praises of the Lord, who is the form of the supreme consciousness. This individual also makes others sing the praises of God. ਕੁਬੁਧਿ ਮਿਟੈ ਗੁਰ ਸਬਦੁ ਬੀਚਾਰਿ ॥ By deliberating on the holy word the ignorance from the individual is eradicated. Raamkalee Mahalla 1 Sidh Gosht, Page 944 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 36: How does a person gain the supreme intellect?","u":"/arths/#q36","k":"Arths","s":"ਕਾਮੋਦੀ ਅਉ ਗੂਜਰੀ ਸੰਗਿ ਦੀਪਕ ਕੇ ਥਾਪਿ ॥੧॥ Kaamodee Aou Gujree Sang Deepak Ke Thapi","b":"Kaamodee = one who creates lust, such as a poet, Goojree = to give sustenance, Deepak = illuminated form, Thapi = corrected, complete, Aou = then The individuals who are engrossed in the ignorance of the uncontrollable sense organs are creating lust like poets do, they later give sustenance so that the individual becomes the illuminated form of the supreme intellect. In this way the student becomes complete and corrected. ਸੁਕਰਣੀ ਕਾਮਣਿ ਗੁਰ ਮਿਲਿ ਹਮ ਪਾਈ ॥ The individual who meets with the spiritual master learns how to meditate making them superior. Aasaa Mahalla 5: Page 370 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji ਹਮ ਬਾਰਿਕ ਤੂੰ ਗੁਰੁ ਪਿਤਾ ਹੈ ਦੇ ਮਤਿ ਸਮਝਾਏ ॥ We are your children and you are the form of the spiritual master. You are also the form of the father and give us superior intellect to understand you. Aasaa Mahalla 4: Page 450 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 37: Can the undesirable traits be eradicated?","u":"/arths/#q37","k":"Arths","s":"ਕਾਲੰਕਾ ਕੁੰਤਲ ਅਉ ਰਾਮਾ ॥ Kaalanka Kuntal Aou Raamaa","b":"Kaalanka = sin, blemish, Kuntal = black, dark, Aou = then, Raamaa = go away, eradicate The blemishes created by the dark sins are all eradicated. All of the undesirable traits can be eradicated. ਕੋਟਿ ਜਨਮ ਕੇ ਬਿਨਸੇ ਪਾਪ ॥ ਹਰਿ ਹਰਿ ਜਪਤ ਨਾਹੀ ਸੰਤਾਪ ॥ By singing the praises of God the sin from thousands of births is decimated. By singing the praises of the Lord the individual feels no more pain. Raamkalee Mahalla 5: Page 897 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 38: How does consciousness become pure?","u":"/arths/#q38","k":"Arths","s":"ਕਮਲਕੁਸਮ ਚੰਪਕ ਕੇ ਨਾਮਾ ॥ Kamalkusam Chanpak Ke Naamaa","b":"Kamalkusam = Kamal = lotus, Kusam = flowers, Chanpak = tree bearing yellow flowers, Ke = to do, Naamaa = God's name By mediating and repeating the name of God the individual becomes like lotus blossom, unattached from the world mentally and at the same time like a tree bearing flowers while remaining pure. ਨਾਮਿ ਜਿਸੈ ਕੈ ਊਜਲੀ ਤਿਸੁ ਦਾਸੀ ਗਨੀਆ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥ By meditating on the name of God my consciousness has become purified. I consider myself as self obedient.1.Pause. Aasaa Mahalla 5: Page 400 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 39: What is the greatest thing in the heart of an individual who is orientated toward the spiritual master?","u":"/arths/#q39","k":"Arths","s":"ਗਉਰਾ ਅਉ ਕਾਨਰਾ ਕਲ੍ਯ੍ਯਾਨਾ ॥ Gaura Aou Kaanra Kalaanaa","b":"Gaura = praise, Aou = and, Kaanra = Kaa = peaceful form, Nra = endless form, Kalaanaa = liberated form Within the heart of the disciple orientated towards the spiritual master is the praise of God. They take the peaceful and endless form of God within them and obtain the liberated form. ਸਭ ਵਡਿਆਈਆ ਹਰਿ ਨਾਮ ਵਿਚਿ ਹਰਿ ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਧਿਆਈਐ ॥ Within the name of God you can find the praise of the Lord. For this reason the individual should adopt the name of god from the spiritual master. Bilaaval Mahalla 3: Page 850 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 40: How does a person gain the wealth of the name of God?","u":"/arths/#q40","k":"Arths","s":"ਅਸਟ ਪੁਤ੍ਰ ਦੀਪਕ ਕੇ ਜਾਨਾ ॥੧॥ Ast Puttar Deepak Ke Jaanaa","b":"A = without, St = in exchange, Puttar = pure, Deepak = knowledge, Ke = to, Jaanaa = realise The merit of fruit gained cannot be exchanged for the name of God. God can only be realised through the knowledge of the name. Without this knowledge one cannot repeat or know the name of God. ਕੰਚਨ ਸਿਉ ਪਾਈਐ ਨਹੀ ਤੋਲਿ ॥ ਮਨੁ ਦੇ ਰਾਮੁ ਲੀਆ ਹੈ ਮੋਲਿ ॥੧॥ O King you cannot use your weight in gold in order to meet the Lord. You can meet the Lord by giving your body and mind to the spiritual master who will then exchange it for the wealth of the name of God.1. Gauree Kabir Ji: Page 327 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 41: How do the saints sing the praises of God?","u":"/arths/#q41","k":"Arths","s":"ਸਭ ਮਿਲਿ ਸਿਰੀਰਾਗ ਵੈ ਗਾਵਹਿ ॥ Sabh Mil Sireeraag Vai Gaavhi","b":"Sabh = all, Mil = join, Sireeraag = Siree = great, Raag = love, Vai = of the Lord, Gaavhi = sing The saints all join together to sing the praises of God with great love. ਗੁਰ ਪਰਸਾਦੀ ਜੈਦੇਉ ਨਾਮਾਂ ॥ ਭਗਤਿ ਕੈ ਪ੍ਰੇਮਿ ਇਨ ਹੀ ਹੈ ਜਾਨਾਂ ॥੫॥ Through the grace of the spiritual master the saints such as Jaidev and Namdev sing the praises of the Lord with love until they realised the Lord.5. Gauree Gauraeree Bhagat Kabir Ji, Page 330 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 42: How does one meet God within the heart?","u":"/arths/#q42","k":"Arths","s":"ਪਾਂਚਉ ਸੰਗਿ ਬਰੰਗਨ ਲਾਵਹਿ ॥ Paanchou Sang Barangan Laavhi","b":"Paanchou = conscious Lord, Barangan = Bar = great, Angan = heart By meeting the great saints one can meet God and place the conscious Lord within the heart. ਇਹੁ ਤਨੁ ਵੇਚੀ ਸੰਤ ਪਹਿ ਪਿਆਰੇ ਪ੍ਰੀਤਮੁ ਦੇਇ ਮਿਲਾਇ ॥੩॥ O beloved, I have sold this body to the saints and due to this I have met the Lord within. Aasaa Mahalla 4 Bihaagra: Page 431 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 43: How does one gain complete merit?","u":"/arths/#q43","k":"Arths","s":"ਬੈਰਾਰੀ ਕਰਨਾਟੀ ਧਰੀ ॥ Bairaaree Karnaatee Dharee","b":"Bairaaree = poverty which is the destroyer of enmity, Karnaatee = complete grace, Dharee = to adopt Those people who have adopted the grace of the spiritual master and become pure will gain complete merit. ਸਹਜ ਸੁਹੇਲਾ ਫਲੁ ਮਸਕੀਨੀ ॥ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਅਪੁਨੈ ਮੋਹਿ ਦਾਨੁ ਦੀਨੀ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥ If a person is to adopt the virtue of humility then they will be awarded with inner peace. The true spiritual master has granted me this virtue.1.Pause. Gauree Guaraeree Mahalla 5: Page 235 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 44: Whose glory is being sung in all of creation?","u":"/arths/#q44","k":"Arths","s":"ਗਵਰੀ ਗਾਵਹਿ ਆਸਾਵਰੀ ॥ Gavree Gaavhi Aasaavaree","b":"Gavree = focused intellect (Parbati), Gaavhi = to sing, Aasaavaree = Aasaa = hope, Varee = to invite Those people who sing the praises of God with the focused intellect also invite hope. All of the demi gods such as the goddess Parbati sing the praises of God's glory. ਮਮਤਾ ਜਾਲ ਤੇ ਰਹੈ ਉਦਾਸਾ ॥ ਪ੍ਰਣਵਤਿ ਨਾਨਕ ਹਮ ਤਾ ਕੇ ਦਾਸਾ ॥੨੦॥੧॥ If a person remains disassociated from the web of attachment then they will become the form of God. Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji state that they are singing the praises of the Lord. Bilaaval Mahalla 1 Tithee: Page 840 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 45: How does one eradicate desires?","u":"/arths/#q45","k":"Arths","s":"ਤਿਹ ਪਾਛੈ ਸਿੰਧਵੀ ਅਲਾਪੀ ॥ Tih Paachai Sidhvee Alaapee","b":"Tih = desires, Paachai = away from, Sindhvee = Sindh = ocean, Vee = like, Alaapee = praise The saints who have pushed the desires away from themselves, their praise and glory is difficult to comprehend similar to expounding the praise of the huge ocean. They understand the Lord's vastness like the ocean and sing His praises. By doing this they were able to eradicate their thirst for desires. ਤ੍ਰਿਸਨਾ ਅਗਨਿ ਪ੍ਰਭਿ ਆਪਿ ਬੁਝਾਈ ॥ ਨਾਨਕ ਉਧਰੇ ਪ੍ਰਭ ਸਰਣਾਈ ॥੫॥੧॥੫੫॥ Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji state that if a person comes in the shelter of the Lord then the fire of desire and greed will be extinguished by the Lord. This individual then crosses the worldly ocean.5.1.55. Dhanasree Mahalla 5: Page 684 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji ਤ੍ਰਿਸਨਾ ਬੁਝੈ ਹਰਿ ਕੈ ਨਾਮਿ ॥ Through the singing of God's name the fire of desire and greed can be extinguished. Dhanasree Mahalla 5: Page 682 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji # ARTH (Meanings): Part 4 of 4 (verbatim from Wix, 29 Sep 2026)"},{"t":"Question 46: How does one eradicate distress?","u":"/arths/#q46","k":"Arths","s":"ਸਿਰੀਰਾਗ ਸਿਉ ਪਾਂਚਉ ਥਾਪੀ ॥੧॥ Sireeraag Sio Paanchou Thaapee","b":"Sireeraag = Siree = the greatest, Raag = love, Paanchou = five things that cause distress, Thaapee = prevent Those who have complete love with God who is greater then all, are able to prevent the five causes of distress affecting the individual's concentration. The five causes of distress (five Kalesha) are: a) Avidiya: ignorance to the illumination of the soul. b) Asamita: being unable to control the concentration also known as egoism. c) Raag: attachment. d) Dvaikh: enmity. e) Abhinivesh: to cling onto life and fear death. ਕਲੀ ਕਾਲ ਕੇ ਮਿਟੇ ਕਲੇਸਾ ॥ ਏਕੋ ਨਾਮੁ ਮਨ ਮਹਿ ਪਰਵੇਸਾ ॥੧॥ Within the age of Kaljug all of the causes of distress have been eradicated. These will be eradicated if a person has the name of God forever in their mind.1. Soohee Mahalla 5: Page 744 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 47: How is God omnipotent?","u":"/arths/#q47","k":"Arths","s":"ਸਾਲੂ ਸਾਰਗ ਸਾਗਰਾ ਅਉਰ ਗੋਂਡ ਗੰਭੀਰ ॥ Saaloo Saarag Saagraa Aour Gond Ganbheer","b":"Saaloo = home, Saarag = Saar = superior, Ag = eclipse, Saagraa = ocean, Aur = outside, Gond = to eulogise, to comprehend, Ganbheer = deep God is the house that is superior and eulogises all else. Looking at the Lord one sees the great deity as the deepest ocean when eulogising and expounding the virtues of the Lord. The Lord is like a house and provides shelter. God is superior and the knower of all. He is endless like an ocean. God can be found in nature and is omnipresent in all creation. ਉਦਕ ਸਮੁੰਦ ਸਲਲ ਕੀ ਸਾਖਿਆ ਨਦੀ ਤਰੰਗ ਸਮਾਵਹਿਗੇ ॥ ਸੁੰਨਹਿ ਸੁੰਨੁ ਮਿਲਿਆ ਸਮਦਰਸੀ ਪਵਨ ਰੂਪ ਹੋਇ ਜਾਵਹਿਗੇ ॥੧॥ The ocean is the Lord and the pond, rivers, waves are all the individuals. When the ignorance is removed one realises the individuals are the same as the Lord proving tha God is omnipotent. When one realises all the forms are the same then the forms all become part of the Lord.1. Maaroo Bhagat Kabir Ji: Page 1103 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 48: Who is a brave warrior?","u":"/arths/#q48","k":"Arths","s":"ਅਸਟ ਪੁਤ੍ਰ ਸ੍ਰੀਰਾਗ ਕੇ ਗੁੰਡ ਕੁੰਭ ਹਮੀਰ ॥੧॥ Ast Puttar Sreeraag Ke Gund Kunbh Hameer","b":"Ast = eight, Puttar = pure, Sreeraag = great love, Gund = given, granted, Kunbh = body, Hameer = warrior The eight limbs of yoga are the beloved of the great Lord. These eight limbs make a person pure. If while in the human birth granted to us one defeats the enemy known as ignorance and becomes a warrior. In the human birth which has been granted one destroys pride and becomes a brave warrior. Such an individual is regarded as a brave warrior. ਨਾਨਕ ਸੋ ਸੂਰਾ ਵਰੀਆਮੁ ਜਿਨਿ ਵਿਚਹੁ ਦੁਸਟੁ ਅਹੰਕਰਣੁ ਮਾਰਿਆ ॥ ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਸਾਲਾਹਿ ਜਨਮੁ ਸਵਾਰਿਆ ॥ Guru Amardas Ji states that a true warrior is one who destroys the enemy of pride within their heart. The devotee who is orientated towards the spiritual master praises the true name of God and makes his birth worthwhile. Sireeraag Mahalla 3: Page 86 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji The eight limbs of Yoga are: 1) Yam: these are the methods of self control. In the yoga school of thought these are ten which are: a) Ahimsa: this is non violence. There are three types of this: i) To consciously not think of bad thoughts. ii) Not to talk abruptly or rudely. iii) Not harm another human being. b) Sach: to never tell a lie and to always speak the truth. c) Chori: to refrain from committing theft. One should not hide their sins. d) Jatt: to refrain from sexual pleasures. There are in total eight methods of restraint for this which are: i) Not to talk about sex. ii) Not to listen to any conversation about sex. iii) Not meeting another person in seclusion. iv) Not to touch another's limbs. v) Not looking at another with love and affection. vi) Not putting another close to your heart. vii) Not to consciously think of another. viii) Not to copulate. e) Dheeraj: to have tranquillity, to treat both pleasure and pain as the same. f) Khima: to be merciful and forgiving. Not to hold a grudge and not to judge others. g) Daya: to be merciful and by seeing another person in pain one should take pity and offer help. h) Komal Hirda: to have a delicate heart and to give to others good discourses. i) Maryada Bhojan: to only eat food according to their religious code of conduct. j) Ishnaan: bathing the body with water and washing the attachment and enmity from the mind. These are the 10 methods of self control. 2) Niyam: these are the daily or regular practices. Again according to the Yoga school of thought there are ten. These are ten: a) Tap: to meditate. Again there are three different types of meditation which are the following: i) Tamsee: to remain hungry or to be surrounded by fire whilst meditating. ii) Rajsee: to do selfless service and refrain from sexual desires. iii) Santkee: to put all of your concentration into the recitation of the name of God. b) Santokh: to be content with the will of God and to see both pain and pleasure in the same light. c) Aastak: to keep faith in the teachings of the spiritual master. d) Daan: to give to charity. Again there are three types which are: i) Tamsee: when one gives whilst angered. ii) Rajsee: to give in order to gain praise. iii) Santkee: to donate in the name of God submitting to the divine will. This is to donate out of humility. e) Pooja: to worship with complete faith in the heart. f) Paath: to recite the prayers given by the spiritual master. g) Binna Danbh: when one serves the spiritual master by making themselves pure. h) Santkee Brit: to be humble and speak sweetly. i) Abol: where one does not speak until they have read their prayers. j) Hom: to feed the poor. 3) Aasan: this is the sitting posture. 4) Pranayam: system of breathing techniques and practice. 5) Pratiahaar: by restraining the five sense organs and keeping desires from the mind, one focuses on spiritual reflection. 6) Dharna: to bring the mind's thoughts together and to focus upon God. 7) Dhyan: to keep the focus upon the words of the spiritual master. 8) Samadh: to sit in complete concentration on the Lord without any thought affecting them. According to Gurmat the eight limbs are interpreted differently as explained below: 1) Yam: to remain humble. 2) Niyam: to daily or regularly go into the true congregation. To listen to the hymns of God with a focused mind and the reading of prayers. 3) Ikaant Desh: to see God within all and realising that he is omnipresent. To make the desires subtle and live in spiritual reflection. 4) Aasan: to sit whilst focused on the timeless Lord. 5) Pranayam: there are three types of breathing which are: i) Poorak: to listen to the discourses of the spiritual master and internalise them, making the teaching blossom. ii) Kunbhak: the spiritual objective, when one keeps the teachings within the heart and renounces all while meditating. To keep the name of God within the mind. iii) Rechak: whatever the true spiritual master says to renounce, the individual should do so without feeling hurt. 6) Dhyan: when hearing or reciting Gurbani one should put completely focus upon this. 7) Dharna: when the mind gets lost in thoughts one should recite the name of God in order to recollect their thoughts. 8) Samadhi: when the mind is able to focus on God for a long period of time so that they can eradicate ego and become one with God. These are the eight limbs of yoga according to Gurmat."},{"t":"Question 49: Who sings the praises of the spiritual master?","u":"/arths/#q49","k":"Arths","s":"ਖਸਟਮ ਮੇਘ ਰਾਗ ਵੈ ਗਾਵਹਿ ॥ Khastam Megh Raag Vai Gaavhi","b":"Khastam = the six Jatees (Gorakh, Bhisham, Bhairou, Dattatreya, Hanuman and Laxman[6]), Megh = cloud [6] Laxman was married however he accompanied Sri Ram Chandar during his 14 years in exile without his wife. During this time he remained a celibate and for this reason is considered one of the six Jatees. The six Jatees are in love with the spiritual master who is the form of a cloud. They sing his praises constantly. Through the mind, body, the holy word and through the three time periods these six individuals with love for the spiritual master sing His praises. They also constantly sing the praises of God. ਗਾਵਹਿ ਜਨਕਾਦਿ ਜੁਗਤਿ ਜੋਗੇਸੁਰ ਹਰਿ ਰਸ ਪੂਰਨ ਸਰਬ ਕਲਾ ॥ ਗਾਵਹਿ ਸਨਕਾਦਿ ਸਾਧ ਸਿਧਾਦਿਕ ਮੁਨਿ ਜਨ ਗਾਵਹਿ ਅਛਲ ਛਲਾ ॥ ਗਾਵੈ ਗੁਣ ਧੋਮੁ ਅਟਲ ਮੰਡਲਵੈ ਭਗਤਿ ਭਾਇ ਰਸੁ ਜਾਣਿਓ ॥ ਕਬਿ ਕਲ ਸੁਜਸੁ ਗਾਵਉ ਗੁਰ ਨਾਨਕ ਰਾਜੁ ਜੋਗੁ ਜਿਨਿ ਮਾਣਿਓ ॥੩॥ Great sages all meet up together such as King Janak and sing the praises of the Lord who is all powerful. The four sons of Brahma and the saints from the Himalayan mountains are all singing the praises of the Lord. Many more saints sing the praises of the Lord who cannot be tricked. The devotees who have sung the praises of the Lord with love such as Bhagat Dhru are still singing his praises. The poet Kal says the form of the Lord is in actual fact Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji and all should sing his praises. Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji is the one who accepted the blissful meditation of the Lord. 3. Savaiyai Mahalla 1 Ke: Page 1389 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 50: How does the individual make the mind superior?","u":"/arths/#q50","k":"Arths","s":"ਪਾਂਚਉ ਸੰਗਿ ਬਰੰਗਨ ਲਾਵਹਿ ॥ Paanchou Sang Barangan Laavhi","b":"Paanchou = five elements, Sang = with, Barangan = Bar = superior, Angan = within the heart The mind is made up of the five elements and the virtue of Sato. By mixing with the true congregation one takes the goodness into the heart making them superior. In this way it also goes into the mind. ਨਿਰਮਲ ਹੰਸਾ ਪ੍ਰੇਮ ਪਿਆਰਿ ॥ ਹਰਿ ਸਰਿ ਵਸੈ ਹਉਮੈ ਮਾਰਿ ॥ Those individuals who have humility in their mind such as the saints have love for God. They have killed off the ego and due to this they reside in the ocean known as the Lord. Maajh Mahalla 3: Page 128 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 51: How does one become dispassionate?","u":"/arths/#q51","k":"Arths","s":"ਸੋਰਠਿ ਗੋਂਡ ਮਲਾਰੀ ਧੁਨੀ ॥ Sorath Gond Malaaree Dhunee","b":"Sorath = intellect, Gond = to meet, Malaaree = the destroyer of sin (Vairaag, dispassion), Dhunee = to say When good intellect and dispassion meet together then the powers of God are described and recited. One becomes dispassionate in this way. ਗੁਰ ਕੀ ਬਾਣੀ ਸਹਜ ਬੈਰਾਗੁ ॥੪॥੭॥ From the holy words of the true spiritual master the individual gains knowledge and dispassion.4.7. Wadhans Mahalla 3: Page 560 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 52: How do you sing the praises of God through reflecting on the Lord?","u":"/arths/#q52","k":"Arths","s":"ਪੁਨਿ ਗਾਵਹਿ ਆਸਾ ਗੁਨ ਗੁਨੀ ॥ Pun Gaavhi Aasaa Gun Gunee","b":"Pun = again and again, Gaavhi = to sing, Gun = by reflecting, Gunee = knowledgeable, Aasaa = hope Again and again the individual reflects on the Lord as the form of hope and sings the praises of the Lord who has complete knowledge. ਗਿਆਨੀਆ ਅੰਦਰਿ ਗੁਰ ਸਬਦੁ ਹੈ ਨਿਤ ਹਰਿ ਲਿਵ ਸਦਾ ਵਿਗਾਸੁ ॥ Within the heart of the intellectuals is the spiritual discourse of the spiritual master. These individuals have a focused attention on the Lord and due to forever remain bloomed like a blossoming flower. Salok Vaaraa Te Vadeek: Page 1415 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 53: Do the demi gods also sing the praises of the Lord?","u":"/arths/#q53","k":"Arths","s":"ਊਚੈ ਸੁਰਿ ਸੂਹਉ ਪੁਨਿ ਕੀਨੀ ॥ Oochai Sur Soohou Pun Keenee","b":"Oochai = highest, Sur = demi gods, Soohou = praise, Pun = again and again, repeatedly The demi gods also sing the praises of the highest and greatest Lord repeatedly. ਬ੍ਰਹਮਾਦਿਕ ਸਿਵ ਛੰਦ ਮੁਨੀਸੁਰ ਰਸਕਿ ਰਸਕਿ ਠਾਕੁਰ ਗੁਨ ਗਾਵਤ ॥ The demi gods such as Brahma, Vishnu Shiva, etc and the all of the great Muni's come together and sing the praises of the Lord. Sawaiyai Sri Mukhbaak Mahalla 5, Page 1388 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 54: How have the Sikhs understood God?","u":"/arths/#q54","k":"Arths","s":"ਮੇਘ ਰਾਗ ਸਿਉ ਪਾਂਚਉ ਚੀਨੀ ॥੧॥ Megh Raag Sio Panchou Cheenee","b":"Megh = cloud, Raag = love, Sio = with, Panchou = greatest Lord The cloud of love who is the spiritual master, by meeting him one learns to understand God who is the greatest of all. ਮੋਲਿ ਅਮੋਲੁ ਨ ਪਾਇਆ ਜਾਈ ਕਰਿ ਕਿਰਪਾ ਗੁਰੂ ਦਿਵਾਇਆ ਥਾ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥ From a fixed price to being priceless cannot be determined by the individual but through the spiritual master who can grace the individual they can realise the Lord. Pause. Maroo Mahalla 5: Page 1002 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 55: How does the individual control the mind?","u":"/arths/#q55","k":"Arths","s":"ਬੈਰਾਧਰ ਗਜਧਰ ਕੇਦਾਰਾ ॥ Bairaadhar Gajdhar Kedaaraa","b":"Bairaadhar = Bairaa = holy scriptures, holy words, Dhar = to adopt, Gajdhar = to capture an elephant (mind), Kedaaraa = Ke = what, Daaraa = fear When the mind adopts the holy word from the scriptures then the mind, which is similar to an elephant, can be captured. Once the mind is captured by adopting the holy word then there is no fear of death. ਬਾਣੀ ਰੋਕਿਆ ਰਹੈ ਦੁਆਰ ॥ ਤਉ ਮਨੁ ਮਤਵਾਰੋ ਪੀਵਨਹਾਰ ॥੨॥ One should use the holy word to prevent the mind and organs from refraining from sinful acts and thoughts. Gauree Kee Vaar Bhagat Kabir Ji, Page 344 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 56: How do the soul and God become one? How do the disciple and the spiritual master become one?","u":"/arths/#q56","k":"Arths","s":"ਜਬਲੀਧਰ ਨਟ ਅਉ ਜਲਧਾਰਾ ॥ Jableedhar Nat Aou Jaldhaaraa","b":"Jableedhar = Jab = when, Lee = to destroy, Dhar = to adopt, Nat = God, Aou = then, Jaldhaaraa = cloud (spiritual master) The rain bird collects the rain showered by the rain cloud. The Sikh metaphorically is the rain bird collecting the teachings showered by the spiritual master who is the metaphorical cloud. When concentration is able to destroy the ego, the spiritual master who is the form of God, helps the disciple become one and the same with the spiritual teachings. ਏਕਲ ਚਿੰਤਾ ਰਾਖੁ ਅਨੰਤਾ ਅਉਰ ਤਜਹੁ ਸਭ ਆਸਾ ਰੇ ॥ ਪ੍ਰਣਵੈ ਨਾਮਾ ਭਏ ਨਿਹਕਾਮਾ ਕੋ ਠਾਕੁਰੁ ਕੋ ਦਾਸਾ ਰੇ ॥੨॥੩॥ O brother, you should meditate on the Lord and keep him in your consciousness as he has infinite virtues. Bhagat Namdev Ji states that through the meditation of the Lord I have no wishes left. Due to the divine knowledge I have destroyed duality and see nothing but God.2.3. Malee Guaraa Bhagat Namdev Ji, Page 988 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 57: Who do the demi gods such as Shiva and Vishnu sing praises of?","u":"/arths/#q57","k":"Arths","s":"ਪੁਨਿ ਗਾਵਹਿ ਸੰਕਰ ਅਉ ਸਿਆਮਾ ॥ Pun Gaavhi Sankar Aou Siyaamaa","b":"Pun = again and again, Gaavhi = sing, Sankar = Shiva, liberator, Aou = and, Siyaamaa = Krishna Again and again the demi Gods such as Shiva and Vishnu sing the praises of God who is the form of supreme truth, consciousness and bliss. Krishna and Ram Chandar sing the praises of the beautiful liberating Lord. ਬ੍ਰਹਮਾ ਬਿਸਨੁ ਰਿਖੀ ਮੁਨੀ ਸੰਕਰੁ ਇੰਦੁ ਤਪੈ ਭੇਖਾਰੀ ॥ ਮਾਨੈ ਹੁਕਮੁ ਸੋਹੈ ਦਰਿ ਸਾਚੈ ਆਕੀ ਮਰਹਿ ਅਫਾਰੀ ॥ Brahma, Vishnu, the Rishis, the Muni's, Shiva are singing the praises of the Lord and have become beggars at his door. Those people who accept the will of God will gain honour and glory. Those who are not rigid and do not sing the praises of the Lord die in pain. Maroo Mahalla 1: Page 992 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 58: How many people did Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji make pure and liberate?","u":"/arths/#q58","k":"Arths","s":"ਮੇਘ ਰਾਗ ਪੁਤ੍ਰਨ ਕੇ ਨਾਮਾ ॥੧॥ Megh Raag Puttran Ke Naamaa","b":"Megh = Cloud (Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji), Raag = love, Puttran = pure Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji manifested into a form similar to that of a cloud. In this form he liberated and made countless numbers of people pure by enabling them to become engrossed in the love for God. Guru Nanak Dev Ji was also in love with the name of God such as 'Satnam' and 'Waheguru'. ਖੰਡ ਬ੍ਰਹਮੰਡ ਬੇਅੰਤ ਉਧਾਰਣਹਾਰਿਆ ॥ ਤੇਰੀ ਸੋਭਾ ਤੁਧੁ ਸਚੇ ਮੇਰੇ ਪਿਆਰਿਆ ॥੧੨॥ O Lord of infinite forms, you have saved the solar systems and galaxies. You are the one who cares for all. You are the one who creates your own praise and honour.12. Raamkalee Mahalla 5: Page 963 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji"},{"t":"Question 59: Can you name some of those individuals who sing the names of God?","u":"/arths/#q59","k":"Arths","s":"ਖਸਟ ਰਾਗ ਉਨਿ ਗਾਏ ਸੰਗਿ ਰਾਗਨੀ ਤੀਸ ॥ Khast Raag Unn Gai Sang Raagnee Tees","b":"Khast = six (the five abstract elements and the consciousness), Raag = love, Unn = the Lord, Gai = sing, Sang = with, Tees = thirty (27 Simratees and 3 domains) The five abstract elements and the consciousness sing the praises of God with love. Also the twenty seven Simratees and the three domains sing of the praises of God with love. ਖਟੁ ਭੀ ਏਕਾ ਬਾਤ ਵਖਾਨਹਿ ॥ The six Shastars only speak of the one Lord. Raamkalee Mahalla 5: Page 885 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji ਰਾਗ ਰਤਨ ਪਰਵਾਰ ਪਰੀਆ ਸਬਦ ਗਾਵਣ ਆਈਆ ॥ The musical melodies are like jewels that have come with their complete families into the presence of the spiritual master and sing the praises of God. Raamkalee Mahalla 3 Anand Sahib, Page 917 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji ਸਿਮਰੈ ਧਰਤੀ ਅਰੁ ਆਕਾਸਾ ॥ ਸਿਮਰਹਿ ਚੰਦ ਸੂਰਜ ਗੁਣਤਾਸਾ ॥ ਪਉਣ ਪਾਣੀ ਬੈਸੰਤਰ ਸਿਮਰਹਿ ਸਿਮਰੈ ਸਗਲ ਉਪਾਰਜਨਾ ॥੧॥ O Lord the earth and skies meditate on your name. O Lord the true virtues, the sun and the moon meditate on your name. The wind, water and fire all meditate on your name.1. The continents, the seas and all the people of the world are meditating on your name. Maroo Solhe Mahalla 5: Page 1078 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji The twenty seven Simrates are the following: Manoo, Yagvalakya, Laghuatree, Atree, Vridh Atree, Vishnu, Laghhareet, Vridhhareet, Aushnas, Aagirdh, Yam, Aap Satamb, Sanvarat, Katyayan, Brihaspat, Parasur, Vrihat, Parasuri, Biyas, Laghuvasak, Shankh, Likhat, Dakh, Gautam, Vivad Gautam, Santatap, Vashisht and Palsat. There are four other scriptures which are considered as Simratees which are the following: Budh, Kashap, Narad and Aushnas Simratee. The three domains are the following: the Heavens, Earth and the underworlds."},{"t":"Question 60: When all of the desires are eradicated, how does a person gain peace?","u":"/arths/#q60","k":"Arths","s":"ਸਭੈ ਪੁਤ੍ਰ ਰਾਗੰਨ ਕੇ ਅਠਾਰਹ ਦਸ ਬੀਸ ॥੧॥੧॥ Sabhai Puttar Raagan Ke Atharah Das Bees","b":"Sabhai = all, saints, Puttar = pure, Raagan = love, Atharah = eighteen (18) Purans, Das = ten (10) manifestations (6 Shastars and 4 Vedas), Bees = to have faith Due to the saints having such faith in the Lord they have become pure. Due to the love of God they have bypassed the eighteen Purans, the six Shastars, the four Vedas and have complete faith in the Lord. Those people who have sung his praises with love are able to propagate the Lord. Due to the fear of God they love the Lord and become pure. Due to the distinctive Lord they find peace and tranquillity. By having faith of the Lord within the heart one gains the knowledge of God. ਬੀਸ ਬਿਸਵੇ ਗੁਰ ਕਾ ਮਨੁ ਮਾਨੈ ॥ They have complete faith within their mind on the spiritual name of God given to the devotee by the spiritual master. Gauree Sukhmani Mahalla 5: Page 287 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji ਬੀਸ ਸਪਤਾਹਰੋ ਬਾਸਰੋ ਸੰਗ੍ਰਹੈ ਤੀਨਿ ਖੋੜਾ ਨਿਤ ਕਾਲੁ ਸਾਰੈ ॥ ਦਸ ਅਠਾਰ ਮੈ ਅਪਰੰਪਰੋ ਚੀਨੈ ਕਹੈ ਨਾਨਕੁ ਇਵ ਏਕੁ ਤਾਰੈ ॥੩॥੨੬॥ Collect the Simratees which are twenty seven in number as they sing the praises of the Lord. The six Shastars, the four Vedas along with the eighteen Purans one should realise the Lord who also is complete. Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji state that is somebody has faith in all of these then they will gain peace and be saved. Sree Raag Mahalla 1: Page 23 of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji The eighteen Purans are the following: Matas, Markanday, Bhavikhat, Bhagvat, Brahm, Brahmand, Brahm Varat, Vaman, Vayoo, Vrah, Agni, Narad, Padam, Ling, Gurur, Kooram and Sakand. The six Shastars are the following: Vedant, Nyai, Yog, Mimansa, Visheshak and Sankh. The four Vedas are the following: Rig, Yujar, Atharv and Sham. This is the end of the section on the intricate and spiritual meanings of the Sri Raagmala."},{"t":"The spiritual meanings of Raagmala: introduction and commentary","u":"/arths/","k":"Arths","s":"Original arths by Sant Giani Sundar Singh Ji Bhindranwale, written down by Sant Giani Gurbachan Singh Ji Bhindranwale and translated into english by Kamalpreet Singh Pardeshi.","b":"The Raagmala contains the names of the six male musical measures, the thirty female partners of the musical measures and the names of the forty eight sons. All eighty four of these musical measures came to visit Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji when he was nearing the completion of the Aad Granth [1], when they came to see Guru Arjan Dev Ji they came with great enthusiasm. When the Aad Granth was completed, it was read and recited in its completion. Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji told the Sikhs that henceforth from that day the completion of the prayers of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji would occur after reading the Raagmala. If one is to do this then their bondage and suffering during the cycle of transmigration would come to an end. Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji wrote the completed Granth of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji starting from Ik Onkar to Atharah Das Bees and bestowed the title of Guru upon the sacred scriptures. The Guru is eternal and will forever guide the future generations. Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji was compiling and creating the Aad Granth and when he was close to completion the 'Mundaavani' was being written. At that moment the congregation clasped their hands and made a sweet humbling request to the Guru, \"You are close to the completion of the compilation of the holy scriptures. Please create a rosary for us by which we will never need to keep coming or going in the cycle of transmigration.\" After hearing this Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji created the prayer called the 'Raagmala'. The Sikh prayer is composed of the answers given by Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji to the questions asked by the Sikhs. Also under each answer you will find further quotations from Gurbani to support the answer given by Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji to show that the spiritual content in the Raagmala is the same as that found in the rest of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji."},{"t":"Where Raagmala appears: the historic Birs","u":"/evidence/","k":"Evidence","s":"Kartarpuri Bir, Bhai Banno, Damdami Bir, Baba Deep Singh Ji's Saroops","b":"Evidence Raagmala in the handwritten Birs Before the printing press, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji was copied by hand. Raagmala is found in those Saroops, in the same hand, ink and paper as the Bani around it, and listed in their indexes. This page collects the photographs we have, and what the historic Birs record. Handwritten Aad Granth, sealed 'Raagmala Mahalla Panjva': the heading attributes the composition to the fifth Guru, Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji. Where Raagmala appears The Kartarpuri Bir Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji had Bhai Gurdas Ji write the Aad Granth. Raagmala is present, written in the same ink, on the same paper and in the same hand as the rest of the Gurbani. This was confirmed by Sikh scholars, as recorded in Kartarpuri Bir De Darshan , and by the inspections of 1945 which found Raagmala at page 974 with a matching entry in the index. The Bir is at Sri Kartarpur Sahib (Doaba). Bhai Banno Ji's copy Bhai Banno Ji copied the Kartarpuri Bir. Raagmala is included. The Damdami Bir At Takhat Sri Damdama Sahib, Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji dictated the whole of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji to Shaheed Bhai Mani Singh Ji as scribe. Raagmala is present. Shaheed Baba Deep Singh Ji's four Saroops Baba Deep Singh Ji wrote four Saroops of the final Bir, sent to the Takhats. All four contain Raagmala, in the same handwriting, ink and paper. The Bhai Roopa Saroop A handwritten Saroop copied from one by Shaheed Bhai Mani Singh Ji, kept since then by the family of Bhai Roop Chand Ji in Bhai Roopa village, Bathinda. Raagmala is present. See below. For the manuscript argument in detail, read Raagmala in the Birs: the case for manuscript continuity , which works through Sant Tehal Singh's survey of twenty-five Birs and the three Kartarpur inspections of 1945 reproduced by Dr Balbir Singh."},{"t":"Raagmala at Takhat Sri Patna Sahib","u":"/evidence/#patna","k":"Evidence","s":"Eleven handwritten Saroops photographed at Raagmala","b":"Saroop 1: Raagmala with the heading 'Mahala 5'. Takhat Sri Patna Sahib. Saroop 2: Raagmala. Takhat Sri Patna Sahib. Saroop 3: Raagmala. Takhat Sri Patna Sahib. Saroop 4: Raagmala. Takhat Sri Patna Sahib. Saroop 5: Raagmala. Takhat Sri Patna Sahib. Saroop 6: Raagmala, dated Sammat 1841. Takhat Sri Patna Sahib. Saroop 7: Raagmala. Takhat Sri Patna Sahib. Saroop 8: Raagmala. Takhat Sri Patna Sahib. Saroop 9: Raagmala. Takhat Sri Patna Sahib. Saroop 10: Raagmala. Takhat Sri Patna Sahib. Saroop 11: Raagmala. Takhat Sri Patna Sahib. Panjab Digital Library"},{"t":"Raagmala in the Saroop with Bhai Roop Chand Ji's descendants","u":"/evidence/#bhai-roopa","k":"Evidence","s":"Bhai Roopa village, Bathinda","b":"> Handwritten Saroop Raagmala in the Saroop with Bhai Roop Chand Ji's descendants This handwritten Guru Granth Sahib Ji Saroop is found at Bhai Roopa village in the Bathinda district of Punjab and was copied from a Saroop by Shaheed Bhai Mani Singh Ji. It has been kept with Bhai Roopa Ji's family since that time, and the authenticity lies in the fact that the family who possess this Saroop trace their lineage back to four of the Guru Sahibs and also possess many other historical artefacts bestowed on them by the Gurus. On closer analysis we found that the handwriting of the likhari, the paper used and the border design match those on all the other Angs. Pictured are Raagmala and Japji Sahib for comparison. The Bhai Roop Chand Ji lineage Bhai Roop Chand Ji was one of the five Sikhs blessed with the title of 'Bhai' by Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji, who also gave him the name 'Roop Chand' at birth. The foundation of village Bhai Roopa was laid by Guru Ji themselves on 16 Baisakh 1687 Bikrami (1630 AD). Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji placed Bhai Roop Chand Ji in charge of the spiritual welfare of the new region of Malwa and the country south of the Sutlej. With his own hands Guru Ji made him the Masand of the area, put the tilak on his forehead and gave him a karchha, a long spoon, asking him to run langar to feed the poor and the needy. Bhai Roop Chand Ji and his descendants were also very close to Guru Har Rai Sahib Ji, Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib Ji and Guru Gobind Singh Ji. Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib Ji decided that Bhai Roop Chand Ji would perform the marriage ceremony of Guru Gobind Singh Ji and Mata Jeeto Ji. The family and sons continued to serve Guru Gobind Singh Ji and took Amrit at Damdama Sahib. Guru Ji, pleased with their devotion, gave them their personal Gurbani Pothi with Guru Ji's signature, a handkerchief and a small knife, and showered his blessings on them. The Bhai Roopa family also possesses a bundle of hukamnamas from the Guru Sahibs in which, besides asking for men, money and war materials, the Guru acknowledged the family as his own; a chariot, rabab and khadawan (wooden shoe) of Guru Arjan Dev Ji; a khadawan of Mata Ganga Ji; paintings from the Guru Sahibs' times including one of Guru Gobind Singh Ji's childhood; one handwritten Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji (which includes Raagmala); a karchha, a katar, many handwritten pothis, the cot used when the title of Bhai was bestowed, the original top cloth of the rath; a personal pothi signed by Guru Gobind Singh Ji, a gatre wali kirpan, a rumal, a loh, a garwa, a camel seat, a gagar, a parat and an old chowki, and a loh at Syriawala. More: sikh-heritage.co.uk on Bhai Roop Chand Ji The handwritten Saroop of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji kept by the family of Bhai Roop Chand Ji, Bhai Roopa village, Bathinda. Raagmala in the Bhai Roopa Saroop. Japji Sahib in the same Saroop, for comparison of hand, paper and border. The closing folio of the Bhai Roopa Saroop. Close ‹ ›"},{"t":"Doesn't the Rehit Maryada say reading Raagmala is optional?","u":"/faq/#q1","k":"FAQ","s":"The objection: Doesn't the Rehit Maryada (Sikh Code of Conduct) state that a Sikh can choose whether to read Ragmala or not?","b":"The so called Sikh Code of Conduct was originally published in the early 20th century after the leading Gursikhs of the time came together to try and agree a standard code of conduct. Many of these Gursikhs left the original meeting as it was obvious that some unscrupulous individuals would want to include things within this code that were obviously against Gurbani. Bhai Sahib Randheer Singh Jee and Sant Giani Gurbachan Singh Jee Khalsa Bhindranwale are just two of these Sikhs that didn’t agree and that didn’t actually sign to the final draft of the Code (which coincidentally took many years of deliberation to form and proof of who actually agreed the final version has never been provided those who published the document). Some of the points included in this Code are: Consumption of meat and alcohol are not cardinal sins Sikhs need only read 3 Banis (namely Japji Sahib Jaap Sahib Tva Parsad Svaye) in their morning recital Sikhs need only read shortened versions of certain Banis If a Sikh is to use this Code as an arguing point then they should be prepared to abide by it in its entirety not just picking and choosing what they feel is correct for example this Code clearly states that Kes is a Kakkar and not Keski and in praise of the Code it must be stated that it also says that a Sikh should recite one Sehaj Paath (whole of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee) monthly or the equivalent. If one is to use this code as a basis for arguing then they must be willing to abide by the stated previous points and practise what they preach. As shown this Code has many discrepancies and if Sikhs abided it they would actually be violating the eternal edicts of Gurbani."},{"t":"There is no 'Nanak' and no Mahalla heading, so the Gurus can't have written it?","u":"/faq/#q2","k":"FAQ","s":"The objection: Ragamala being the heading does not indicate which of our Great Gurus wrote Ragmala and since there is no mention of the word Nanak in the writing it is comprehensible that our Great Gurus had no hand in writing Ragmala?","b":"Ragmala has something in common with the most frequently read Bani around the world by Sikhs and non Sikhs alike JapJee Sahib. Both do not indicate which of our Gurus wrote them in fact ‘Nanak’ doesn’t appear in 7 paurees (verses) of JapJee Sahib and ‘Nanak’ doesn’t appear in several other Shabads in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee. Arguing that Ragmala is not Gurbani due to the lack of the word ‘Nanak’ appearing in it is thus a fallacy and miscomprehension."},{"t":"Why doesn't the order of the Raags match Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji?","u":"/faq/#q3","k":"FAQ","s":"The objection: Why doesn't the order in which various raags are mentioned in Raagmala correspond to the order in which the same raag appears in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee? The first raag in Sri Guru Granth Sahib is ‘Sri Raag’ while in Raagmala it is ‘Bhairo.","b":"The order of raags that appear in Raagmala are irrelevant to the writing of it as it is not an index of the raags in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee. Raagmala and Gurbani in general have deeper mystical meanings if we don’t understand or can’t comprehend these deeper hidden jewels that does not mean we should simply disregard Gurbani we don’t understand."},{"t":"Some Raags of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji aren't in Raagmala, so it isn't a rosary of the Raags?","u":"/faq/#q4","k":"FAQ","s":"The objection: Why don't the following raags which are contained in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee, emerge in Raagmala? i.e. raags Maajh Bihagra Jaitsri Ramkali Mali Gaura Tukhari Prabhati and Jaijavanti. Therefore the assertion that Raagmala is a mala (rosary) of the raags in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee is not true.","b":"Nobody argued that Raagmala is a mere rosary of the raags in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee, Guru Jee decided what raags to include in Raagmala and it is not for us to doubt/question this decision. In Gurbani the word raag also means prem (love) so Raagmala is also a rosary of love it is not merely a rosary of raags (this is in reference to the deeper mystical meanings of Raagmala mentioned above)."},{"t":"Why is the counting different, with ||1|| after every phrase?","u":"/faq/#q5","k":"FAQ","s":"The objection: Why in Raagmala is the counting system of phrases totally different to the system used in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee? i.e. in Raagmala ||1|| (No. 1) appears after each phrase and the end of Raagmala. In Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee the totalling system is 123456 etc (which can be clearly seen in the first hymn in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee i.e. in JapJee Sahib the first pauree has 1 and the last has 38”).","b":"This statement is incorrect as JapJee Sahib actually has two ‘1’s’ at the start and a ‘1’ at the end after the Salok. The 123456 etc numbering system is present in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee but is not consistent throughout. Just as in JapJee Sahib there are other verses of Gurbani that have the No. 1 after paurees that follow each other, do we then also discount these as Gurbani as they are not adhering to this stringent consecutive numerical system."},{"t":"Mundaavani is the seal. Doesn't that rule out anything written after it?","u":"/faq/#q6","k":"FAQ","s":"The objection: 'Mudavani' the word means the seal of closure, therefore can anything after Salok Mahalla 5 really be accepted as Gurbani? Since Ragamala is after Salok Mahalla 5, it cannot be sanctioned as part of Gurbani.","b":"If Mudavani is the seal of closure then technically we cannot accept Salok Mahalla 5 as this is a separate Shabad which comes after Mudhavani Mahalla 5. In fact the word Mudavani is present on two other occasions in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee on Ang 645 within the same Shabad in Vaar of Sorat(h). So if we follow this line of argument anything after this Shabad is not Gurbani, how ludicrous is that! The meaning of Mudavani is not ‘seal of closure’ but on the contrary it means ‘riddle’ a riddle that Guru Jee is stating in this Shabad. Guru Jee states in Mundavni Thaal Vich… In this platter there are three things, they are truth discussion and discourse of the Shabad. In the next line Guru Jee states that Amrit Naam has been placed Amrit Naam… The riddle is understanding the true meaning of these lines which is that in the platter of Sri Guru Granth Sahib the Amrit Naam of Shabad has been placed by contemplating and studying this Shabad one attains truth and contentment."},{"t":"Other writings appear after Mundaavani in some old Saroops. Why accept Raagmala and not those?","u":"/faq/#q7","k":"FAQ","s":"The objection: In some hand written versions of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee the following works appear: - Salok Mahalla 1 Jit Dhar Lakh muha(n)madha… - Salok Mahalla 1 Bia aatas aab - Rag Ramkali Ratan Male - Hakikat Rah Mukam Raja Sivnat Ki In all the handwritten Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee Saroops, Raagmala appears at the end of all other works. Since it is acceptable that the works are not Gurbani, how is it that pro-Ragmala accept Ragmala as Gurbani and that the other works are not Gurbani even though they come before Ragmala this seems a very illogical attitude on their part?","b":"In 1945 the SGPC set up a sub-committee to investigate whether Raagmala is included in the original Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee Saroop that was compiled by Sri Guru Arjan Dev Jee. The following is from their findings: “We can most definitely say that nobody other than Bhai Gurdas Jee who was the scribe, included Raagmala in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee. Ragmala is an ang of Sri Guru Granth Sahib.” They also stated that they the ink paper and handwriting of Raagmala was consistent with the rest of the saroop. When this first saroop of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee was compiled many had made supplications to Sri Guru Arjan Dev Jee to include their writings but Guru Jee rejected many only those who had merged with God could utter Gurbani as it is the word of God Himself. The final Saroop of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee as we know it today was compiled by Sri Guru Gobind Singh Jee and Baba Deep Singh Jee compiled 4 other Saroops of this final version and they were sent to all Five Takhats. All these Saroops have Ragmala in them again it is written in the same handwriting ink and upon the same paper. The above mentioned works are not present in any of these Saroops and they unanimously accepted not as the writings of the Guru and only few Saroops have these works in them."},{"t":"Wasn't Raagmala written by the poet Alam in 1583, before Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji was compiled?","u":"/faq/#q8","k":"FAQ","s":"The objection: Raagmala which comes after Mudavni in the printed versions of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee was not written by Sri Guru Arjan Dev Jee. It is from a book called Mudhavnal Kamkandla written by poet Alam in 1640 Bikramee (1583 AD), 21 years before Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee was compiled by Sri Guru Arjan Dev Jee.","b":"This point is a fallacy it was a poet named Jodh who wrote Madhvanal Kamkandla in 1583 AD - Raagmala or anything even resembling it is not present in the original version of this book. The poet Alam lived from 1655 to 1717 AD and after listening to/reading Raagmala he wrote a book called Madhvanal Sangeet that was mostly copied work from other poets including Jodh. There is also a poem in this compilation which doubters of Raagmala believe is Raagmala, but it is actually very different to Raagmala. In the past century people have mistakenly linked the work of these poets’ as one and the same because Alam plagiarised much of his work from Jodh and they try to prove that Raagmala is not Gurbani with this mistaken line of argument. Historically there are 11 different versions of Raagmala they all differ from the original which is in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee, different writers over time have gained inspiration from Raagmala in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee and then gone on to write their own versions of Raagmala. In Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee there are 2 different versions of Barah Maha one in Raag Maaj and the other in Raag Tukaree. There are also many versions of Barah Maha written by various authors should we then argue that these two Barah Maha’s are not Gurbani?"},{"t":"If everything in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji should be read, why not the index and the publisher's page?","u":"/faq/#q9","k":"FAQ","s":"The objection: Raagmala Bhagats preach that whatever is contained in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee should be read. Then why don’t they read the 11 pages containing the index to the contents of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee or the publishers name on the first page or the seal of certification? Why the hypocrisy?","b":"Sri Guru Granth Sahib is not a book and it is blasphemous to suggest so it is God’s word and should be respected as such. This line of argument is obviously of one who does not view Sri Guru Granth Sahib with reverence and it may be pointed out that such people also argue that you don’t have to do Bhog to food in the presence of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee or even doing Bhog is a mere ritual. The faithful offer food to Guru Jee to bless and Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee is the living embodiment of the 10 Guru’s thus it is logical to offer food in the presence of the Guru."},{"t":"Didn't respected scholars such as Bhai Santokh Singh believe Raagmala is not Gurbani?","u":"/faq/#q10","k":"FAQ","s":"The objection: The following great Sikh and non-Sikh scholars believed that Ragmala is not Gurbani: - Great Poet Bhai Santokh Singh - Pandit Tara Singh Nakoola - Giani Dit Singh - Professor Gurmukh Singh - Giani Gian Singh - Sadhu Gobind Singh Nirmala - Pandit Basant Singh Are they all wrong?","b":"It would be very easy to make a list of Gursikhs who were held in high regard that believed Raagmala is Gurbani. The list would include great scholars freedom fighters, spiritualists and selfless servants of the Khalsa Panth. The other point to note is that most Sikhs throughout the world read Raagmala and it is only a minority who question or doubt it’s authenticity, there are only a few Gurdwaras throughout the world where Raagmala is not recited and it is recited at Sri Akal Takhat Sahib and Sri Harimander Sahib (Golden Temple). Giani Sobha Singh, who lived at Takhar Dyal Singh’s Dharamsala in Amritsar, was one of the first Sikhs to start the debate over the authenticity of Ragmala over a 100 years ago. He even compiled a Saroop of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Jee without Ragmala in it and he took it to Sri Akal Takhat Sahib for approval. The senior Sikhs of the day decided to offer an Ardas to Guru Jee in which they said: If Bhai Sobha Singh has done right then nothing should happen but if he has done wrong then punish him accordingly. After just a week he became ill and his mouth was full of ulcers and he was in much pain to the extent that he could not even speak. He wrote a letter begging for forgiveness and brought it to Sri Akal Takhat Sahib and he said that no-one should ever make the same mistake again. Bhai Bhagat Singh Ji, under the Guidance of Shaheed Bhai Mani SIngh Ji, has told us of the greatness of reading Raagmala in Gurbilas Patshahi 6 (written on July 22, 1718, within ten years of Guru Sahib’s departure): Complete the Bhog of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji by reading Raagmala. All sins are vanquished with the paath of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Without Raagmala the paath is incomplete. By reading raagmala it becomes complete We can only pray that Guru Jee brings the people who don’t believe in Ragmala to their senses in this life, as who knows what they will have to endure if they die doubting the authenticity of Guru Jis Baani."},{"t":"There is no Rahao in Raagmala. Doesn't that show it isn't Gurbani?","u":"/faq/#q11","k":"FAQ","s":"The objection: There is no Rahao (Pause) in Raag Maala?","b":"The absence of Rahao is an invalid argument because there isn’t Rahao in JapJi Sahib, Barah Maha, Anand Sahib and in the whole of Raag Tukhari Bani; therefore you would have to agree they are not gurbani either."},{"t":"#DoubtFree Episode 1: Mundaavanee","u":"/katha/#yt-k8mefz2YXk4","k":"Katha","s":"Sikh2Inspire","b":"Does Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji finish at Mundaavani? The first episode of the #DoubtFree series takes the most repeated objection first. #DoubtFree Episode 1: \"Mundaavanee\""},{"t":"#DoubtFree Episode 2: Why the Raags don't match?","u":"/katha/#yt-9EqCVbWMkcg","k":"Katha","s":"Sikh2Inspire","b":"Why the Raags named in Raagmala differ from the 31 Raags of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, and the history of the 'grammar' (vyakaran) argument. #DoubtFree Episode 2: \"Why the Raags don't match?\""},{"t":"#DoubtFree Episode 3: The style of Raagmala","u":"/katha/#yt-zNxWUZh_n1M","k":"Katha","s":"Sikh2Inspire","b":"Style-based criticisms: the patterns Raagmala shares with the rest of Gurbani, and the absence of 'Mahalla' and the name 'Nanak'. Watch to the end for Giani Sukhjeevan Singh Ji's closing point. #DoubtFree Series - Episode 3: 'The style of Raagmala'"},{"t":"Benti on the #DoubtFree series from Bhai Sukhjeevan Singh","u":"/katha/#yt-a-pg0SEYJcQ","k":"Katha","s":"Sikh2Inspire","b":"A short benti (request) to the Sangat about the spirit in which the series was made. Benti On the #DoubtFree Series from Sukhjeevan Singh"},{"t":"Raagmala Viakhya: Sant Giani Gurbachan Singh Ji Khalsa Bhindranwale","u":"/katha/#yt-6KD-6nIdEYM","k":"Katha","s":"Samooh Bahadur Hari","b":"The last part of the Larivaar Katha of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji Maharaj, recorded in the 1960s, with Sant Kartar Singh Ji Khalsa Bhindranwale reading along. The complete Larivaar Katha (15 volumes) is on GurmatVeechar.com. Ragmala Viakhya by Srimaan 108 Brahmgiani Sant Giani Gurbachan Singh Ji Khalsa Bhindranwale"},{"t":"Raagmala Katha: Baba Hari Singh Ji Randhave Wale","u":"/katha/#yt-e0cIZ8eAnwU","k":"Katha","s":"SUNNYLOVEKIRTAN","b":"Recorded at Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Malton. Katha Raagmala by Baba Hari Singh ji Randhave Wale at Sri Guru Singh Sabha Malton"},{"t":"Sri Raagmala Vichar 1: Giani Harbhajan Singh Ji Dhudhikey","u":"/katha/#yt-HQOcJNvRKYU","k":"Katha","s":"Gurbani Gurmat Katha Videos","b":"Part one of Giani Ji's vichar on Raagmala, produced by Sikhism in Snippits. SIKHISM IN SNIPPITS - Sri Ragmala Vichar 01 - Giani Harbhajan Singh Dhudhikey"},{"t":"Sri Raagmala Vichar 2: Giani Harbhajan Singh Ji Dhudhikey","u":"/katha/#yt-NvkNAZRNGhw","k":"Katha","s":"Gurbani Gurmat Katha Videos","b":"Part two. SIKHISM IN SNIPPITS - Sri Ragmala Vichar 02 - Giani Harbhajan Singh Dhudhikey"},{"t":"Raagmala history from Sri Asht Guru Chamatkar (Bhai Vir Singh Ji)","u":"/katha/#yt-b5CT5DvBoKU","k":"Katha","s":"GurbaniSewa","b":"A clip from the audiobook of Sri Asht Guru Chamatkar, in which Bhai Vir Singh Ji sets out his research on why Raagmala is Gurbani. 028 Audio Book Sri Asht Guru Chamatkar Bhai Vir Singh Ji Raagmala history"},{"t":"Raagmala myths answered: Giani Harbhajan Singh Ji Dhudhikey (English subtitles)","u":"/katha/#myths","k":"Katha","s":"Video produced by Sikhism in Snippits (@sikhism_in_snippits on Instagram).","b":"You may have been told that Kavi Santokh Singh Ji wrote against Raagmala in Gurpartap Suraj Granth, or that many puratan saroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji exist today without Raagmala. Giani Harbhajan Singh Ji Dhudhikey sheds light on these myths and how they came about. Fifteen minutes, with English subtitles."},{"t":"Raagmala recitation (read along) with English translation and transliteration","u":"/kirtan/#yt-sDuYKUaFQgo","k":"Kirtan","s":"Sikh Parchar Worldwide","b":"A read-along recitation designed for devotion and understanding, with English translation and transliteration on screen. Raagmala (Raag Mala) - Sikh Paath with English Translation & Transliteration SHUDH UCHARAN HD"},{"t":"Raagmala Kirtan: Bhai Balbir Singh Ji","u":"/kirtan/#yt-D0kE_W1f11E","k":"Kirtan","s":"PricelessKirtan","b":"Bhai Balbir Singh Jee - Raag Mala."},{"t":"Raagmala Kirtan: Giani Gian Singh Ji Almast","u":"/kirtan/#yt-0f_FkMp5hA8","k":"Kirtan","s":"100Inderjit","b":"Raagmala..Giani Gian Singh Almast ji"},{"t":"Gur Gira: Raagmala Mandan Prabodh Granth (Sant Tehal Singh)","u":"/literature/gur-gira/","k":"Book","s":"ਗੁਰ ਗਿਰਾ ਰਾਗਮਾਲਾ ਮੰਡਨ ਪ੍ਰਬੋਧ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ Published 1908, Sri Gurbaksh Press, Lahore. 54-page scan (Punjabi) via GurmatVeechar.com. 18 MB.","b":"A defence of Raagmala written in the middle of the early twentieth-century dispute. Sant Tehal Singh answers twelve objections one by one (the missing 'Mahalla' heading, the absence of the name 'Nanak', Mundaavani, the order of the Raags, the poet Alam) and closes with a survey of twenty-five handwritten Birs in which he reports Raagmala in the text and in the indexes. The opening pages preserve endorsements from Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib, Damdama Sahib, Muktsar and many named Gursikhs of 1908 and 1909."},{"t":"Ragmala Da Swal (Dr Balbir Singh)","u":"/literature/ragmala-da-swal/","k":"Book","s":"ਰਾਗਮਾਲਾ ਦਾ ਸਵਾਲ Bhai Vir Singh Sahit Sadan, New Delhi. First published as articles in Khalsa Samachar (1945 to 1946) and Khalsa Advocate (1946 to 1947); book form 1969; fourth edition August 2006. 210-page scan (Punjabi). 5 MB.","b":"Written during the 1945 controversy, when the SGPC stopped Raagmala recitation in gurdwaras under its management. Dr Balbir Singh reproduces the three 1945 inspections of the Kartarpur Bir (10 September, 7 October and his own visit on 23 December) which report Raagmala at page 974 in the same hand, ink and paper as the rest of the Bir, with a matching index entry. He then takes apart the claim that Raagmala was borrowed from the poet Alam's Madhavanal Kamakandala, working through dates, manuscripts, variant spellings and the puzzle of Deepak's eight sons."},{"t":"Reading Raagmala as a Garland of Raags","u":"/articles/reading-raagmala-as-a-garland-of-raags/","k":"Article","s":"The series","b":"At the end of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Raagmala brings the reader into a world of musical families. Raags appear with their raginis and sons; names follow names in a compact, patterned composition. For someone..."},{"t":"How Should Raagmala Be Judged? Signatures, Language and the Scriptural Ending","u":"/articles/how-should-raagmala-be-judged/","k":"Article","s":"The series","b":"Some of the most influential objections to Raagmala begin with very small features: a missing authorial heading, the absence of the name Nanak, an unfamiliar musical term, or the position of a composition after..."},{"t":"Raagmala and Alam: Reading the Borrowing Claim in Both Directions","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-alam/","k":"Article","s":"The series","b":"When closely related passages appear in two works, their resemblance can seem to tell a complete story. One author must have borrowed from the other. Establish which work came first, and the direction appears settled."},{"t":"Raagmala in the Birs: The Case for Manuscript Continuity","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-the-birs/","k":"Article","s":"The series","b":"A claim that a composition was added to scripture is a claim about something that happened to a text. At some point, according to that explanation, words absent from an earlier form entered a later one. Arguments..."},{"t":"From Endorsement to Examination: How Two Defences Strengthen the Case for Raagmala","u":"/articles/from-endorsement-to-examination/","k":"Article","s":"The series","b":"The opening pages of Sant Tehal Singh’s defence of Raagmala contain something more personal than a list of arguments. They preserve declarations of approval, names of supporters, statements associated with religious..."},{"t":"The Raagmala Debate: Understanding Sant Tehal Singh’s Defence","u":"/articles/understanding-the-raagmala-debate/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Gur Gira","b":"For Sant Tehal Singh, the question of Raagmala was inseparable from a larger responsibility: how should Sikhs receive, preserve and read the scripture entrusted to them by the Gurus?"},{"t":"The Raagmala Mystery: Five Insights from a Century-Old Defence","u":"/articles/five-insights-from-a-century-old-defence/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Gur Gira","b":"A missing signature. A musical passage found in another book. An old manuscript with a disputed ending. Each can sound decisive when presented alone."},{"t":"Who Wrote Raagmala? Sant Tehal Singh’s Response to the Alam Theory","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-alam-authorship-theory/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Gur Gira","b":"One of the central claims challenged in Gur Gira Raagmala Mandan Prabodh is that Raagmala came from a literary work associated with a poet called Alam. On this account, a passage belonging to the..."},{"t":"Decoding the Divine Seal: Raagmala, “Nanak” and Mundavani","u":"/articles/decoding-the-divine-seal/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Gur Gira","b":"What makes a composition recognisable as Gurbani? A heading? The name “Nanak”? Its position in an authorised manuscript? Or a combination of these features understood together?"},{"t":"The People Behind the Defence: Raagmala Endorsements from 1908-1909","u":"/articles/the-endorsements-of-1908-1909/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Gur Gira","b":"Before Sant Tehal Singh begins his detailed answers about Raagmala, he places a community of readers before the reader of his own book."},{"t":"Raagmala in Historical Birs: Reading Sant Tehal Singh's Manuscript Survey","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-historical-manuscripts/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Gur Gira","b":"Near the end of Gur Gira Raagmala Mandan Prabodh, Sant Tehal Singh moves from objections about language, authorship and musical classification to the manuscripts themselves."},{"t":"The Raagmala Mystery: Decoding the Final Pages of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji","u":"/articles/the-raagmala-mystery/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Ragmala Da Swal","b":"A short composition can carry a debate far larger than its length. Raagmala, the concluding composition of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, brings together questions about music, manuscript history, literary borrowing and..."},{"t":"The Family Tree of Melody: An Introduction to Raagmala","u":"/articles/the-family-tree-of-melody/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Ragmala Da Swal","b":"Raagmala presents musical names as a family. Six principal ragas stand at the centre of the arrangement, each accompanied by five raginis and eight sons. The reader encounters an ordered world of relationships rather..."},{"t":"Raagmala and the Historical Record: Manuscripts, Printed Texts and the 1945 Debate","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-historical-record/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Ragmala Da Swal","b":"A claim about a manuscript can travel much further than the person who first examined it. Once repeated in books, newspapers and public discussion, it can acquire the appearance of established fact. Recovering the..."},{"t":"Decoding the Raagmala Debate: Following Dr Balbir Singh's Investigation","u":"/articles/decoding-the-raagmala-debate/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Ragmala Da Swal","b":"A date written inside a book seems to offer a firm starting point. Yet if the book is a translation, the date may belong to the work being translated. If the translator has added material from elsewhere, different..."},{"t":"Assessing Raagmala: Dr Balbir Singh's Theological and Historical Defence","u":"/articles/assessing-dr-balbir-singhs-defence/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Ragmala Da Swal","b":"The strength of an argument depends partly on knowing what kind of argument it is. A statement about handwriting, an inference about literary borrowing and a conviction about the authority of scripture can support..."},{"t":"Short introduction to Raagmala","u":"/articles/short-introduction-to-raagmala/","k":"Article","s":"From the archive","b":"Who wrote Raagmala, where it appears, and why the claims about the poets Jodh and Alam don't hold."},{"t":"The story of Raagmaala","u":"/articles/the-story-of-raagmaala/","k":"Article","s":"From the archive","b":"The Raags come before Guru Arjan Dev Ji as the Aad Granth is compiled at Sri Ramsar Sahib. From SikhNet."},{"t":"Reading Raagmala as a Garland of Raags","u":"/articles/reading-raagmala-as-a-garland-of-raags/","k":"Article","s":"The series","b":"At the end of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Raagmala brings the reader into a world of musical families. Raags appear with their raginis and sons; names follow names in a compact, patterned composition. For someone expecting a final prayer or a summary of spiritual teachings, this can be an unexpected ending. What is this arrangement doing here, and how should it be read? Sant Tehal Singh’s Gur Gira Raagmala Mandan Prabodh Granth and Dr Balbir Singh’s Ragmala Da Swal both approach that question from a firm conviction that Raagmala belongs within the scripture. Their explanations become particularly useful when read together. Tehal Singh introduces the variety of musical classifications and examines the place of musical information within Gurbani. Balbir Singh develops the distinction between different kinds of order and shows why even an apparently simple list of names requires careful interpretation. Their shared contribution is a way of reading. Before judging Raagmala by what we expect a scriptural conclusion to look like, we need to understand the kind of composition it is."},{"t":"Reading Raagmala as a Garland of Raags","u":"/articles/reading-raagmala-as-a-garland-of-raags/#a-family-structure-for-musical-knowledge","k":"Article","s":"A family structure for musical knowledge","b":"A family structure for musical knowledge A raag is a musical mode through which melody is shaped. Raagmala arranges raags through the language of kinship: principal raags, their female companions or raginis, and their sons. The family image gives musical names a memorable set of relationships. The scheme discussed by both authors has six principal raags: Bhairav, Malkauns, Hindol, Deepak, Siri Raag and Megh. Each is associated with five raginis and eight sons. Its numerical structure is therefore straightforward: 1 Category Arrangement Structural total Principal raags Six musical families 6 Raginis Five associated with each principal raag 30 Sons Eight associated with each principal raag 48 All three categories 6 + 30 + 48 84 The number 84 describes the structure of this classification. Understanding that structure does not require treating each name as a separately measured frequency, or the list as an exhaustive account of every possible musical form. Neither book supplies an acoustic demonstration of that kind. Their discussion concerns names, relationships, musical traditions and the interpretation of a received text. This distinction makes Raagmala more accessible. A reader can begin by noticing its organisation: six groups, a recurring family pattern, and a language that gathers a large body of musical knowledge into verse. The pattern creates coherence before every individual name has been identified. It also explains why the terms raag and ragini need attention. Tehal Singh points out that a mode can appear as a raag in a scriptural heading while being classified as a ragini within a musical family. The label depends partly on the system in which the name is being used. A change of classificatory role is therefore something to interpret, rather than an immediate contradiction. 2"},{"t":"Reading Raagmala as a Garland of Raags","u":"/articles/reading-raagmala-as-a-garland-of-raags/#why-the-musical-families-differ-from-the-scripture-s-sequenc","k":"Article","s":"Why the musical families differ from the scripture’s sequence","b":"Why the musical families differ from the scripture’s sequence One of the objections Tehal Singh addresses begins with an observable difference. The sequence of raag sections in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and the arrangement in Raagmala do not match. Siri Raag opens the scripture’s main raag sequence, while Raagmala begins with Bhairav. Names such as Maajh and Tukhari also raise questions because the scriptural headings and the family list do not provide identical inventories. Tehal Singh faces these differences directly. His answer is that musical knowledge has been arranged through more than one traditional system. A sequence beginning with Siri Raag and one beginning with Bhairav can reflect different organising principles. He discusses several musical traditions and gives reasons, some musical and some devotional, for the prominence of Siri Raag in the scripture. 2 The useful foundation of his answer is the recognition of plurality. It is unnecessary to force Raagmala into the role of a contents page listing every scriptural heading in order. The raag headings organise the placement of hymns; Raagmala presents a family classification. These tasks can produce different arrangements without either arrangement becoming meaningless. Balbir Singh makes this point especially clear through an analogy from learning Gurmukhi. An alphabet and a pronunciation exercise can arrange related material differently. The order used to introduce letters need not be the order used to practise their sounds. Both can be legitimate because they serve different purposes. 3 Applied to Raagmala, the analogy asks the reader to identify the purpose of an arrangement before criticising its sequence. If two lists perform different jobs, matching their first entries is an inadequate test of whether they belong within the same intellectual or religious world. Here the authors strengthen one another in a precise way. Tehal Singh supplies the discussion of alternative musical classifications. Balbir Singh supplies an explanation of why difference in order does not, by itself, prove inconsistency. Together they answer a mistaken expectation: that everything concerning raags must follow a single sequence."},{"t":"Reading Raagmala as a Garland of Raags","u":"/articles/reading-raagmala-as-a-garland-of-raags/#musical-information-has-a-place-within-the-text","k":"Article","s":"Musical information has a place within the text","b":"Musical information has a place within the text Another objection concerns subject matter. Raagmala names musical forms rather than presenting the kind of direct spiritual instruction readers recognise in many hymns. Can a technical list belong at the end of a sacred text? Tehal Singh answers by looking at material already accepted within Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Raag headings, ghar designations and instructions concerning tunes help organise the delivery of Gurbani. They do not each function as a complete devotional hymn. Their place is understood through their relationship to the compositions they accompany. His example of the tune instruction associated with Asa ki Var makes the point concrete: musical direction participates in the scriptural setting even when it is not itself an extended statement of doctrine. 4 This is a limited but important argument. It defeats the assumption that every element in a scriptural volume must have the same literary form or perform the same immediate function. It does not mean that any musical list can be accepted as Gurbani. Questions of transmission and authority still matter. Balbir Singh complements this defence through his emphasis on the lived place of music in Sikh devotion. In his opening address, discussion of raag is connected with the experience and practice of singing Gurbani. The musical dimension is part of how the text is encountered, learned and shared. 5 Read together, the books encourage a more attentive approach to Raagmala’s subject matter. Its musical vocabulary deserves interpretation within a tradition of sung scripture. A reader’s difficulty in recognising a familiar devotional message is not sufficient reason to treat the composition as alien to that tradition."},{"t":"Reading Raagmala as a Garland of Raags","u":"/articles/reading-raagmala-as-a-garland-of-raags/#deepak-s-eight-sons-why-counting-requires-interpretation","k":"Article","s":"Deepak’s eight sons: why counting requires interpretation","b":"Deepak’s eight sons: why counting requires interpretation Balbir Singh’s final chapter turns this general approach into a detailed reading exercise. Raagmala states that Deepak has eight sons, yet the relevant passage can appear to contain nine names if each apparent name is counted separately. Critics use the mismatch to argue that the text is defective. Balbir Singh asks how the count has been handled in the very musical literature used to criticise Raagmala. In a chart he reproduces from Bhai Kahn Singh’s work, Kamal and Kusam are treated together as Kamal Kusam , allowing the list to contain eight entries. Another explanation groups Kanra and Kalhana . The real question is therefore how the names should be divided and understood. 6 This is more demanding than counting visible word units. Musical names can be compound names, and a compound needs to be interpreted through usage. Balbir Singh discusses the example of Todi Bhairavi to show that a joined name is a recognisable feature of musical classification. He also brings another musical list into the comparison to demonstrate that difficulties in counting are not confined to the scriptural passage. His most persuasive point is about consistency. If a reader allows compound names or joined forms when interpreting one musical source, the same possibility must be considered when interpreting Raagmala. It would be unfair to explain a difficulty sympathetically in the proposed source text while treating a similar difficulty in scripture as proof of corruption. The chapter does not provide a reason to join words arbitrarily whenever a total becomes inconvenient. It provides a reason to examine the musical vocabulary before declaring the arithmetic impossible. The interpretation has to be argued, using comparable usage. This close reading strengthens Tehal Singh’s broader account. Tehal Singh shows why different musical systems can generate different lists. Balbir Singh shows why the internal wording of a particular list also requires knowledge of its conventions. The two defences work at different scales: the arrangement as a whole, and the names within it."},{"t":"Reading Raagmala as a Garland of Raags","u":"/articles/reading-raagmala-as-a-garland-of-raags/#what-this-changes-for-a-first-reading","k":"Article","s":"What this changes for a first reading","b":"What this changes for a first reading These comparisons make it possible to approach Raagmala without either reducing it to a bare catalogue or surrounding it with claims the books do not establish. First, the family pattern offers a clear point of entry. Six principal raags, with recurring groups of raginis and sons, give the composition its visible shape. A new reader does not need to master every disputed name to recognise that design. Second, the difference between Raagmala and the scripture’s raag headings becomes a question about purpose. One arrangement governs the sequence of compositions; the other presents musical relationships. Their relationship needs explanation, but simple mismatch is not a verdict. Third, the place of musical information within Gurbani gives a context for the composition’s technical language. Tehal Singh’s examples of headings and tune directions prevent the reader from assuming that devotional meaning must always be expressed in the same literary form. Finally, Balbir Singh’s discussion of compound names encourages patient reading. What looks like an error may depend on how a phrase has been divided, which version of another work is being consulted, and whether comparable cases are being treated consistently. Neither musical structure nor literary interpretation alone settles every question about authorship and transmission. Both authors therefore connect these arguments with the evidence of the Birs, the handwritten scriptural volumes discussed elsewhere in their works. The musical argument has its own essential task: it shows why Raagmala should first be understood in its own terms. Once that happens, the final garland becomes easier to recognise. Its order, its family language and its technical vocabulary form an intelligible composition. The reader can then approach the historical questions with a clearer understanding of the text whose place is being debated. Source notes: This article uses only the two supplied books. Page numbers refer to their printed pagination; PDF page numbers identify the corresponding pages in the supplied scans. Other works mentioned above are discussed through these authors, not used as additional sources."},{"t":"How Should Raagmala Be Judged? Signatures, Language and the Scriptural Ending","u":"/articles/how-should-raagmala-be-judged/","k":"Article","s":"The series","b":"Some of the most influential objections to Raagmala begin with very small features: a missing authorial heading, the absence of the name Nanak, an unfamiliar musical term, or the position of a composition after Mundavani. Each observation seems easy to make. The harder question is whether it can support the conclusion placed upon it. Sant Tehal Singh and Dr Balbir Singh repeatedly return to this problem in their defences of Raagmala. They ask whether the proposed tests of authenticity are sound, and whether those tests are applied consistently. Tehal Singh works through examples inside the scriptural text. Balbir Singh examines the language and transmission of the works brought into comparison with it. Their approaches meet in an important principle: an objection needs a reliable rule behind it. A feature cannot disqualify Raagmala merely because it is noticeable or unusual. The rule must also make sense of the texts the reader already accepts."},{"t":"How Should Raagmala Be Judged? Signatures, Language and the Scriptural Ending","u":"/articles/how-should-raagmala-be-judged/#what-an-absent-signature-can-establish","k":"Article","s":"What an absent signature can establish","b":"What an absent signature can establish Tehal Singh begins his detailed rebuttal with objections concerning attribution. Raagmala does not carry a numbered Mahalla heading identifying a Guru, nor does it end with the name Nanak or the name of a Bhagat. For its opponents, these absences count against its status as Gurbani. His reply is to test the proposed requirement against Japji Sahib. Japji does not begin with the kind of numbered Mahalla heading being demanded of Raagmala. Within Japji, individual pauris also occur without the name Nanak. The sixth pauri, beginning Tirath nava je tis bhava , is one of his examples. 1 This comparison has a specific logical force. If every accepted passage had to carry the same form of attribution, these familiar exceptions would become a problem too. The absence of that form therefore cannot function as an automatic test of exclusion. There is an important distinction between a composition being anonymous to a reader and a composition being unauthorised. A reader may be unable to identify authorship from a heading alone. That does not establish that the text entered the scripture without authority. Such a conclusion requires further evidence concerning its history and transmission. Tehal Singh’s argument becomes stronger because he also tests the opposite proposition. He points to compositions outside the accepted scriptural corpus that carry a Mahalla-style heading or use the name Nanak. Such features do not, by themselves, secure acceptance. 2 Taken together, the two comparisons remove the possibility of a simple visual test. The marker is not universally required in the form proposed, and its presence is not enough on its own. Attribution has to be considered with context, received authority and manuscript evidence. Tehal Singh is not asking readers to disregard headings. He is challenging the claim that one kind of heading can bear the entire weight of a decision about scriptural status."},{"t":"How Should Raagmala Be Judged? Signatures, Language and the Scriptural Ending","u":"/articles/how-should-raagmala-be-judged/#balbir-singh-s-parallel-caution-about-a-single-word","k":"Article","s":"Balbir Singh’s parallel caution about a single word","b":"Balbir Singh’s parallel caution about a single word Balbir Singh applies a related discipline while examining the poem attributed to Alam. In that setting, the occurrence of the word gurmukh might seem a convenient clue connecting the poet with the Sikh world. Yet Balbir Singh explicitly cautions that the word alone is not final proof of Alam’s association with Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s court. 3 The two authors are discussing different texts, and their arguments should not be presented as identical. Tehal Singh challenges an exclusion based on a missing marker. Balbir Singh limits an attribution based on a present marker. The comparison is valuable precisely because the underlying discipline works in both directions. A word or heading can contribute to an argument. It becomes stronger when it agrees with other evidence: chronology, textual relationships, manuscript features and historical context. Detached from those things, it is easily asked to prove more than it can. This is one of the most useful connections between the books. Both resist shortcuts in which a small textual feature is promoted into a complete explanation of a work’s origins."},{"t":"How Should Raagmala Be Judged? Signatures, Language and the Scriptural Ending","u":"/articles/how-should-raagmala-be-judged/#mundavani-and-the-question-of-what-follows","k":"Article","s":"Mundavani and the question of what follows","b":"Mundavani and the question of what follows The objection concerning Mundavani makes a different kind of claim. If Mundavani is understood as the closing seal of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, how can a composition placed after it belong to the scripture? Tehal Singh responds by examining the sequence itself. Following Mundavani is the salok of Guru Arjan Dev Ji beginning Tera kita jato nahi . The presence of this accepted salok means that a rule excluding everything after Mundavani would immediately have consequences beyond Raagmala. 4 He also presses for clarity about what is being called the seal. Is it the heading, the hymn under that heading, or a broader act of closure? Each interpretation needs to account for the material that follows. The word alone cannot substitute for a reading of the actual arrangement. Tehal Singh further points to the use of mundavani in a passage associated with Guru Amar Das Ji in Sorath ki Var, where it occurs with the image of a platter containing spiritual nourishment. That comparison challenges an exclusively mechanical reading of the term as a prohibition against any succeeding text. Meaning has to be drawn from the passage and its setting. His own defence goes further: he presents Raagmala as the final seal. Readers should recognise this as part of his positive interpretation of the scriptural ending. The narrower result of his rebuttal is already significant, however. Simply saying that Raagmala follows Mundavani does not settle the question of its authority. The adjoining salok and the meaning of the term must be addressed. Balbir Singh’s contribution here is broader rather than a duplicate of Tehal Singh’s word-by-word argument. His defence repeatedly directs attention to the integrity and material history of the Bir. The ending of a manuscript has to be studied through the manuscript itself: its sequence, index entries and writing. That gives historical substance to Tehal Singh’s insistence that a theory of closure must fit the actual text. 5 The combined approach therefore moves through two stages. First, test the interpretation of the ending. Then examine how the ending is transmitted. A semantic argument about a title and a historical argument about a manuscript can inform one another, but neither should be silently substituted for the other."},{"t":"How Should Raagmala Be Judged? Signatures, Language and the Scriptural Ending","u":"/articles/how-should-raagmala-be-judged/#does-every-passage-need-to-sound-like-a-hymn","k":"Article","s":"Does every passage need to sound like a hymn?","b":"Does every passage need to sound like a hymn? Tehal Singh also considers the objection that Raagmala lacks explicit spiritual instruction. Its musical names and family relationships may appear too technical to qualify as Gurbani. His answer again begins with comparison. Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji includes raag headings, ghar indications and directions concerning tunes. These elements have a recognised function even though they are not all devotional statements in the same sense as the hymns they accompany. 6 The point is about the range of functions within the text. A scriptural composition can include organisation, musical direction and other forms of information alongside direct instruction. It is therefore inadequate to judge every component by the expectation that it must contain the same vocabulary or communicate its significance in the same way. This argument clears away a proposed reason for rejection. It still leaves the positive historical question: what evidence connects this particular composition with the received scripture? Tehal Singh answers that elsewhere through his manuscript inventory. Balbir Singh develops the manuscript question in greater detail. Their books consequently offer a layered defence. Literary difference is addressed through interpretation; historical belonging is addressed through testimony and the Birs. Keeping those layers distinct makes the reasoning easier to follow."},{"t":"How Should Raagmala Be Judged? Signatures, Language and the Scriptural Ending","u":"/articles/how-should-raagmala-be-judged/#when-a-different-spelling-becomes-an-accusation","k":"Article","s":"When a different spelling becomes an accusation","b":"When a different spelling becomes an accusation Balbir Singh’s examination of musical names adds another dimension. Critics had treated differences between Raagmala and the poem attributed to Alam as evidence that an unskilled copier had introduced errors into the scriptural text. This argument assumes that the wording in the comparison text is both stable and correct. Balbir Singh checks that assumption. The Alam manuscripts he compares do not all give the same readings. For the name appearing as Champak in Raagmala, he records several differing forms in copies of the Alam text, including Panchak and related variants. He then notes that another musical list invoked in the debate uses the form found in scripture. 7 The significance lies in the comparison. If the proposed standard varies across its own witnesses, it cannot simply be placed above the scriptural text as an unquestionable original. The reader must establish which reading is being used, where it comes from, and why it should be preferred. Balbir Singh also challenges the idea that linguistic difference is always corruption. His discussion of Suhu , Suho and the proposed Suhavi reading turns on historical forms, pronunciation and spelling. A word can change across language, period or writing practice without becoming meaningless. He argues that the spelling habits of Gurbani should be considered on their own terms. 8 This does not make every variant equally convincing. It changes the work required to call one a mistake. A judgment should emerge from comparison and usage rather than from the assumption that the form familiar to the critic must be the original. Here Balbir Singh strengthens Tehal Singh’s method in a particularly concrete way. Tehal Singh tests whether a proposed rule would unjustifiably exclude accepted scriptural passages. Balbir Singh tests whether a proposed linguistic standard has itself been established. Both ask the reader to examine the measuring instrument before accepting its verdict."},{"t":"How Should Raagmala Be Judged? Signatures, Language and the Scriptural Ending","u":"/articles/how-should-raagmala-be-judged/#a-more-demanding-standard-of-judgment","k":"Article","s":"A more demanding standard of judgment","b":"A more demanding standard of judgment Read together, the books replace several quick tests with fuller questions. Proposed test What the comparison asks instead No Mahalla heading or Nanak signature Is that marker universally required, and can it establish authenticity by itself? Placement after Mundavani Does the interpretation account for the accepted salok and the transmitted ending? Technical musical subject matter How does the text already accommodate headings, classifications and musical directions? A form differs from an Alam version Which version is being used, how stable is it, and what explains the variation? One word suggests a historical connection Is that clue supported by chronology and other independent evidence? This is where the two defences gain force from being read together. They do more than supply several answers to several objections. They expose a recurring weakness in the way the objections can be framed: a disputed assumption is treated as though it were a settled rule. Removing those assumptions does not, by itself, identify the author of Raagmala or reconstruct every stage of its transmission. The positive case still depends on the manuscript and literary evidence examined in the two books. But the ground on which that evidence is considered has changed. Raagmala can no longer be excluded merely because it lacks one familiar marker, has a distinctive literary form, or contains a name that differs from an unstable comparison text. The question becomes more exacting and more productive: what explanation best accounts for the wording, the setting and the documented place of this composition in the Birs? That is the question both authors want the reader to pursue. Source notes: Only the two supplied books are used. References give printed pages followed by PDF pages. The comparisons and limits identified between the authors are the analysis of this article; they are not presented as joint statements written by the authors."},{"t":"Raagmala and Alam: Reading the Borrowing Claim in Both Directions","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-alam/","k":"Article","s":"The series","b":"When closely related passages appear in two works, their resemblance can seem to tell a complete story. One author must have borrowed from the other. Establish which work came first, and the direction appears settled. The Raagmala debate shows how much that apparently simple explanation can conceal. A musical passage resembling Raagmala occurs in the work known as Madhavanal Kamakandala , attributed to Alam. Opponents of Raagmala’s scriptural status have used that relationship to argue that a passage from a literary romance was subsequently introduced into Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Sant Tehal Singh and Dr Balbir Singh both dispute that direction of borrowing. Their shared argument is not that resemblance is irrelevant. It is that resemblance must be investigated through dates, versions, literary context and manuscript evidence before it can establish priority. Tehal Singh’s Gur Gira Raagmala Mandan Prabodh Granth challenges the identity and dating of the supposed source. Balbir Singh’s Ragmala Da Swal develops a much more extensive comparison of the literary material. Read together, the books turn an accusation based on parallel wording into a series of questions that the accusation has to answer."},{"t":"Raagmala and Alam: Reading the Borrowing Claim in Both Directions","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-alam/#the-relationship-between-two-passages-is-only-the-beginning","k":"Article","s":"The relationship between two passages is only the beginning","b":"The relationship between two passages is only the beginning The borrowing claim contains several steps. It assumes that the passage belongs to Alam’s work in a reliable early form; that this form predates Raagmala’s presence in the scripture; and that the direction of transfer runs from the romance into the Bir. Each step needs support. A later manuscript may preserve an old composition, but it may also contain additions. A translation may retain words from an earlier work while introducing material from elsewhere. A date inside a poem may belong to an underlying source rather than to the version being read. Both authors object to collapsing these possibilities into a single conclusion. Their preferred explanation reverses the alleged direction: the literary work has drawn on material already present in the Sikh scriptural tradition. Establishing the strength of that explanation requires examining what each author actually contributes."},{"t":"Raagmala and Alam: Reading the Borrowing Claim in Both Directions","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-alam/#tehal-singh-questions-the-proposed-original","k":"Article","s":"Tehal Singh questions the proposed original","b":"Tehal Singh questions the proposed original Tehal Singh’s discussion begins with uncertainty about the text attributed to Alam. He describes searching for the work, discusses differing versions of musical lists, and questions whether the available text can be treated as an established authorial original. His reproduced comparisons show that a raagmala-like musical classification can take different forms in different literary settings. 1 This matters because the claim of borrowing requires more than a title and an author’s name. Which version is supposed to have supplied the scriptural passage? Does that version preserve the same wording? How securely is it dated? These questions become unavoidable once variant texts are placed beside one another. Tehal Singh also draws attention to Alam’s acknowledgement that his composition combines material of his own with material from others. For Tehal Singh, this opens the possibility that the disputed passage was incorporated by Alam rather than originated by him. The acknowledgement is relevant, but its scope needs to be kept clear. A general statement about using other material does not identify the source of every passage in the poem. It supports investigation of borrowing; it is not, on its own, a confession that Raagmala was taken from Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Balbir Singh returns to this same opening. He makes the mixed character of Alam’s work a central reason to examine its layers. What Tehal Singh raises as a challenge becomes, in Balbir Singh, a sustained comparison of source, adaptation and addition. 2"},{"t":"Raagmala and Alam: Reading the Borrowing Claim in Both Directions","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-alam/#balbir-singh-distinguishes-the-story-from-its-adaptation","k":"Article","s":"Balbir Singh distinguishes the story from its adaptation","b":"Balbir Singh distinguishes the story from its adaptation One of Balbir Singh’s most important moves is to distinguish the Sanskrit work associated with the poet Jodh from Alam’s vernacular treatment of the same story. The existence of an earlier Madhavanal Kamakandala does not automatically date every later version or every passage within it. Balbir Singh compares the invocations of the two works and finds a close relationship between their ideas and phrasing. He also considers Alam’s own description of working from Sanskrit. These features support his view that the Alam text is an adaptation of an earlier work rather than an entirely independent composition. 2 That relationship changes how the date in the poem should be read. The date 991 Hijri, which Balbir Singh equates with 1640 Bikrami and 1583 CE, is important to the claim that Alam’s poem preceded the compilation of the Adi Granth. Balbir Singh argues that the date has been carried over from the underlying work. It therefore cannot simply be assigned to the later adaptation. 3 This is the central chronological issue. A retained date can tell us about the material being translated without establishing when the translator produced the version in front of us. To treat it as the date of the adaptation, a reader must first justify that connection. Tehal Singh also challenges the early dating of Alam, but his treatment is different. He discusses a verse containing the Hijri date and questions the interpretation placed upon it. He then cites a literary notice assigning Alam to 1712 Bikrami, which he places 51 years after the foundational Bir’s date of 1661 Bikrami. 4 The agreement between the authors is therefore exact but limited: both reject the automatic use of an early date to establish Alam’s priority. They do not supply one identical chronological demonstration."},{"t":"Raagmala and Alam: Reading the Borrowing Claim in Both Directions","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-alam/#three-dates-that-should-remain-distinct","k":"Article","s":"Three dates that should remain distinct","b":"Three dates that should remain distinct The dates in these discussions can easily be turned into a misleadingly neat timeline. A more accurate comparison asks what each date is being used to date. Date discussed in the books What it concerns How it functions in the defence 1661 Bikrami The foundational Bir, identified by the authors with the compilation under Guru Arjan Dev Ji The manuscript chronology against which the borrowing claim is tested 991 Hijri / 1640 Bikrami / 1583 CE A date appearing in the literary discussion of Madhavanal Kamakandala Balbir Singh argues that it belongs to the underlying work and cannot automatically date Alam’s adaptation 1712 Bikrami A date assigned to Alam in a literary notice cited by the authors Tehal Singh uses it to challenge the claim that Alam preceded the Bir; it is not a securely established completion date for the poem 1753 Bikrami Material and literary relationships examined in Balbir Singh’s later chronological argument Balbir Singh argues that the adaptation draws on material available at or after this point Bikrami is the calendar designation used in the books; dates in different calendar systems should not be compared as if their numbers belonged to the same scale. Balbir Singh develops his later dating through comparisons with material associated with Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s literary setting. In particular, he examines parallels between the Madhavanal story and the version discussed as the ninety-first charitr . He gives attention to shared wording and to a distinctive test of musical accomplishment involving a lotus leaf. These details, he argues, are more informative than the broad fact that two works tell the same story. 5 The inference is that Alam’s adaptation has absorbed material from a later literary environment. If that relationship is accepted, the early date retained in the text cannot be used to make the entire adaptation a source for the earlier Bir. This remains Balbir Singh’s historical reconstruction. Its force depends on the textual relationships and dates he argues for. The responsible comparative conclusion is that he substantially extends Tehal Singh’s challenge to Alam’s priority, rather than merely repeating the earlier book’s date."},{"t":"Raagmala and Alam: Reading the Borrowing Claim in Both Directions","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-alam/#what-the-passage-is-doing-inside-the-romance","k":"Article","s":"What the passage is doing inside the romance","b":"What the passage is doing inside the romance Chronology is only one part of Balbir Singh’s argument. He also asks whether the disputed musical passage fits its narrative setting. A scene describing a performer singing before an audience has one kind of task. A classification naming principal raags, raginis and sons has another. Balbir Singh observes that the passage contains language appropriate to a compiler or enumerator and refers to singers in ways that need not describe a single heroine’s immediate performance. 6 This leads him to question readings that make every relevant pronoun or verb refer to Kamakandala. Technical musical writing can describe what singers sing and how classifications are arranged without functioning as a narrative report of one person’s actions. The grammar needs to be read in that wider setting. His discussion of another treatment of the story, by Bodha, sharpens the comparison. Balbir Singh sees a musical explanation placed within a private exchange as better suited to the work of classification. The example helps him distinguish a passage’s subject matter from its literary function: mentioning music does not make every musical passage equally natural in every scene. Tehal Singh’s reproduced musical lists provide useful background for this argument. They show how related classificatory material can be expanded and reshaped, including versions that make Kamakandala’s role explicit. Balbir Singh then asks what the wording of the particular disputed passage suggests about its use within the story. The two books thus support a richer inquiry than a search for matching lines. They ask how the lines operate. An incorporated passage may retain traces of a purpose different from the purpose of its new surroundings. Contextual awkwardness alone cannot prove the direction of borrowing. It becomes more significant when it agrees with a chronological argument and with evidence of the poem’s composite character. That combination is what Balbir Singh seeks to establish."},{"t":"Raagmala and Alam: Reading the Borrowing Claim in Both Directions","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-alam/#which-alam-text-is-being-compared","k":"Article","s":"Which Alam text is being compared?","b":"Which Alam text is being compared? Balbir Singh also subjects the comparison text to scrutiny. He discusses differences between printed presentations, repeated stanza numbering, errors affecting sense, and variant musical names across manuscript copies. 7 The relevance is direct. A modern argument may set “Alam’s original” against the scriptural text as though the former were a single, stable witness. Balbir Singh’s comparisons show why that description needs to be earned. A printed version is a witness to the text, with its own editorial and transmission history. His later chapters on musical names make the same point at a smaller scale. If copies attributed to Alam disagree with one another, a critic cannot simply select one reading, call it original, and use every difference from it as evidence that Raagmala has been corrupted. The chosen reading requires an argument of its own. 8 This strengthens Tehal Singh’s earlier concern about the absence of an unquestionable original. Tehal Singh asks whether the alleged source has been securely identified. Balbir Singh demonstrates the practical consequences of that question through the comparison of readings and editions."},{"t":"Raagmala and Alam: Reading the Borrowing Claim in Both Directions","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-alam/#where-the-two-defences-should-not-be-made-to-agree","k":"Article","s":"Where the two defences should not be made to agree","b":"Where the two defences should not be made to agree The books share a conclusion about the direction of borrowing, but some of their supporting arguments differ considerably. Tehal Singh questions the compatibility of Hindu invocatory language with the Muslim identity attributed to Alam. Balbir Singh’s discussion allows for a more complicated literary and biographical setting, including mixed invocations and the account of a Brahmin who converted. Religious vocabulary by itself is therefore not a shared proof that can safely be attributed to both authors. 9 Balbir Singh is also capable of marking uncertainty within his own dating discussion. When considering a colophon associated with Alam Keli , he asks whether the date records composition or copying, and whether the calendar identification is secure. Those questions concern a related literary witness; they should not be erased merely because his larger argument favours a later Alam. 10 There is a further distinction between argument and rhetoric. At one point, Balbir Singh stages an imagined first-person explanation by Alam. It serves his polemical exposition. It is not an independently surviving statement in which the historical poet confesses to taking Raagmala from scripture. 11 Keeping these distinctions visible protects the strongest part of the comparison. The defence does not need invented certainty. It needs a clear account of the evidence on which the authors actually rely."},{"t":"Raagmala and Alam: Reading the Borrowing Claim in Both Directions","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-alam/#how-the-manuscript-argument-completes-the-comparison","k":"Article","s":"How the manuscript argument completes the comparison","b":"How the manuscript argument completes the comparison The literary argument becomes most powerful when joined to the evidence of the Birs. Both authors maintain that Raagmala belongs to the original writing of the Kartarpur Bir. Tehal Singh reports its presence in the body and indexes; Balbir Singh reproduces inspection reports and records his own visit. 12 If that manuscript identification and assessment are accepted, they place a substantial obstacle before the claim that Raagmala was later imported from Alam’s poem. The proposed source must then be shown to precede the manuscript evidence, or the assessment of that evidence must be challenged directly. This is the most important reinforcement between the books. The borrowing claim faces pressure from both sides: uncertainty about the alleged donor text’s date and form, and positive testimony concerning Raagmala’s place in the Bir. A parallel passage alone cannot resolve either problem. The authors’ shared case is therefore stronger than a simple reversal of an accusation. They require an explanation that accounts for the entire relationship: the earlier story, the later adaptation, the wording of the musical passage, the versions in which it survives, and its reported place in the scriptural manuscript. Their defence gains its force from bringing those questions together. Source notes: This article draws only on the supplied books. Jodh, Bodha, the charitr material, literary notices and editions associated with Alam are discussed through Tehal Singh and Balbir Singh; none has been introduced as an independently consulted source. Printed page numbers precede PDF page numbers."},{"t":"Raagmala in the Birs: The Case for Manuscript Continuity","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-the-birs/","k":"Article","s":"The series","b":"A claim that a composition was added to scripture is a claim about something that happened to a text. At some point, according to that explanation, words absent from an earlier form entered a later one. Arguments about literary style or musical vocabulary can suggest questions, but the handwritten volumes themselves bring the discussion closer to the proposed event. This is why the Birs occupy such an important place in both Sant Tehal Singh’s Gur Gira Raagmala Mandan Prabodh Granth and Dr Balbir Singh’s Ragmala Da Swal . A Bir is a volume of the scripture; in these discussions, the authors are particularly concerned with historic handwritten volumes. Both ask whether Raagmala belongs to their original writing or appears to have been introduced afterwards. Tehal Singh contributes an inventory extending across several locations and custodians. Balbir Singh gives sustained attention to the Kartarpur Bir, reproducing inspection reports and adding an account of his own examination. Their work reinforces one another through the combination of breadth and detail. The resulting case is much more specific than the assertion that Raagmala has long been accepted. It concerns writing, indexes, pagination and the relationship between the disputed composition and the rest of a manuscript."},{"t":"Raagmala in the Birs: The Case for Manuscript Continuity","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-the-birs/#what-would-make-a-manuscript-observation-significant","k":"Article","s":"What would make a manuscript observation significant?","b":"What would make a manuscript observation significant? The presence of Raagmala in a manuscript is an important starting point, but the two authors frequently ask for more. Does its handwriting agree with the surrounding text? Does the ink appear consistent? Is the composition included in the tatkara , the table of contents or index? Does that entry point to the place where Raagmala actually occurs? These observations address different possibilities. A composition written on spare leaves at a later date could have a different relationship to a volume from one copied continuously with the main text. Likewise, an index entry agreeing with the text can support the view that the composition belonged to the manuscript’s planned arrangement. That is why the recurring references to one pen or one hand matter. They are claims about continuity within a physical witness. The claim becomes more informative when accompanied by a named volume, a location, a date of inspection and an account of what was examined. Such observations should also be described accurately. A historical reader’s judgment that ink and handwriting match is visual testimony. It is not a laboratory analysis of ink or paper. The books’ manuscript case should stand on the evidence they actually report."},{"t":"Raagmala in the Birs: The Case for Manuscript Continuity","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-the-birs/#tehal-singh-s-move-from-argument-to-named-volumes","k":"Article","s":"Tehal Singh’s move from argument to named volumes","b":"Tehal Singh’s move from argument to named volumes Near the end of his book, Tehal Singh turns to a sequence of descriptions of old Birs. He identifies locations and custodians, discusses signatures and dates attributed to the volumes, and repeatedly notes the presence of Raagmala in the text and in indexes. 1 The Kartarpur Bir comes first. Tehal Singh identifies it as the original Bir prepared under Guru Arjan Dev Ji through Bhai Gurdas Ji. He states that Raagmala is present in the same writing and in both the smaller and larger indexes. On the following page, he says that he has visited the volume on several occasions in the company of others. 2 His account of the Bir associated with Bhai Banno at Mangat is more expansive. He describes a gathering at which the volume was viewed, records the question of whether Raagmala appeared in the same ink and hand, and names several people present. The report is framed as a public examination connected with his defence of the composition. 3 The later entries extend the geographical reach. They include volumes at Rawalpindi, Attock and Lahore, alongside other locations. Some entries give a date and companions for Tehal Singh’s own visit. Others are shorter descriptions or invitations to readers to investigate. These different forms of testimony should retain their distinctions. Volume or location in Tehal Singh’s account What he reports What it contributes Kartarpur Bir Raagmala in the text and indexes, with continuity of writing; repeated visits The connection with the foundational manuscript claimed by both authors Bhai Banno Bir at Mangat Examination in company; Raagmala and the preceding closing material described as continuous in hand and ink A second manuscript tradition with a reported occasion of inspection Attock volume Raagmala in the text and indexes; a visit with named companions A further located witness to its transmission Lahore volume in Bhai Hem Singh’s care Raagmala in the text and indexes, described as written in the same hand and ink Additional testimony from another custodial setting Tehal Singh describes his closing inventory as covering twenty-five volumes. The value of the list is not simply its size. It gives the reader places, custodians and features to examine. His defence moves from a general appeal to tradition towards assertions attached to particular objects. 4"},{"t":"Raagmala in the Birs: The Case for Manuscript Continuity","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-the-birs/#why-a-longer-list-is-not-automatically-twenty-five-independe","k":"Article","s":"Why a longer list is not automatically twenty-five independent proofs","b":"Why a longer list is not automatically twenty-five independent proofs Tehal Singh’s own descriptions also show why manuscript evidence needs interpretation. He identifies some volumes as copies belonging to a particular line of transmission. Related copies can demonstrate circulation and continuity, but they may share a single earlier exemplar. Consequently, the number of volumes and the number of independent lines of evidence are different questions. Several copies can preserve the same inherited arrangement. Their agreement is still valuable, especially when compared with a proposed late or local addition, but their relationships affect how much independent confirmation they provide. The book also discusses reports of Birs without Raagmala. Tehal Singh answers those cases by proposing explanations involving omissions, incomplete copying and the circumstances of particular volumes. 5 This is an important feature of the source. His defence is not accurately represented by saying that every old manuscript contains Raagmala without exception. He acknowledges the contrary examples raised in the debate and argues that their absence can be explained. The comparative point is stronger when stated precisely: the presence or absence of a passage has to be understood through the history and condition of the witness. Neither a count of manuscripts nor an isolated omission supplies the whole explanation."},{"t":"Raagmala in the Birs: The Case for Manuscript Continuity","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-the-birs/#balbir-singh-concentrates-on-the-kartarpur-bir","k":"Article","s":"Balbir Singh concentrates on the Kartarpur Bir","b":"Balbir Singh concentrates on the Kartarpur Bir Balbir Singh develops the manuscript discussion by focusing on specific disputed assertions about Kartarpur. His concern is not only whether Raagmala can be found somewhere in the volume. He asks whether it lies within the manuscript’s recorded extent, whether the index agrees, and whether its writing belongs with the main text. He reproduces a statement following an inspection on 10 September 1945. The eight signatories report Raagmala at the manuscript’s numbered location 974. They describe agreement in writing, paper, ink, line formation and related features, and state that the index also lists Raagmala at that number. They conclude that it was present from the time the Bir was prepared. 6 The number 974 belongs to the pagination of the manuscript being discussed. It should be retained in that context. Replacing it with the familiar pagination of a different format would obscure the precise issue being examined. Balbir Singh then introduces an inspection undertaken on 7 October 1945 by a subcommittee of the religious advisory body of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee. The report bears the names of Principal Jodh Singh, Professor Teja Singh and Principal Ganga Singh. It explains the pagination and confirms the agreement between the index reference and the location of Raagmala. 7 This Professor Teja Singh should not be confused with Babu Teja Singh of Bhasaur, whose publications Balbir Singh criticises elsewhere. The shared name can otherwise make the account needlessly confusing. The significance of the October report lies in its response to a particular problem: how the manuscript’s leaves and openings are numbered. If the numbering system has been misunderstood, an argument that Raagmala sits outside the recorded manuscript can rest on a mistaken description of the object."},{"t":"Raagmala in the Birs: The Case for Manuscript Continuity","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-the-birs/#balbir-singh-s-own-inspection","k":"Article","s":"Balbir Singh’s own inspection","b":"Balbir Singh’s own inspection Later in the book, Balbir Singh records a visit to Kartarpur on 23 December 1945 with Sardar Sahib Narain Singh, a retired railway officer from Amritsar. Their signed statement reports four hours with the Bir. They identify it as the original Adi Bir, affirm that Raagmala at location 974 belongs to its original writing, and say that the index supports the conclusion. 8 The statement also describes a check against notes from the September inspection. The points they were able to examine in the available time were found to be correct. This is a useful qualification: it records the extent of the check rather than claiming an unlimited examination of every earlier observation. Balbir Singh then provides reproductions he identifies as tracings from the beginning and end of the manuscript. He uses them to illustrate his claim of continuity in the writing. The pages are presented as tracings, and should be described that way; they are not photographs of the original leaves. 9 Taken together, the three 1945 accounts offer a series of identifiable examinations: Inspection Evidence emphasised in Balbir Singh’s account 10 September 1945 Raagmala at 974; agreement in writing and physical appearance; matching index entry 7 October 1945 Explanation of pagination; agreement of index and text; findings about the volume’s contents 23 December 1945 Balbir Singh and Narain Singh’s judgment on original writing; confirmation of the earlier notes they checked These are distinct reported visits, though the later examiners knew of and checked earlier observations. Their relationship is better described as repeated examination and cross-checking than as three entirely isolated discoveries."},{"t":"Raagmala in the Birs: The Case for Manuscript Continuity","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-the-birs/#keep-the-manuscript-traditions-separate","k":"Article","s":"Keep the manuscript traditions separate","b":"Keep the manuscript traditions separate One further feature of Balbir Singh’s discussion is especially important for comparing the books. The October report states that several additional compositions attributed to the Kartarpur Bir in earlier descriptions are not present in the volume inspected. Balbir Singh uses this to challenge the accuracy of those descriptions. 7 Tehal Singh, meanwhile, discusses additional closing material in the Bhai Banno tradition and in other volumes. Those accounts should not be merged into a single composite description of “the ancient Bir.” Different manuscripts can have different contents and arrangements. This distinction protects the argument about Raagmala. An observation made about one manuscript cannot be transferred to another merely because both are old Birs. The claim needs to stay attached to the witness: which volume, which passage, which index, which hand? Here Balbir Singh’s close focus strengthens the use of Tehal Singh’s wider inventory. The earlier book supplies a range of witnesses; the later book demonstrates the importance of resolving disputed descriptions of a particular witness."},{"t":"Raagmala in the Birs: The Case for Manuscript Continuity","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-the-birs/#what-the-agreement-between-the-authors-adds","k":"Article","s":"What the agreement between the authors adds","b":"What the agreement between the authors adds The authors’ most consequential agreement concerns Kartarpur. Tehal Singh reports Raagmala in the manuscript’s continuous writing and indexes. Balbir Singh provides later inspection testimony addressing the same features in greater detail. Their descriptions converge on a composition integrated with the volume, rather than merely attached to it without relation to its arrangement. For their defence, this has direct implications for the claim of a later addition. Such a claim needs to explain the reported continuity of writing and the index entry. It also needs to account for the transmission reflected in other Birs. The manuscript evidence therefore places a substantial burden on a theory built only from literary resemblance to Alam’s poem. The practical limits remain clear. These books provide historical descriptions and reports; reading them does not amount to personally examining the original manuscripts. Moreover, identifying a passage as part of a manuscript’s original copying addresses its place in that witness. It does not, by itself, identify the individual who first composed every line. Those limits do not cancel the evidence. They identify its strongest application. Tehal Singh and Balbir Singh offer a cumulative case for manuscript continuity, joining a range of reported witnesses with repeated, detailed examination of Kartarpur. Their shared question is concrete: does the proposed story of insertion adequately explain the manuscript as these observers describe it? That question gives the debate a firmer historical centre. Raagmala’s place must be considered through the recorded features of the Birs as well as through the arguments made about its words. Source notes: All manuscript details are reported from the two supplied books. Dates, custodians, locations, signatures and identifications are those recorded by the authors; this article does not claim a new examination or establish present-day custody. Printed pages are followed by PDF pages."},{"t":"From Endorsement to Examination: How Two Defences Strengthen the Case for Raagmala","u":"/articles/from-endorsement-to-examination/","k":"Article","s":"The series","b":"The opening pages of Sant Tehal Singh’s defence of Raagmala contain something more personal than a list of arguments. They preserve declarations of approval, names of supporters, statements associated with religious centres, and letters from readers who wanted the work published. The pages convey a community responding to a dispute about the scripture it revered. Dr Balbir Singh’s later Ragmala Da Swal also treats the dispute as a matter of collective importance. Alongside literary comparison, it discusses public controversy, the preservation of the Bir and efforts to inspect the manuscript at the centre of the argument. Both authors believe Raagmala belongs within Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. What makes their books valuable together is the variety of ways in which they defend that belief. Community testimony, textual reasoning and manuscript examination each contribute something different. Understanding those contributions produces a stronger cumulative case than treating every endorsement as though it proved every historical claim."},{"t":"From Endorsement to Examination: How Two Defences Strengthen the Case for Raagmala","u":"/articles/from-endorsement-to-examination/#what-tehal-singh-s-endorsements-show","k":"Article","s":"What Tehal Singh’s endorsements show","b":"What Tehal Singh’s endorsements show Tehal Singh’s Gur Gira Raagmala Mandan Prabodh Granth , bearing the date 1908 on its cover, responds to objections presented under the second problem in Khalsa Rahit Prakash . In his prefatory appeal, he asks knowledgeable readers to consider the work and send their judgments. His concern includes the divisions that the controversy has created within the Panth. 1 The following pages record a substantial network of approval. They include statements associated with Kesgarh Sahib, Damdama Sahib, Muktsar, Bhaini Sahib and the Bhai Rupa lineage, along with many named individuals. Some statements describe hearing or considering the work; others affirm the status and recitation of Raagmala or encourage publication. 2 This material is evidence of support across several settings. It shows that Tehal Singh’s defence was shared, discussed and welcomed beyond the author’s immediate circle. It also reveals the social purpose of the book: to answer objections in a form that could circulate among readers and congregations. The numbering continues beyond 121 to entries numbered through 131. Even so, a numerical total should not be turned into a claim that every person performed the same investigation or signed an identical scholarly finding. The pages contain several forms of assent, with different scopes. The distinction is visible even in the presentation of institutional authority. The Kesgarh statement explains why a seal was not affixed: those concerned were dispersed and difficult to assemble. Other declarations reproduce seals. Describing the entire collection as a single formally sealed verdict would flatten details that the source itself preserves. The most accurate description is substantial documented support for the defence. A universal settlement of the debate would require a different kind of evidence, and the existence of the controversy throughout both books makes that stronger claim especially difficult to sustain."},{"t":"From Endorsement to Examination: How Two Defences Strengthen the Case for Raagmala","u":"/articles/from-endorsement-to-examination/#read-each-testimonial-for-what-it-actually-says","k":"Article","s":"Read each testimonial for what it actually says","b":"Read each testimonial for what it actually says Two endorsements show why close reading matters. The first is associated with Dr Charan Singh. Before presenting it, Tehal Singh explains that the original letter has been misplaced and that Charan Singh has died. He therefore reproduces portions from memory and names people connected with the occasion. The passage should be read as Tehal Singh’s remembered account of the endorsement, rather than as a complete surviving letter. 3 Within that account, Charan Singh is said to have checked references against books in his possession while reading the defence. This is a meaningful form of scholarly engagement. It is not a claim that he owned and authenticated a collection of ancient Birs. The difference matters because it determines which part of Tehal Singh’s case the testimonial supports. The same remembered endorsement contains another revealing detail: Tehal Singh reportedly softened passages at Charan Singh’s suggestion. The concern was not simply whether the author reached the preferred conclusion. It included how the argument was expressed to fellow Sikhs. The second example is Giani Shardul Singh’s statement dated 25 December 1908. He explicitly says that limited time prevented him from reading the entire book. He had heard objections and responses, found the replies appropriate, and supported publication. 4 That is a positive endorsement, but it is also a qualified one. Preserving the qualification respects the witness’s own words. Expanding it into a claim of complete textual verification would weaken the accuracy of the account. Jawahar Singh Kapur’s designation as a Fellow of Punjab University needs similar care. It identifies the standing of the individual endorsing the work; it does not, by itself, transform his letter into an official university judgment. 5 These details make the endorsement pages more interesting. They show different readers participating in different ways: examining references, listening to arguments, encouraging publication and asking for a more measured tone. The historical record gains depth when those roles remain visible."},{"t":"From Endorsement to Examination: How Two Defences Strengthen the Case for Raagmala","u":"/articles/from-endorsement-to-examination/#balbir-singh-distinguishes-preservation-from-adjudication","k":"Article","s":"Balbir Singh distinguishes preservation from adjudication","b":"Balbir Singh distinguishes preservation from adjudication Balbir Singh’s opening address provides a useful counterpart to the endorsements. He presents the integrity of the Bir as an issue affecting the community as a whole. Yet a document he quotes also shows why defending preservation and settling authorship must be distinguished. The Patiala order dated 20 May 1918, as reproduced in his book, responds to the printing of volumes without Raagmala. It directs remedial action while expressly declining to enter the question of whether Raagmala is Gurbani. 6 That wording is important. The order supports preservation of the received volume without presenting itself as a final determination of the theological dispute. Its practical direction and its stated scope must be read together. This helps clarify the different kinds of authority present in the two books. A supportive letter shows what its writer accepted. A collective declaration records the position of those represented. An order may govern a particular action. A manuscript report describes an examination. Each can be important without doing the work of all the others. The comparison also guards against a misleading account of historical unanimity. Tehal Singh gathers support in a period of controversy; Balbir Singh’s later work shows the debate continuing. Their agreement is real, but it is the agreement of two defenders and the witnesses they present, rather than evidence that every Sikh authority had reached the same conclusion."},{"t":"From Endorsement to Examination: How Two Defences Strengthen the Case for Raagmala","u":"/articles/from-endorsement-to-examination/#examination-gives-testimony-a-more-specific-object","k":"Article","s":"Examination gives testimony a more specific object","b":"Examination gives testimony a more specific object Balbir Singh’s reproduction of the 1945 Kartarpur inspection reports adds a different kind of support. The reports do not simply state that their signatories favour Raagmala. They identify features of the manuscript: its writing, pagination, index entry and the location of the composition. 7 Tehal Singh had already reported similar features in his description of Kartarpur and in his wider inventory of Birs. The later reports therefore strengthen a particular part of the earlier defence. They return to the physical questions on which the claim of continuity depends. The distinction between endorsement and examination helps explain why this is valuable. Agreement with an author’s conclusion does not necessarily add a new observation. A further inspection can do so, especially when it addresses a disputed point in enough detail for the reader to understand what was checked. Even here, the relationship between reports matters. Balbir Singh’s December statement explicitly describes checking some of the notes taken during the September visit. The later testimony is connected with the earlier investigation. Its contribution is confirmation of the points examined, not an entirely separate discovery of every fact. The strongest use of these books therefore asks two questions together: what do the witnesses agree about, and how did each reach or support that judgment?"},{"t":"From Endorsement to Examination: How Two Defences Strengthen the Case for Raagmala","u":"/articles/from-endorsement-to-examination/#a-defence-can-become-stronger-by-correcting-itself","k":"Article","s":"A defence can become stronger by correcting itself","b":"A defence can become stronger by correcting itself Balbir Singh’s treatment of readers’ corrections provides another useful comparison with Tehal Singh’s invitation to scrutiny. In one chapter, Balbir Singh acknowledges a correction concerning the publication date of Gurmat Sudhakar : 1899 rather than 1901. He explains the source of his earlier statement and adjusts the point under discussion. 8 In another, he revises his description of the metre in Jodh’s Sanskrit work. His initial impression had been formed through a Gurmukhi presentation of the verses. After reading the manuscript in Devanagari, he accepts that the verses are in Anushtubh metre. 9 The second example is particularly instructive. A conclusion about the form of a work changes when the author consults a more suitable witness. The correction concerns a detail within the broader defence; acknowledging it does not require abandoning every other argument. These moments should not be used to portray either book as free from polemic. Both contain sharp language, and some historical or devotional claims are asserted more confidently than the evidence presented would allow a modern reader to verify. But the books also preserve practices worth retaining: inviting judgment, checking references, revisiting a manuscript and correcting a mistake. The remembered account of Charan Singh asking for gentler wording and Balbir Singh’s acceptance of a textual correction illuminate different aspects of responsible argument. One concerns how a case is addressed to the community; the other concerns how it responds to evidence."},{"t":"From Endorsement to Examination: How Two Defences Strengthen the Case for Raagmala","u":"/articles/from-endorsement-to-examination/#where-the-cumulative-case-becomes-strongest","k":"Article","s":"Where the cumulative case becomes strongest","b":"Where the cumulative case becomes strongest The two books reinforce one another most effectively when their contributions are connected to the specific questions they answer. Question Tehal Singh’s contribution Balbir Singh’s contribution The resulting reinforcement Must musical arrangements match? Discussion of differing classifications and scriptural headings Explanation of different kinds of order and close analysis of names A difference in arrangement needs interpretation before it becomes an objection Are the tests of authenticity reliable? Counterexamples to rules based on signatures, headings and subject matter Scrutiny of linguistic standards and comparison texts The proposed test must be established and consistently applied Does resemblance to Alam prove borrowing into scripture? Challenges to the proposed original and its dating Analysis of adaptation, chronology, variants and narrative setting Resemblance alone leaves the direction of borrowing unresolved Was Raagmala added later to the Bir? Descriptions of Kartarpur and other named manuscripts Detailed inspection reports and a personal examination The addition theory must address the reported writing, index and pagination How was the defence received and developed? Endorsements, requests for judgment and reported revision Public controversy, repeated examination and acknowledged corrections Support becomes more informative when its basis and scope are clear The gain is cumulative because these lines of argument address different weaknesses in the case against Raagmala. The musical discussion answers an expectation about order. The textual discussion tests proposed criteria. The Alam comparison examines the alleged source. The manuscript reports address the composition’s place in a physical witness. No single endorsement needs to carry all of that weight. Nor must every supporting historical detail be equally strong for the comparison to have value. The important task is to connect the evidence to the conclusion it can actually support. That produces a clear shared defence: Raagmala should not be rejected through inconsistent textual tests, an assumed direction of literary borrowing, or descriptions of manuscripts that fail to account for their reported features. Tehal Singh establishes several of these challenges; Balbir Singh deepens them through extended comparison and examination. Their agreement is most persuasive where it remains open to inspection. Names, pages, readings, dates and manuscript features give the reader something to follow. The enduring strength of the two books lies in that movement from conviction towards a case whose parts can be examined together. Source notes: Only the two supplied books are used. Historical orders and endorsements are discussed as reproduced in those books; no claim is made here about present-day liturgical regulations. References use printed pages followed by PDF pages."},{"t":"The Raagmala Debate: Understanding Sant Tehal Singh’s Defence","u":"/articles/understanding-the-raagmala-debate/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Gur Gira","b":"For Sant Tehal Singh, the question of Raagmala was inseparable from a larger responsibility: how should Sikhs receive, preserve and read the scripture entrusted to them by the Gurus? Raagmala stands at the conclusion of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and describes musical raags through the language of families, companions and descendants. Its position, language and attribution became the subjects of the objections that Tehal Singh answers in Gur Gira Raagmala Mandan Prabodh . His response brings together scriptural comparison, musical explanation, historical writings, manuscript descriptions and the testimony of fellow Sikhs. The book is an explicit defence of Raagmala as Gurbani. Reading it properly means understanding how that defence works: which objection each answer addresses, what evidence the author presents, and why he believes the disagreement matters to the life of the Panth."},{"t":"The Raagmala Debate: Understanding Sant Tehal Singh’s Defence","u":"/articles/understanding-the-raagmala-debate/#a-book-written-in-the-midst-of-a-dispute","k":"Article","s":"A book written in the midst of a dispute","b":"A book written in the midst of a dispute The title page identifies the work as a response to “Difficulty No. 2”, the Raagmala question in Khalsa Rahit Prakash . Within that larger question, Tehal Singh works through twelve objections. The title page bears the year 1908, while the preliminary endorsements include letters dated in both 1908 and January 1909. The volume therefore preserves a discussion extending across those years. It does not establish that the controversy itself began in 1908. 1 The opening prarthna , or appeal, explains the author's immediate concern. Questions about the scripture were spreading through the community, and he feared they would damage the fellowship that Sikh teachers, publications and institutions had worked to strengthen. His image of a carefully gathered community being pulled apart gives the dispute a personal urgency. The endorsements describe the debate moving through books, tracts and newspapers, as well as conversation. Whether Raagmala should be read at the bhog , the completion of a reading of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, had become a practical question. The argument affected what people did together in the presence of the Guru. This explains the book's mixture of reasoning and emotion. Tehal Singh believes that an apparently small editorial decision could carry consequences for the authority of the entire received text."},{"t":"The Raagmala Debate: Understanding Sant Tehal Singh’s Defence","u":"/articles/understanding-the-raagmala-debate/#what-mandan-means-in-this-work","k":"Article","s":"What “Mandan” means in this work","b":"What “Mandan” means in this work Here, mandan means a defence or vindication. Prabodh carries the sense of clarification or awakening to understanding. The title announces an effort to explain why Raagmala should be accepted and to answer the doubts raised against it. The structure follows that purpose. An objection, or shanka , is stated, followed by an answer. Verse passages introduce and summarise points; prose develops the reasoning. Readers encounter a sustained exchange with opposing claims, rather than a single uninterrupted declaration of belief. Tehal Singh also asks readers to weigh the work and send their considered opinion. His preferred outcome is agreement with the defence, but he still wants the argument examined. Several supporters similarly recommend publication because they believe an explanation will benefit the sangat. 1 The tone is not consistently gentle. Some passages sharply criticise opponents and their motives. A faithful account should recognise that polemical setting without making the personal accusations the centre of the argument. The book's most useful contribution lies in the questions it asks readers to investigate."},{"t":"The Raagmala Debate: Understanding Sant Tehal Singh’s Defence","u":"/articles/understanding-the-raagmala-debate/#the-objections-are-about-different-things","k":"Article","s":"The objections are about different things","b":"The objections are about different things One reason the debate can become confusing is that several separate issues are treated as though they were the same question. An objection about the absence of “Nanak” concerns a literary marker. An objection about Alam concerns authorship and borrowing. An objection about Mundavani concerns the scripture's conclusion. A manuscript without Raagmala raises questions about copying and transmission. Tehal Singh addresses these through different kinds of evidence: Issue The question being raised The direction of his answer Headings and signatures Must every accepted composition have a Mahalla heading or the name “Nanak”? Compare the proposed rule with other accepted passages. Mundavani Does its position exclude everything that follows it? Examine the following Salok, related wording elsewhere and manuscript arrangements. Musical classification Why does Raagmala not reproduce the scripture's raag headings exactly? Explain different musical classifications and the purpose of a raagmala. Devotional meaning Can musical names form part of sacred scripture? Compare musical instructions already accepted within the text. Alam and other literary accounts Does a similar passage in another work prove that Raagmala was imported? Examine versions, dates, attribution and competing accounts of inclusion. Manuscripts What do the presence and absence of Raagmala in particular birs establish? Consider indexes, handwriting, attributed marks, completeness and copying history. The later objections examine the authorities cited in the debate, including Giani Gian Singh's historical writing, Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha's Gurmat Sudhakar , Suraj Prakash and Pandit Tara Singh. Tehal Singh compares their statements with one another and with passages he quotes from Gurbilas Patshahi 6 . These are presented as parts of the book's own argument, rather than as authorities all making the same claim. Answering one objection does not automatically answer every other objection. The book's defence is cumulative: Tehal Singh expects its different lines of reasoning to support one another. 2"},{"t":"The Raagmala Debate: Understanding Sant Tehal Singh’s Defence","u":"/articles/understanding-the-raagmala-debate/#why-the-missing-signature-is-not-the-whole-question","k":"Article","s":"Why the missing signature is not the whole question","b":"Why the missing signature is not the whole question The first three objections concern the absence of a Mahalla heading, the name “Nanak”, and an attribution comparable to those associated with Bhagats or Bhatts. Tehal Singh responds by asking whether the same requirements are applied consistently elsewhere. He points to Japji Sahib, which does not begin with a Mahalla heading, and to individual pauris that do not contain the name “Nanak”. He also discusses short passages near the ends of other collections. 3 The force of the comparison is straightforward. A feature cannot serve as an exceptionless test if accepted scripture contains exceptions to it. A missing marker therefore needs to be understood in context. He then makes the reverse point: a heading or a sacred name can also appear in a composition whose inclusion is disputed. The appearance of a familiar marker does not settle the entire question either. His argument consequently moves the reader beyond a checklist. Literary form is relevant, but it must be read alongside the history and arrangement of the composition."},{"t":"The Raagmala Debate: Understanding Sant Tehal Singh’s Defence","u":"/articles/understanding-the-raagmala-debate/#why-the-music-deserves-closer-attention","k":"Article","s":"Why the music deserves closer attention","b":"Why the music deserves closer attention Another objection concerns the relationship between Raagmala and the raags under which Gurbani is arranged. If the two sets of names do not correspond exactly, does that make Raagmala an inappropriate conclusion? Tehal Singh's answer depends on the existence of different musical systems. He discusses traditions associated with Shiv, Hanumat, Bharat and Kalinath, and the ways names and classifications can vary. A musical form described as a raag in one setting may be placed differently in another. 4 He also distinguishes the thirty-one raags used for the scripture's main organisation from the broader musical enumeration he discusses in Raagmala. His explanation therefore gives Raagmala a wider purpose than an ordinary contents page. That is a useful correction to a common shorthand. Calling Raagmala a “musical index” can help a new reader, but it becomes misleading if it suggests an exact list of the preceding sections in their printed order. Tehal Singh's own response accepts that there is a difference to explain. The related objection that musical names lack devotional content receives a contextual answer. The scripture already contains musical headings and directions. For the author, these belong to its authorised form even when a reader does not find an explicit statement about the Divine in each individual phrase."},{"t":"The Raagmala Debate: Understanding Sant Tehal Singh’s Defence","u":"/articles/understanding-the-raagmala-debate/#manuscripts-are-central-to-the-defence","k":"Article","s":"Manuscripts are central to the defence","b":"Manuscripts are central to the defence The final part of the book turns to historical birs , or manuscript volumes of the scripture. Tehal Singh describes Raagmala in the body of manuscripts and in their tatkaras , or indexes. He repeatedly notes what he considers continuity of handwriting and ink, together with marks attributed to particular Gurus. 5 Kartarpur occupies a central position because he identifies its bir with the compilation written by Bhai Gurdas Ji under Guru Arjan Dev Ji. He also discusses the Bhai Banno tradition, manuscripts in Rawalpindi and other towns, and holdings associated with Patna Sahib, Hazur Sahib and Amritsar. An index entry matters to his reasoning because it suggests that Raagmala was recognised as part of the volume's planned contents. Continuity of writing matters because it challenges the suggestion of a visibly separate addition. A history of copying matters because it connects one witness to another. These are the author's reported observations and interpretations. The scanned book gives readers his descriptions, including printed representations of the wording of certain marks; it does not supply a complete photographic examination of the manuscripts themselves. The book also acknowledges copies without Raagmala. Tehal Singh argues that these need to be examined for omissions, incompleteness, date and authority. His position is more specific than a claim that every manuscript is identical."},{"t":"The Raagmala Debate: Understanding Sant Tehal Singh’s Defence","u":"/articles/understanding-the-raagmala-debate/#the-role-of-ram-rai-and-bhai-mani-singh-ji","k":"Article","s":"The role of Ram Rai and Bhai Mani Singh Ji","b":"The role of Ram Rai and Bhai Mani Singh Ji Alongside textual and manuscript arguments, Tehal Singh uses religious narratives to explain the seriousness of changing Gurbani. His account of Ram Rai centres on the alteration of scriptural wording and the consequences of departing from the Guru's instruction. He also invokes a traditional account linking Bhai Mani Singh Ji's rearrangement of the scripture to the gravity of dividing its established form. 6 These narratives express the author's understanding of obedience and preservation. The Bhai Mani Singh Ji account should be presented as a tradition invoked by the book, rather than as an independently established explanation of his martyrdom. The distinction helps readers see what the stories contribute. They explain why Tehal Singh considers textual arrangement sacred and why he distrusts the idea of an unnoticed, unauthorised alteration being accepted throughout the Panth. They do different work from a dated manuscript description."},{"t":"The Raagmala Debate: Understanding Sant Tehal Singh’s Defence","u":"/articles/understanding-the-raagmala-debate/#the-argument-ultimately-returns-to-the-sangat","k":"Article","s":"The argument ultimately returns to the sangat","b":"The argument ultimately returns to the sangat The book begins with an appeal to the Khalsa and ends with a prayer that hostility between brothers should disappear. Its historical and literary investigations serve that religious purpose. There is a revealing example in the preliminary material. Tehal Singh says Dr Charan Singh encouraged him to replace some severe language with more conciliatory wording. Jawahar Singh Kapoor's endorsement also suggests that the people who raised the questions should not simply be resented: their questions had prompted the production of a useful response. 7 The defence remains firm. Tehal Singh regards Raagmala as Gurbani and supports its reading at bhog. Yet these passages show that explaining the tradition and preserving relationships were both part of the work's intended service. For a reader approaching the debate, the book offers a demanding starting point. Identify the precise objection. Read the answer in full. Distinguish what the author witnessed from what he reports or infers. Then consider how the different arguments fit together. That patient approach does more justice to his work than repeating an isolated quotation or declaring the entire question settled by one missing word."},{"t":"The Raagmala Mystery: Five Insights from a Century-Old Defence","u":"/articles/five-insights-from-a-century-old-defence/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Gur Gira","b":"A missing signature. A musical passage found in another book. An old manuscript with a disputed ending. Each can sound decisive when presented alone. Sant Tehal Singh's Gur Gira Raagmala Mandan Prabodh asks readers to slow down and examine how such claims are connected. Written to defend Raagmala as Gurbani, the book combines close comparisons with accounts of manuscripts, historical testimony and appeals for unity within the Sikh Panth. Its title page bears the year 1908, and its preliminary material includes endorsements extending into January 1909. The arguments belong to that historical setting. Yet the work remains revealing because it shows how much can disappear when a complicated source is reduced to a few confident claims. Here are five insights that emerge from reading the book beyond its headline conclusion."},{"t":"The Raagmala Mystery: Five Insights from a Century-Old Defence","u":"/articles/five-insights-from-a-century-old-defence/#1-a-familiar-signature-cannot-do-all-the-work-of-authenticat","k":"Article","s":"1. A familiar signature cannot do all the work of authentication","b":"1. A familiar signature cannot do all the work of authentication One objection to Raagmala is that it lacks both a Mahalla heading and the name “Nanak”. These are familiar features of Gurbani, so their absence appears significant. Tehal Singh asks a more precise question: are those features compulsory in every accepted passage? He turns to Japji Sahib. It has no opening Mahalla heading, and a number of its individual pauris do not contain the name “Nanak”. He also examines short passages in other accepted collections that do not repeat the expected markers. 1 This exposes a problem with making absence alone decisive. If a rule excludes material already accepted as Gurbani, the rule needs qualification. The relevant questions become the scope of a heading, the boundaries of a composition and the place of a passage within the received text. The book then tests the opposite assumption. Tehal Singh points to other compositions bearing recognisable headings or signatures whose authority cannot simply be taken for granted. Someone can use a familiar marker; its appearance does not, by itself, establish the origin of the words that accompany it. These two arguments belong together. A marker can be valuable evidence without being an automatic certificate. Its absence can deserve investigation without proving that a composition must be external. That is a more useful insight than the slogan that signatures “do not matter”. They matter as part of the evidence. Tehal Singh's objection is to treating them as a universal rule that replaces the rest of the inquiry."},{"t":"The Raagmala Mystery: Five Insights from a Century-Old Defence","u":"/articles/five-insights-from-a-century-old-defence/#2-raagmala-is-more-than-an-ordinary-contents-page","k":"Article","s":"2. Raagmala is more than an ordinary contents page","b":"2. Raagmala is more than an ordinary contents page Raagmala is sometimes explained as a list of the raags in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. The description is convenient, but Tehal Singh's discussion shows why it needs care. The objection he answers is precisely that the names and classifications do not correspond neatly. Some raags used as scriptural headings are not named in the same way in Raagmala. Some names in Raagmala are not headings in the main arrangement. A form may also be classified as a raag in one context and a ragini in another. 2 He does not dismiss the mismatch. He explains it through different musical traditions, including systems associated with Shiv, Hanumat, Bharat and Kalinath. These organise musical relationships differently and can use different names. The book discusses thirty-one raags in the scripture's main organisation and a broader enumeration of eighty-four raags and raginis in Raagmala. Tehal Singh reads that breadth as meaningful. The concluding composition can express a wider musical order than the set of section headings used earlier in the volume. He also gives several explanations for the prominence of Sri Raag at the beginning of the musical arrangement. These involve musical precedence, auspiciousness and devotional interpretation. His response allows more than one association to contribute to the placement of a raag. The result is a richer understanding of the title's “garland”. A garland joins distinct elements into a relationship. In Tehal Singh's account, Raagmala relates musical forms to one another and to the scripture's conclusion. Describing it as a musical catalogue is useful; describing it as an exact table of the preceding contents oversimplifies the explanation."},{"t":"The Raagmala Mystery: Five Insights from a Century-Old Defence","u":"/articles/five-insights-from-a-century-old-defence/#3-similar-wording-does-not-reveal-the-direction-of-borrowing","k":"Article","s":"3. Similar wording does not reveal the direction of borrowing","b":"3. Similar wording does not reveal the direction of borrowing The proposed connection with the poet Alam is one of the book's most extensive subjects. If comparable words appear in a version of the Madhavanal-Kamkandala narrative, does that show that they were copied into Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji? Tehal Singh argues that several steps are missing from that conclusion. First, the relevant text has to be identified. He discusses different versions and reproduces more than one raagmala. Some passages place musical names within the love-story narrative. A passage associated with Alam resembles the scriptural composition more closely. 3 Second, shared musical material must be distinguished from shared wording. Two writers can discuss the same raags because they draw on a common musical classification. A closer verbal resemblance raises a more specific question, but still does not establish which version came first. Third, the dates and the poet's identity must be established. Tehal Singh challenges the chronology used by opponents and proposes that the transmission could have gone in the opposite direction: from scripture into a later literary work. His position is a historical argument, with premises that need to remain visible. The existence of a similar passage alone does not prove his proposed direction of borrowing, just as it does not prove the direction proposed by his opponents. The book's comparison is therefore most valuable when read as a sequence of questions: which version, attributed to whom, dated how, and connected to which manuscript? Removing those questions leaves a much weaker argument, even if the conclusion is expressed more loudly."},{"t":"The Raagmala Mystery: Five Insights from a Century-Old Defence","u":"/articles/five-insights-from-a-century-old-defence/#4-an-index-entry-matters-but-manuscripts-have-individual-his","k":"Article","s":"4. An index entry matters, but manuscripts have individual histories","b":"4. An index entry matters, but manuscripts have individual histories The manuscript survey at the end of the book repeatedly draws attention to the tatkara , or index. Tehal Singh reports Raagmala in the indexes as well as in the concluding text of several historical birs, including the Kartarpur Bir. 4 This gives him an argument about the structure of a volume. A composition mentioned in an index has been recognised as part of its contents. If its writing also appears continuous with the surrounding text, that combination challenges the picture of a casually attached extra passage. The survey contains more detail than a simple list of names. There are accounts of visits, custodians, dates, attributed signatures, rebinding and the later placement of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji's Bani. Some manuscripts are described as copies of other manuscripts. Several entries concern groups of volumes. Those distinctions affect how the evidence should be understood. Three copies of the same exemplar show the circulation of that exemplar's text. They do not necessarily provide three independent accounts of its first compilation. A later addition elsewhere in a volume does not, by itself, date Raagmala. An old binding is not automatically the original binding. Tehal Singh also addresses manuscripts said to lack Raagmala. He interprets those absences through copying errors, omissions and questions about the authority of the copies. The presence of this discussion is significant: the book's defence does not require pretending that no contrary manuscript claim existed. His case is that the witnesses he considers better authenticated carry greater weight. Understanding why he ranks them that way is more informative than counting every entry as an identical unit of proof."},{"t":"The Raagmala Mystery: Five Insights from a Century-Old Defence","u":"/articles/five-insights-from-a-century-old-defence/#5-preserving-the-order-of-gurbani-has-a-religious-meaning","k":"Article","s":"5. Preserving the order of Gurbani has a religious meaning","b":"5. Preserving the order of Gurbani has a religious meaning Tehal Singh's concern extends beyond the words of an individual composition. He also regards the received arrangement of Gurbani as something a Sikh has a duty to preserve. To explain that conviction, he invokes a traditional account of Bhai Mani Singh Ji. In the narrative as the book presents it, the scripture was rearranged by author, separating compositions that had belonged within its established musical organisation. The account connects that separation with the imagery of Bhai Mani Singh Ji's subsequent martyrdom, in which his body was cut joint by joint. 5 Tehal Singh uses the story to express a correspondence between the integrity of the Guru's scriptural form and the seriousness of dividing it. The arrangement is treated as sacred, rather than as an editor's freely adjustable choice. The story's role needs to remain clear. It is a religious tradition invoked within the defence, not an independently established historical explanation of the martyrdom. Its purpose in the argument is to make readers understand why alteration carries such gravity for the author. His comparison with Ram Rai works in a related way. The account of changing scriptural wording illustrates the obligation to remain faithful to the Guru's instruction. Tehal Singh asks why an unauthorised addition of an entire composition would have escaped the concern attached to smaller changes. These narratives show that his defence has a devotional foundation as well as a textual method. For him, questions of authorship and manuscript transmission lead back to obedience, reverence and the responsibilities of the Sikh reader. Yet the book also records efforts to prevent conviction from becoming hostility. Tehal Singh recalls Dr Charan Singh encouraging more conciliatory wording, while Jawahar Singh Kapoor sees value in the questions that prompted the defence. The closing prayer asks for enmity between fellow Sikhs to disappear. Preservation and fellowship are thus connected aims within the work. The author wants the sangat to retain Raagmala and to recover the ability to read, think and act together."},{"t":"The Raagmala Mystery: Five Insights from a Century-Old Defence","u":"/articles/five-insights-from-a-century-old-defence/#a-defence-worth-reading-carefully","k":"Article","s":"A defence worth reading carefully","b":"A defence worth reading carefully Tehal Singh wants readers to accept Raagmala as Gurbani and to complete the scriptural reading with it. The lasting interest of his work lies in the route he takes towards that conclusion. He asks whether a proposed literary rule survives comparison. He distinguishes musical systems. He tests accounts of borrowing against chronology. He describes the contents and histories of manuscripts. He seeks the responses of other members of the Panth. Each of these requires attention to detail. The book becomes more informative when its observations, interpretations and devotional commitments remain visible. Its argument can then be understood in its full form, with the care that a discussion of Gurbani deserves."},{"t":"Who Wrote Raagmala? Sant Tehal Singh’s Response to the Alam Theory","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-alam-authorship-theory/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Gur Gira","b":"One of the central claims challenged in Gur Gira Raagmala Mandan Prabodh is that Raagmala came from a literary work associated with a poet called Alam. On this account, a passage belonging to the Madhavanal-Kamkandala story entered Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji from an external source. Sant Tehal Singh responds at length. He examines the identity assigned to the poet, the versions of the narrative under discussion, competing dates, the wording of musical passages and the circumstances in which Raagmala is said to have entered the scripture. His conclusion is unequivocal: he defends Raagmala as Gurbani and rejects the proposed secular origin. The argument leading to that conclusion is more complicated than the statement that two passages resemble each other, or that a single date disproves every alternative."},{"t":"Who Wrote Raagmala? Sant Tehal Singh’s Response to the Alam Theory","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-alam-authorship-theory/#what-does-the-alam-theory-actually-claim","k":"Article","s":"What does the Alam theory actually claim?","b":"What does the Alam theory actually claim? The book addresses more than one account of Raagmala's inclusion. Some of the authorities it quotes describe a composition accepted by the Guru. Other formulations suggest that Bhai Gurdas Ji, or an unnamed Sikh, attached it. Another objection treats the passage as a pre-existing literary composition that should have no place in the scriptural reading. 1 These accounts raise different questions. A composition knowingly accepted by the Guru would require an argument about authorised inclusion. An unauthorised addition would require an explanation of who inserted it, when, and how it acquired acceptance. Identifying a passage in another work would raise the further question of which text depended on which. Tehal Singh repeatedly draws attention to this variation. He wants critics to specify the account they are defending, because evidence for one version does not automatically establish the others. This is also why the presence of Bhagat Bani matters within his discussion. A claim that words originated with someone other than a Guru is not identical to a claim that they were admitted without the Guru's authority. The book uses that distinction when examining historical accounts that call Alam a bhagat and describe the Guru accepting his contribution. Tehal Singh does not accept those accounts as the final explanation of Raagmala. He uses them to expose a difficulty in arguments that combine authorised acceptance with unauthorised interpolation as if the two were interchangeable."},{"t":"Who Wrote Raagmala? Sant Tehal Singh’s Response to the Alam Theory","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-alam-authorship-theory/#the-first-task-is-to-identify-the-text","k":"Article","s":"The first task is to identify the text","b":"The first task is to identify the text The title Madhavanal does not, in Tehal Singh's treatment, identify a single uniform passage available in one uncontested form. He discusses a Sanskrit narrative, vernacular renderings and musical descriptions associated with the story of Madhavanal and Kamkandala. 2 He reports looking through works and collections in several places, and he distinguishes versions that do not contain the relevant passage from versions alleged to preserve it. He also questions whether the copies invoked by his opponents provide a secure basis for the attribution to Alam. The point is textual before it is chronological. A date attached to one version cannot simply be transferred to every passage in every later rendering of the same story. A title shared across versions does not establish that their contents are identical. His treatment asks the reader to keep several things separate: the narrative itself, a particular retelling, the musical passage within that retelling, and the attribution of that passage to a named poet. Those distinctions are easily lost when the theory is shortened to “Raagmala appears in Alam's book”. Tehal Singh's answer is to ask which book, in which form, and on what evidence the wording is assigned to that author."},{"t":"Who Wrote Raagmala? Sant Tehal Singh’s Response to the Alam Theory","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-alam-authorship-theory/#why-he-reproduces-several-raagmalas","k":"Article","s":"Why he reproduces several raagmalas","b":"Why he reproduces several raagmalas The comparative passages occupy several pages of the work. Tehal Singh reproduces musical enumerations associated with the Madhavanal narrative, a further raagmala attributed in the book to another writer, and the passage presented as Alam's. 3 The comparison is useful at two levels. At the first level, the passages share a musical subject. Raags and raginis are arranged into relationships, with recurring names and groupings. Some agreement can therefore arise because the writers are drawing on a shared musical classification. At the second level, wording and arrangement may resemble one another more closely. That raises a question about literary dependence. Tehal Singh does not treat the mere recurrence of a raag name as equivalent to the copying of an entire composition. Some of the reproduced descriptions remain visibly connected to the story's characters and performances. The more closely related passage presents a different problem. Here the question becomes whether resemblance proves movement from the literary narrative into scripture, or whether movement in the opposite direction is possible. Tehal Singh argues for the latter possibility. He also cites wording from the work under discussion that acknowledges a combination of the writer's own material and the work of others. He interprets that as relevant to the possibility of borrowing. That observation makes the transmission question more open than a simple attribution suggests. It does not identify the source of every borrowed line by itself. His larger case depends on the dates and manuscript history that accompany the comparison."},{"t":"Who Wrote Raagmala? Sant Tehal Singh’s Response to the Alam Theory","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-alam-authorship-theory/#the-chronological-argument-with-its-premises-visible","k":"Article","s":"The chronological argument, with its premises visible","b":"The chronological argument, with its premises visible Tehal Singh treats the Kartarpur compilation dated Bikrami 1661 as a central reference point. Against it, he compares the dates assigned to Alam and to the literary work attributed to him. 4 One of his arguments associates the poet described in a literary catalogue with Bikrami 1712. Subtracting 1661 from 1712 gives fifty-one years. On that identification and dating, the literary witness would be later than the compilation with which he associates the Kartarpur Bir. The arithmetic is simple. The historical identification is the substantive premise. Date or comparison in the discussion Its role in Tehal Singh's argument Bikrami 1661 The compilation date he associates with the Kartarpur Bir. Bikrami 1712 The later date he cites in connection with the poet described in the literary catalogue. Fifty-one years The difference between those two Bikrami dates, conditional on their relevance to the same authorship claim. The verse containing the year 991 A separate date discussed in relation to a Hijri dating argument and the wording of the narrative. Other earlier dates quoted from critics Competing claims that the author compares and challenges elsewhere in the rebuttal. The book also disputes whether a date in a narrative belongs to the events being narrated, an earlier performance, or the act of composition. Tehal Singh examines expressions referring to past and present while making this distinction. This matters because a date inside a story is not automatically a date for every surviving form of that story. The author uses that possibility to challenge an apparently straightforward claim of priority. His later discussion includes an argument about the implausible age a poet would need to reach under another proposed chronology. That should not be merged with the fifty-one-year comparison as though it were the same calculation. The work is responding to several combinations of dates and assumptions. The defensible explanation of his position is therefore conditional: if the relevant poet and passage belong to the later setting he identifies, they cannot explain an earlier Raagmala in the way his opponents propose. Presenting that as a conclusive calculation without its premises would make the argument sound stronger while making it less accurate."},{"t":"Who Wrote Raagmala? Sant Tehal Singh’s Response to the Alam Theory","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-alam-authorship-theory/#the-court-record-argument","k":"Article","s":"The court-record argument","b":"The court-record argument Tehal Singh also challenges the placement of Alam in Akbar's court. He refers to the Ain-i-Akbari and to its accounts of court figures, poets and musicians, arguing that the expected identification of Alam is absent. 5 Within the defence, this puts pressure on a particular biographical claim. If a theory depends on a poet's documented position in a court, it is reasonable to ask for that documentation. The limited nature of the point should remain clear. A person's absence from a particular list does not, on its own, prove that the person never existed or never wrote. It challenges an asserted identification more directly than it resolves the entire authorship question. The evidence here is Tehal Singh's account of those records. He regards the proposed biography as insufficiently established and uses the reference to challenge its documentary basis. He similarly questions the compatibility between an attribution to a Muslim poet and a version beginning with a Ganesh invocation. That is one of the objections he makes to the attribution. An invocation alone, however, cannot supply a complete history of authorship, adaptation and copying. The textual and chronological questions still have to be answered."},{"t":"Who Wrote Raagmala? Sant Tehal Singh’s Response to the Alam Theory","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-alam-authorship-theory/#why-disagreement-among-witnesses-matters","k":"Article","s":"Why disagreement among witnesses matters","b":"Why disagreement among witnesses matters The rebuttal quotes Giani Gian Singh's historical writing and Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha's Gurmat Sudhakar . Tehal Singh compares their statements about authorship, date and the person responsible for inclusion. 6 He objects when a claim moves between “the Guru accepted it”, “Bhai Gurdas Ji added it” and “some Sikh added it”. He also objects to the use of a named authority when different statements attributed to that authority appear to support different explanations. The useful principle here is consistency. A witness should be represented with enough context to show what the witness actually asserts. A quotation about a composition's literary origin should not silently become a quotation proving its unauthorised insertion. The same applies to the book's discussion of Bhai Chaupa Singh's Rahitnama . Tehal Singh distinguishes the cited instruction from the explanatory note attached to it by a later writer. A commentator's interpretation and the wording being interpreted are separate layers of evidence. His language sometimes becomes personally accusatory. The argument can be understood without carrying those accusations forward. What matters for the reader is whether the evidence has been quoted consistently and whether the proposed account explains the facts it invokes."},{"t":"Who Wrote Raagmala? Sant Tehal Singh’s Response to the Alam Theory","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-alam-authorship-theory/#the-manuscript-evidence-completes-his-response","k":"Article","s":"The manuscript evidence completes his response","b":"The manuscript evidence completes his response Tehal Singh's final appeal is to the historical birs he describes. He reports Raagmala in the text and indexes of the Kartarpur Bir and other manuscripts, often with what he regards as continuity of handwriting and ink. 7 This gives the authorship discussion a further requirement. A theory of later insertion must account for the manuscript evidence as he presents it. It needs more than a similar passage in another literary setting. For Tehal Singh, the combination is decisive: the competing biographies and dates are unstable, the literary comparisons do not establish the proposed direction of borrowing, and the manuscript tradition supports Raagmala's place in the scripture. An accurate account of his defence preserves all three parts. It can state his conclusion firmly while identifying the observations and assumptions through which he reaches it. That is the difference between explaining the book's case and merely repeating its verdict."},{"t":"Decoding the Divine Seal: Raagmala, “Nanak” and Mundavani","u":"/articles/decoding-the-divine-seal/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Gur Gira","b":"What makes a composition recognisable as Gurbani? A heading? The name “Nanak”? Its position in an authorised manuscript? Or a combination of these features understood together? Sant Tehal Singh confronts these questions near the beginning of Gur Gira Raagmala Mandan Prabodh . His immediate subject is Raagmala, whose lack of a Mahalla heading and “Nanak” signature had been used to challenge its place in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. The discussion then moves to Mundavani and the claim that a “seal” must exclude everything written after it. Later, the book describes physical signatures and seals associated with historical birs. The word “seal” can therefore refer to several different things. Understanding those differences is essential to following the argument."},{"t":"Decoding the Divine Seal: Raagmala, “Nanak” and Mundavani","u":"/articles/decoding-the-divine-seal/#four-different-questions-hidden-inside-one-word","k":"Article","s":"Four different questions hidden inside one word","b":"Four different questions hidden inside one word Tehal Singh's discussion brings literary identifiers, a concluding composition and manuscript marks into the same defence. They are connected, but they are not interchangeable. Feature What it helps readers identify The question it raises in the debate Mahalla heading The Guru associated with a passage, through the numerical designation. Does every accepted composition repeat such a heading? The name “Nanak” A familiar authorial and devotional signature within Gurbani. Is its presence compulsory in every individual unit? Mundavani A named composition near the conclusion of the scripture. Does understanding it as a seal establish an absolute physical endpoint? Manuscript signatures and seals Marks attributed to Gurus on particular birs. What do their attribution, position and relationship to the contents establish? An answer about one of these does not settle all the others. A verse's literary signature is not the same kind of evidence as a physical mark on a manuscript. A title interpreted as a seal does not automatically tell us how every historical volume was arranged. Tehal Singh's response becomes clearer when these questions are considered separately before their evidence is brought together."},{"t":"Decoding the Divine Seal: Raagmala, “Nanak” and Mundavani","u":"/articles/decoding-the-divine-seal/#the-three-objections-about-missing-identifiers","k":"Article","s":"The three objections about missing identifiers","b":"The three objections about missing identifiers The opening group of objections states that Raagmala has no Mahalla heading, does not contain the name “Nanak”, and does not carry an attribution like those associated with the Bhagats or Bhatts. 1 Tehal Singh answers the three together. His first move is to examine the rule that the objections assume. If an absent identifier disqualifies Raagmala, must it also disqualify any other composition or passage with the same absence? He does not need to argue that headings and signatures are unimportant. They plainly help readers navigate the scripture. His narrower point is that their use is not so mechanically uniform that every individual passage can be judged by the same checklist. This shifts attention from the missing word to the structure in which a passage appears. How large is the unit under consideration? Does a heading identify an entire sequence? Must every smaller unit repeat what its context already establishes? These are questions about how the scripture is read, as well as how it is attributed."},{"t":"Decoding the Divine Seal: Raagmala, “Nanak” and Mundavani","u":"/articles/decoding-the-divine-seal/#japji-sahib-tests-the-proposed-rule","k":"Article","s":"Japji Sahib tests the proposed rule","b":"Japji Sahib tests the proposed rule Tehal Singh's best-known comparison is with Japji Sahib. He notes that it does not open with a Mahalla heading. He also identifies pauris without the name “Nanak”, including the sequence of pauris 12-14 discussed in his answer. 2 The comparison challenges a strict formulation of the objection: every accepted unit must carry the expected heading and signature. Japji Sahib's structure shows that such repetition is not universal. Care is needed in describing what follows from this. A pauri within a larger composition and a separately titled concluding work are different textual units. The comparison therefore does not prove Raagmala's authorship by itself. It establishes that the proposed signature test needs a more precise explanation. That is still a substantial result. Once exceptions are acknowledged, absence alone can no longer perform all the work. The discussion has to return to the composition's context, transmission and claimed authorisation. Tehal Singh supplements Japji Sahib with examples from the saloks associated with Bhagat Farid Ji and from other concluding passages. He draws attention to verses that do not repeat the identifiers his opponents consider necessary. 3 These examples extend the same argument across different parts of the scripture. They ask readers to judge comparable features consistently, including when the passage under examination is one they already accept."},{"t":"Decoding the Divine Seal: Raagmala, “Nanak” and Mundavani","u":"/articles/decoding-the-divine-seal/#a-signature-is-not-automatically-sufficient-either","k":"Article","s":"A signature is not automatically sufficient either","b":"A signature is not automatically sufficient either The reverse comparison is just as significant. Tehal Singh discusses compositions bearing a Mahalla designation or the name “Nanak” that are not thereby accepted as part of the same authorised textual body. Ratanmala is among the examples he invokes. 3 His reasoning now runs in both directions. The absence of a marker is not automatically disqualifying, and its presence is not automatically conclusive. This is why the debate cannot be reduced to counting names. A familiar signature must be interpreted in relation to the whole composition and its transmission. Otherwise, the method would reject accepted passages without the marker while admitting any text that happened to contain it. Within the book's defence, the historical bir and the Guru's authority over its contents supply the larger context. Tehal Singh regards that context as more fundamental than a rigid expectation about the form of every individual verse."},{"t":"Decoding the Divine Seal: Raagmala, “Nanak” and Mundavani","u":"/articles/decoding-the-divine-seal/#what-the-mundavani-objection-assumes","k":"Article","s":"What the Mundavani objection assumes","b":"What the Mundavani objection assumes The next stage concerns Mundavani. The objection treats it as the scripture's seal and argues that Raagmala stands outside that seal. 4 Tehal Singh responds by asking what, precisely, is being identified as the boundary. Is it the heading “Mundavani”? The entire composition that follows the heading? Or a larger group that also includes the following Salok? The distinction matters because the Salok beginning “Tera kita jato nahi” follows Mundavani. If the presence of a seal forbids all subsequent Gurbani, the following Salok requires explanation too. This is a consistency challenge. Tehal Singh asks why one accepted composition can follow the supposed boundary while the same position automatically excludes another. He also pays attention to headings and numbering. The following Salok has its own identity in the arrangement he discusses. It cannot simply be treated as part of Mundavani without explaining that move. His response does not diminish Mundavani. It questions the inference that revering a composition as a seal necessarily makes its final line the only possible physical end of the volume."},{"t":"Decoding the Divine Seal: Raagmala, “Nanak” and Mundavani","u":"/articles/decoding-the-divine-seal/#the-comparison-with-sorath-ki-var","k":"Article","s":"The comparison with Sorath Ki Var","b":"The comparison with Sorath Ki Var Tehal Singh brings in a passage from Sorath Ki Var associated with Guru Amar Das Ji. It uses the word mundavani and the image of food placed in a platter, while further scripture follows it. 4 The comparison lets him ask whether the word always imposes a rule that nothing sacred may come afterwards. If it does not do so there, the proposed rule needs justification when applied to the conclusion of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. He considers the relationship between the two passages' imagery and meaning. His interest is not merely in finding the same word twice. He wants readers to account for how the word works in its setting. This argument is sometimes summarised as “Mundavani seals the spiritual teaching, while Raagmala is its musical index”. That neat formula does not fully represent the book. Tehal Singh goes further: he challenges the absolute-boundary reading, discusses variations in manuscript ordering, and himself presents Raagmala as the concluding seal in the arrangement he defends. The fuller account preserves the actual disagreement. The debate concerns the relationship between meaning, literary placement and authorised textual completion."},{"t":"Decoding the Divine Seal: Raagmala, “Nanak” and Mundavani","u":"/articles/decoding-the-divine-seal/#from-literary-seals-to-manuscript-evidence","k":"Article","s":"From literary seals to manuscript evidence","b":"From literary seals to manuscript evidence In the final manuscript survey, Tehal Singh describes signatures and seals attributed to the Gurus, and he prints the wording of some of them in labelled boxes. 5 This is a different kind of evidence from the name “Nanak” inside a verse. A mark associated with a particular Guru on a bir is used to support the authority of that manuscript and, in the author's reasoning, the contents transmitted within it. Its evidential value depends on several connected questions: whose mark is it, where is it located, what text belongs to the same stage of production, and what later changes does the volume contain? Tehal Singh frequently connects such marks with his observations about handwriting, ink, indexes and the position of Raagmala. The book records those claims. Its typeset boxes are representations of the wording attributed to manuscript marks; they are not photographic facsimiles through which a reader can independently examine the original handwriting. That distinction does not make the descriptions irrelevant. It identifies the evidence accurately: a historical author's account of manuscripts and marks he associates with the Gurus."},{"t":"Decoding the Divine Seal: Raagmala, “Nanak” and Mundavani","u":"/articles/decoding-the-divine-seal/#reading-the-evidence-together","k":"Article","s":"Reading the evidence together","b":"Reading the evidence together Tehal Singh's defence moves from a narrow test to a broader argument. He asks readers to compare the use of headings and signatures, examine the interpretation of Mundavani, and then consider the manuscript tradition in which Raagmala appears. The strength of the method is its insistence that the same rule should apply to comparable cases. If an absence is tolerated in an accepted passage, it needs more explanation before it can become decisive elsewhere. If a seal permits one subsequent composition, the reasoning for excluding another must be stated. The book's conclusion remains that Raagmala is Gurbani and belongs at the completion of the reading. Its argument invites a reader to understand authority through the relationships between words, compositions and manuscripts. A missing signature becomes a question to investigate within that whole, rather than a verdict reached before the investigation begins."},{"t":"The People Behind the Defence: Raagmala Endorsements from 1908-1909","u":"/articles/the-endorsements-of-1908-1909/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Gur Gira","b":"Before Sant Tehal Singh begins his detailed answers about Raagmala, he places a community of readers before the reader of his own book. The preliminary pages of Gur Gira Raagmala Mandan Prabodh contain statements of support, institutional associations, named signatories and letters encouraging publication. They connect the defence with religious centres, learned individuals, family lineages and people engaged in the everyday work of the Sikh community. These pages are valuable in their own right. They show how a defence of Raagmala sought a hearing, how supporters described the dispute, and what they hoped publication would accomplish. Their value becomes clearer when each statement is read according to its own wording and scope."},{"t":"The People Behind the Defence: Raagmala Endorsements from 1908-1909","u":"/articles/the-endorsements-of-1908-1909/#the-publication-and-its-appeal-for-support","k":"Article","s":"The publication and its appeal for support","b":"The publication and its appeal for support The title page names Sant Tehal Singh and identifies the book as a response to “Difficulty No. 2”. It bears the year 1908, alongside other calendar designations, and records a first printing of 2,000 copies. Sri Gurbaksh Press, Lahore, and Bhai Hem Singh's management are named in the imprint. 1 The dated endorsements extend beyond the cover year. Jawahar Singh Kapoor's statement is dated 20 October 1908. Further letters carry dates in December 1908, and the preliminary section includes a statement dated 19 January 1909. This makes “1908-1909 endorsements” a more accurate description of the material in this edition than a single “1908 verdict”. The cover date and the dates attached to individual statements should both be preserved. In his opening appeal, Tehal Singh asks learned readers to consider the work and send their opinions. He presents publication as a service to the Panth: doubts should be answered, and the resulting explanation should help the sangat avoid division. The supporting statements serve several purposes. Some affirm Raagmala as Gurbani. Some say the argument has been read or heard and accepted. Others chiefly encourage printing and circulation. These forms of support overlap, but their wording does not always amount to the same claim."},{"t":"The People Behind the Defence: Raagmala Endorsements from 1908-1909","u":"/articles/the-endorsements-of-1908-1909/#support-associated-with-historic-religious-centres","k":"Article","s":"Support associated with historic religious centres","b":"Support associated with historic religious centres The preliminary material connects the book with several important locations. Reading the statements together reveals the geographical range of the support assembled by Tehal Singh. 2 Centre or community What the book records Why it matters to the publication Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib, Anandpur A statement supporting Raagmala and a roster beginning with Mahant Natha Singh. It associates the defence with named religious custodians and members of the Anandpur community. Sri Darbar Damdama Sahib An approval stating that the work had been heard and accepted, with publication expected to benefit the sangat. It presents communal reception as well as support for wider circulation. Sri Darbar Muktsar and Tambu Sahib A supporting statement with printed seal labels and a list including Mahant Pritam Singh and Mahant Bhagat Singh. It connects the work with more than one local religious establishment. Bhaini Sahib A statement signed by Pratap Singh affirming the reading of Raagmala and identifying acceptance among the Namdhari Khalsa. It records a specifically identified community's support. The Bhai Rupa family A statement that the work had been considered from beginning to end in the presence of Sardar Chanda Singh, a vakil at Ferozepur. It gives a described occasion and named participants for the review. The Anandpur statement refers to manuscript and Guru-associated authority as part of its support. The wording should not be turned into a claim that the original Kartarpur Bir itself was gifted to Patna. References to Kartarpur and to a Guru-associated saroop at Patna need to retain their distinct identities. The statements also should not be expanded into authority they do not explicitly claim. A published endorsement from people associated with an institution is evidence of that support. It is not automatically a record of a separate, binding decision taken on behalf of the entire Panth."},{"t":"The People Behind the Defence: Raagmala Endorsements from 1908-1909","u":"/articles/the-endorsements-of-1908-1909/#a-network-wider-than-a-list-of-scholars","k":"Article","s":"A network wider than a list of scholars","b":"A network wider than a list of scholars The numbered roster reaches 131, followed by further written opinions. It includes mahants, gianis, granthis and other religious figures, but also teachers, a lawyer, a press manager, traders and people identified through their locality or family. 3 This variety is part of the historical interest. The book's reception extended through educational, religious, commercial and publishing networks. Bhai Hem Singh's appearance connects the list with the practical work of printing. Entries for people engaged in trade connect it with the support of the wider sangat. It would be misleading to describe every name as an independent scholarly authentication of every argument in the book. The list does not establish that all signatories conducted the same examination. Some appear beneath collective statements; others supply individual explanations of what they reviewed. The more accurate conclusion is that Tehal Singh assembled a substantial and varied body of support for the defence and its circulation. The document tells us who was represented and, in some cases, how they reached their opinion."},{"t":"The People Behind the Defence: Raagmala Endorsements from 1908-1909","u":"/articles/the-endorsements-of-1908-1909/#dr-charan-singh-s-letter-an-important-qualification","k":"Article","s":"Dr Charan Singh's letter: an important qualification","b":"Dr Charan Singh's letter: an important qualification One of the most revealing passages concerns Dr Charan Singh of Amritsar, whom the book identifies as the father of Bhai Vir Singh. Tehal Singh reports that Charan Singh examined and approved the work and supplied a letter. He then makes a crucial disclosure: the original letter could not be found, and Charan Singh had since passed away. What follows is a recollection of its substance, rather than a verbatim reproduction of the original document. 4 Tehal Singh acknowledges that he has not reproduced the entire letter and says he would make it available if it were recovered. He also names people who could speak to the circumstances of the review. The distinction affects how the passage should be cited. It is appropriate to say that Tehal Singh remembers Charan Singh as supporting the argument. It is not appropriate to present the reconstructed wording as an extant signed letter preserved intact in the volume. The remembered substance is significant. Charan Singh is represented as believing that the work could answer doubts and reduce discord. Tehal Singh also says that, at Charan Singh's suggestion, he altered some severe expressions and substituted wording more conducive to goodwill. This records an effort to improve the manner of the defence while maintaining its conclusion. The response to controversy involved editorial judgement as well as the accumulation of arguments."},{"t":"The People Behind the Defence: Raagmala Endorsements from 1908-1909","u":"/articles/the-endorsements-of-1908-1909/#kapoor-s-endorsement-makes-room-for-the-questioners","k":"Article","s":"Kapoor's endorsement makes room for the questioners","b":"Kapoor's endorsement makes room for the questioners Jawahar Singh Kapoor, identified as a Fellow of Punjab University, recommends support for publication and hopes the work will help stop a harmful dispute. 5 His statement contains a point easily missed in a triumphal account of the endorsements. The people who raised the questions should not simply become targets of resentment. Their questions had led to the preparation of a work that supporters now considered useful. This changes the emphasis of the defence. A question can be answered firmly without making hostility towards the questioner the purpose of the answer. In Kapoor's view, the resulting explanation can become a benefit to the Panth. That perspective sits alongside more combative language elsewhere in the volume. Preserving both gives a better account of the book's reception than presenting every supporter as speaking in one uniform voice."},{"t":"The People Behind the Defence: Raagmala Endorsements from 1908-1909","u":"/articles/the-endorsements-of-1908-1909/#some-reviewers-state-the-limits-of-their-approval","k":"Article","s":"Some reviewers state the limits of their approval","b":"Some reviewers state the limits of their approval Sardul Singh Giani is explicit about the scope of his engagement. In his statement dated 25 December 1908, he says that he heard several objections and their answers. Because time was limited, he had not read the whole work. He nevertheless found the answers he heard suitable and favoured publication. 6 That is a positive endorsement with a stated limitation. Describing it as a complete, line-by-line examination would erase information supplied by the reviewer himself. The statement associated with Sant Ishar Singh, a Sikh missionary at Ferozepur, and Bawa Sant Singh likewise contains an important boundary. It expresses agreement on the Raagmala question without necessarily endorsing every other statement in the book. These qualifications give the reader a more precise understanding of the support. An endorsement can concern the conclusion, the usefulness of publication, or the particular arguments a reviewer has examined. It need not certify every sentence to be historically meaningful. The Bhai Rupa statement provides a different description: it says that the work was considered from beginning to end in a specified setting. The point is not to force all these statements into one category, but to preserve the differences between them."},{"t":"The People Behind the Defence: Raagmala Endorsements from 1908-1909","u":"/articles/the-endorsements-of-1908-1909/#what-the-supporters-wanted-to-protect","k":"Article","s":"What the supporters wanted to protect","b":"What the supporters wanted to protect A recurring concern is the preservation of the received practice of completing the reading with Raagmala. Supporters also fear that removing one composition could encourage further attempts to cut or rearrange the scripture. 5 6 The argument is both textual and communal. It concerns the integrity of the volume and the relationships of the people who read it together. Several statements express frustration at the energy being consumed by the dispute. They want thought, learning and effort directed towards service rather than prolonged antagonism. Tehal Singh's closing verses share that aspiration, praying for hostility to disappear and for fellowship to be restored. The endorsements therefore record more than agreement about a composition. They reveal the kind of outcome supporters sought: an explanation that would reinforce practice, persuade readers and allow the Panth to move forward together."},{"t":"The People Behind the Defence: Raagmala Endorsements from 1908-1909","u":"/articles/the-endorsements-of-1908-1909/#what-this-record-establishes","k":"Article","s":"What this record establishes","b":"What this record establishes The preliminary pages provide evidence of substantial support for Tehal Singh's defence across a range of named people and locations. They also preserve differing degrees of review, a reconstructed letter, explicit limits of agreement and an effort to moderate the language of controversy. They do not demonstrate that every Sikh agreed, that every signatory independently inspected historical manuscripts, or that the controversy ended because the volume was printed. The book's own discussion of opponents makes the existence of disagreement unmistakable. Their historical importance lies in what they actually show. A writer sought to defend Raagmala through argument and to place that argument before the community. Religious custodians, scholars and other readers responded. Their names and words became part of the publication's appeal to the sangat. Read at that level, the endorsements offer a detailed record of how support for Raagmala was expressed, circulated and qualified in the book's own time. Preserving those details honours the witnesses more accurately than turning their statements into a verdict broader than the one they gave."},{"t":"Raagmala in Historical Birs: Reading Sant Tehal Singh's Manuscript Survey","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-historical-manuscripts/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Gur Gira","b":"Near the end of Gur Gira Raagmala Mandan Prabodh , Sant Tehal Singh moves from objections about language, authorship and musical classification to the manuscripts themselves. His question is direct: what do the historical birs say about Raagmala's place in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji? The resulting survey is one of the most substantial parts of his defence. It describes indexes, handwriting, ink, signatures attributed to Gurus, custodians, places of preservation and occasions on which he says he examined particular volumes. It also discusses manuscripts cited by opponents because they did not contain Raagmala. The survey deserves to be read as a connected account of transmission. Its details reveal how Tehal Singh builds his case and why a list of manuscript names alone cannot convey it."},{"t":"Raagmala in Historical Birs: Reading Sant Tehal Singh's Manuscript Survey","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-historical-manuscripts/#what-the-survey-is-recording","k":"Article","s":"What the survey is recording","b":"What the survey is recording A bir is a volume of the scripture; saroop is the reverential term also used for such a volume. A tatkara is an index or contents list. Tehal Singh repeatedly refers to both smaller and larger indexes and asks whether Raagmala appears in them as well as in the body of the manuscript. 1 He also describes signatures, handwriting and seals associated with particular Gurus. These are used to support his assessment of a manuscript's authority. Where he considers the writing and ink continuous, he treats that continuity as evidence against an obvious separate insertion. The descriptions vary in detail. Some include an account of a personal visit and named companions. Others give a shorter statement about a volume's location, contents or relationship to an earlier bir. The locations are historical associations recorded in the book. They should not be read as a verified directory of where the manuscripts are kept today. Likewise, the author's attribution of a signature is part of his evidence; the printed account does not itself enable a fresh examination of the original handwriting."},{"t":"Raagmala in Historical Birs: Reading Sant Tehal Singh's Manuscript Survey","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-historical-manuscripts/#why-the-book-s-total-is-twenty-five","k":"Article","s":"Why the book's total is twenty-five","b":"Why the book's total is twenty-five At the end of the survey, Tehal Singh refers to twenty-five volumes. The descriptions are not twenty-five identical single-volume entries. Some passages group several birs together. 2 In particular, he describes four saroops at Patna Sahib, two at Kutewal, and a group of three associated with Pritam Das and Santokh Das. An entry describing four volumes must therefore remain distinct from an entry describing one. The following guide preserves those groupings. It summarises the claims made in the book, rather than presenting the manuscripts as independently authenticated here. Historical association in the survey Volumes in the entry Features Tehal Singh reports PDF pages Kartarpur Bir 1 Raagmala in the main text and indexes; compilation dated Bikrami 1661; writing and marks associated with Guru Arjan Dev Ji and Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji. 44-45 Bhai Banno Bir, Mangat 1 A copying and binding narrative, index entries for Raagmala, continuity of writing and attributed Guru marks. 45-46 Bir associated with Bhai Milakhi of Peshawar, described at Rawalpindi 1 A completion notice dated Bikrami 1662, Raagmala among the concluding contents and an account of the author's inspection. 46-47 Pindi Lala, district Gujrat 1 A connection with the Bhai Banno exemplar, Raagmala in the text and indexes, and attributed marks. 47 Hakim Buta Singh's family volume, Rawalpindi 1 A longer production history, marks attributed to several Gurus, and Raagmala in the volume and index. 48 Patna Sahib 4 Raagmala in the indexed contents and text, with marks attributed to Guru Gobind Singh Ji. 48 Abchalnagar, Hazur Sahib 1 Raagmala and indexes, attributed Guru Gobind Singh Ji marks, and a history of rebinding. 48-49 An Attock dharmshala 1 Raagmala in the text and indexes; Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji's Bani described as added after it. 49 Bhai Mool Singh family, Peshawar 1 A Gurbani volume written in Persian script, with Raagmala and an account of presentation to Guru Gobind Singh Ji. 49 Choli Bhai Ki, Bhai Nand Chand family association 1 Raagmala in the indexes and text, alongside a Guru-associated family history. 49 Bhai Hem Singh's dharmshala, Lahore 1 A volume recovered in loose leaves and rebound; Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji's Bani within the raag arrangement; Raagmala at the conclusion. 50 Chak Kahna near Akhnoor, Jammu 1 A production span given as Bikrami 1662-1663, attributed Guru Arjan Dev Ji marks and Raagmala in the indexes and text. 50 Bhai Prem Singh's house, Nabha 1 A small old volume, writing associated with Guru Har Rai Sahib Ji, and Raagmala in its indexed contents. 50 Sardar Deva Singh's house, Patiala 1 A small-format bir with Raagmala described as continuous with the writing of the volume. 50 Kutewal, in the Batala area 2 Two birs containing Raagmala and index entries. 50 Bunga Singhian, Amritsar, with Pandit Sarup Das 1 A notice associated with Bikrami 1762 and Guru Gobind Singh Ji, together with Raagmala in the text and indexes. 50 Pritam Das and Santokh Das associations, Amritsar 3 Three volumes linked to copying from Kartarpur, described in connection with Amritsar religious establishments. 50 Takht Akal Bunga Sahib, Amritsar 1 A volume presented by Bhai Sant Singh and described as copied from Kartarpur, including Raagmala and its index entries. 50 Sri Hargobindpur and the Jodh Singh Ramgarhia association 1 A Kartarpur-derived copy described in connection with establishment at Goindwal, containing Raagmala and index entries. 51 Total represented by these groupings 25 Sixteen individual volumes and three grouped entries containing four, two and three volumes. 44-51 The survey also mentions other places and volumes in passing. Those brief references should not be expanded into detailed catalogue records without information that the book actually supplies."},{"t":"Raagmala in Historical Birs: Reading Sant Tehal Singh's Manuscript Survey","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-historical-manuscripts/#kartarpur-and-the-importance-of-the-index","k":"Article","s":"Kartarpur and the importance of the index","b":"Kartarpur and the importance of the index Tehal Singh gives the Kartarpur Bir a foundational place. He identifies it with the volume written by Bhai Gurdas Ji under Guru Arjan Dev Ji and connects its compilation with Bikrami 1661. 1 His claim concerns both the body of the manuscript and its indexes. Raagmala is reported in the concluding text and in the smaller and larger tatkaras. He also describes continuity of the writing and marks attributed to the Fifth and Sixth Gurus. He states that he had visited the volume on several occasions in the company of others. Why does an index matter? Because it records a composition as an expected part of a volume's contents. In combination with the author's account of the main text, it challenges the suggestion that Raagmala was merely an unrelated passage added at the end without integration into the manuscript. The index does not, on its own, answer every question about date or authorship. An index can be copied along with the rest of a volume, and its relationship to the manuscript's production still matters. Tehal Singh's argument depends on the combination of index, text, writing and attributed authorisation. His report is therefore more specific than “Raagmala is in an old bir”. He is describing how it belongs to the structure of the particular witness he regards as central."},{"t":"Raagmala in Historical Birs: Reading Sant Tehal Singh's Manuscript Survey","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-historical-manuscripts/#the-bhai-banno-and-rawalpindi-descriptions-add-a-copying-his","k":"Article","s":"The Bhai Banno and Rawalpindi descriptions add a copying history","b":"The Bhai Banno and Rawalpindi descriptions add a copying history The Bhai Banno account connects a manuscript's contents with a narrative of copying, travel and binding. Tehal Singh discusses its index entries, writing and Guru-associated marks, then records visits and people connected with the inspection. 3 The book also recognises additional material associated with the Banno tradition. This is a reason to read the individual contents descriptions carefully. “The manuscript contains Raagmala” and “every manuscript has exactly the same concluding contents” are different claims. The bir associated with Bhai Milakhi, described at Rawalpindi, receives a particularly detailed treatment. Tehal Singh reports its concluding sequence, a completion notice and the presence of Raagmala. He also compares features of its contents with the earlier volumes he has discussed. The Pindi Lala entry is explicitly related to the Bhai Banno exemplar. That relationship helps explain transmission: a later volume may preserve the organisation of the volume from which it was copied. It also limits how the witnesses should be counted. Two related copies can provide evidence that a textual form circulated. Their agreement does not necessarily constitute two independent records of the form's first creation. The book's copying relationships are therefore part of the evidence, rather than details to discard while compiling a list of supporting manuscripts."},{"t":"Raagmala in Historical Birs: Reading Sant Tehal Singh's Manuscript Survey","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-historical-manuscripts/#a-rawalpindi-entry-includes-an-admission-of-uncertainty","k":"Article","s":"A Rawalpindi entry includes an admission of uncertainty","b":"A Rawalpindi entry includes an admission of uncertainty The Rawalpindi volume described at Hakim Buta Singh's dharmshala has a longer account of production and family custody. The book prints labelled representations of marks attributed to the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Ninth Gurus, and discusses a connection with Guru Gobind Singh Ji. 4 A valuable detail follows: a mark attributed to the Tenth Guru is described as difficult to read because its trace is faint or incomplete. Tehal Singh does not present every feature as equally legible. This helps readers distinguish the record's different levels of certainty. A clear transcription, an attributed mark and an indistinct trace should not become identical “verified signatures” when transferred into a table. The printed boxes themselves also need to be identified correctly. They set out the words associated with the marks in the book's typography. They are not photographic facsimiles of the original autographs. Readers can examine what Tehal Singh says the marks contain, but cannot use those boxes to compare the original pen strokes."},{"t":"Raagmala in Historical Birs: Reading Sant Tehal Singh's Manuscript Survey","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-historical-manuscripts/#the-position-of-guru-tegh-bahadur-ji-s-bani-reveals-differen","k":"Article","s":"The position of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji's Bani reveals different histories","b":"The position of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji's Bani reveals different histories Several descriptions attend to whether Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji's Bani is present and where it appears. In the Attock and Peshawar entries, it is described in a position after Raagmala. In the Lahore volume, the Bani is described within the relevant raag sequence. Other entries note its absence. 5 These observations show why a bir cannot be treated as a single undifferentiated object. It may preserve an earlier arrangement, receive additional material, be rebound, or transmit the features of its exemplar. They also caution against assuming that the last surviving written material in every historical volume corresponds exactly to the liturgical endpoint Tehal Singh is defending. A volume can contain later additions or other supplementary material while still being used by the author as evidence for Raagmala's earlier presence. The Lahore entry gives a concrete example of material history. Tehal Singh says Bhai Hem Singh obtained a volume whose leaves had become loose and arranged for its rebinding. The contents and the binding therefore belong to distinguishable episodes in the life of the manuscript. The Peshawar entry introduces another feature: the book describes Gurbani written in Persian script for people who did not read Gurmukhi. That is a claim about script and readership. It should not be converted into the confusing label “Farsi-script Gurmukhi”, which collapses two separate matters."},{"t":"Raagmala in Historical Birs: Reading Sant Tehal Singh's Manuscript Survey","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-historical-manuscripts/#manuscripts-without-raagmala-are-part-of-the-argument","k":"Article","s":"Manuscripts without Raagmala are part of the argument","b":"Manuscripts without Raagmala are part of the argument Before presenting his positive survey, Tehal Singh addresses copies cited because they lacked Raagmala. He discusses their dates, the absence of marks he considers authoritative, missing material and possible circumstances of copying. 6 His explanation is that an omission may arise through error, incompleteness or a copying history that does not carry the same authority as the witnesses he prefers. In some cases, he also reports later corrective action. These are his explanations of the contrary evidence. The fact that he offers them should not be rewritten as a claim that no manuscript without Raagmala ever existed. The debate, as his book presents it, concerns the weight assigned to different witnesses. An absence needs to be interpreted in relation to the particular volume. So does a presence. The age of a manuscript, the contents of its exemplar and the circumstances of additions or omissions all affect the historical question being asked. This is why a simple tally of “with” and “without” would lose much of the argument. Tehal Singh's conclusion rests on his assessment of authority and transmission, not merely on a numerical majority."},{"t":"Raagmala in Historical Birs: Reading Sant Tehal Singh's Manuscript Survey","u":"/articles/raagmala-in-historical-manuscripts/#what-the-survey-contributes-to-the-defence","k":"Article","s":"What the survey contributes to the defence","b":"What the survey contributes to the defence The manuscript section makes Tehal Singh's case concrete. It names volumes, records features and directs readers towards the material tradition in which he believes Raagmala's authority is preserved. Its most useful details are often the ones a short summary overlooks: an index entry, a copying relationship, an inspection with companions, a faint mark, a later addition, or leaves gathered and rebound. At the same time, the survey remains the record provided by this particular author. The published survey does not establish the present condition of each manuscript, independently date its ink, or authenticate every attributed signature. Its value is the historical testimony and argument it preserves. Tehal Singh concludes that the birs he describes support Raagmala's place in the scripture and its reading at bhog. Understanding his conclusion requires reading those witnesses individually and then together. The twenty-five volumes become meaningful evidence through their described features and relationships, rather than through the number alone."},{"t":"The Raagmala Mystery: Decoding the Final Pages of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji","u":"/articles/the-raagmala-mystery/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Ragmala Da Swal","b":"A short composition can carry a debate far larger than its length. Raagmala, the concluding composition of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, brings together questions about music, manuscript history, literary borrowing and the authority to preserve a sacred text. Its family of ragas is easy to recognise. The history of the arguments surrounding it requires much closer attention. In Ragmala Da Swal , Dr Balbir Singh approaches these questions from a clearly stated position: he defends Raagmala's place within Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. His concern is the integrity of the Bir, the volume of scripture, and his investigation challenges the claim that Raagmala entered it through a later borrowing from the poet Alam. The book combines a presidential address with a substantial series of articles. Its movement between devotional conviction, documentary evidence and detailed literary comparison explains both its force and its complexity. To follow it properly, we need to distinguish the objections he quotes from the answers he gives. Five connected insights reveal what his investigation is actually trying to establish."},{"t":"The Raagmala Mystery: Decoding the Final Pages of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji","u":"/articles/the-raagmala-mystery/#1-the-question-begins-with-the-integrity-of-the-bir","k":"Article","s":"1. The question begins with the integrity of the Bir","b":"1. The question begins with the integrity of the Bir Dr Balbir Singh opens his address to the second Raagmala Mandan conference at Sargodha by identifying the larger issue at stake. Mandan here means defence. For him, the controversy concerns the wholeness of the sacred Bir and the responsibility of the Sikh community towards it. That starting point shapes the book. He understands Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji as a scripture whose compilation took place under the Gurus' authority. Consequently, proposals to remove a composition, alter its wording or discontinue its recitation cannot be treated as casual editorial decisions. They concern the relationship between the community and the Guru. His account of earlier controversies makes this concern concrete. He describes the activities associated with Babu Teja Singh of Bhasaur, including the circulation of volumes without Raagmala and subsequent changes made through publications called Gurmukhi Course . In his telling, the dispute developed alongside a wider programme of selection and rearrangement. The book reproduces a Patiala order dated 20 May 1918. Its significance lies in the distinction it makes between a theological verdict and an administrative response. The order declines to settle whether Raagmala is Gurbani, while opposing the removal of a portion from the sacred volume and requiring the omitted material to be supplied to those who had received the affected copies. Dr Balbir Singh also reproduces an Akal Takht hukamnama dated 6 August 1928 concerning broader alterations to Gurbani, its order and religious practice. The document belongs to that wider controversy. Treating it as a ruling arising from a single isolated disagreement about Raagmala would flatten the history he presents. These episodes explain the urgency of his opening address. He fears that accepting one alteration can establish an authority to make others. His defence of Raagmala therefore begins with a question about custodianship: on what grounds can a later reader revise the form of scripture received by the community?"},{"t":"The Raagmala Mystery: Decoding the Final Pages of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji","u":"/articles/the-raagmala-mystery/#2-a-shared-passage-does-not-establish-who-borrowed-it","k":"Article","s":"2. A shared passage does not establish who borrowed it","b":"2. A shared passage does not establish who borrowed it The literary problem appears straightforward at first. Material corresponding to Raagmala occurs in the romance Madhavanal Kamakandala , associated with Alam. Some critics took that overlap to mean that the scriptural composition had been copied from the romance. Dr Balbir Singh asks a prior question: which text supplied the material to which? His answer depends on separating three elements that can easily become confused: the story, the Sanskrit work associated with Jodh Kavi, and Alam's adaptation into the vernacular, the language used by a wider readership. Madhavanal and Kamakandala are the principal characters in the story. Jodh and Alam are the poets whose versions he compares. The date 991 Hijri, which the book equates with 1583 CE, is central to the controversy. If it dates Alam's own composition, it places that work before the compilation of the Adi Granth. Dr Balbir Singh argues, however, that the date belongs to the earlier Sanskrit source and was carried into the translation. A date appearing inside a translated work, on this reading, does not automatically date the translator's activity. He examines the relationship between the two versions through their invocations, sequence of ideas and descriptions. Alam's work, he argues, contains three kinds of material: passages translated from the Sanskrit source, additions of his own, and material taken from elsewhere. Raagmala becomes part of the investigation into that third category. Dr Balbir Singh's conclusion is that Alam received it from Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and incorporated it into his romance. The direction of borrowing is his argument to establish. The mere existence of parallel wording cannot do that work by itself. His subsequent chapters therefore look for evidence about Alam's period, literary surroundings and methods of adaptation. The mystery becomes a chronological and comparative problem, rather than a conclusion that can be settled by placing two matching passages side by side."},{"t":"The Raagmala Mystery: Decoding the Final Pages of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji","u":"/articles/the-raagmala-mystery/#3-the-book-presents-manuscript-evidence-in-support-of-raagma","k":"Article","s":"3. The book presents manuscript evidence in support of Raagmala","b":"3. The book presents manuscript evidence in support of Raagmala One of the most consequential parts of Ragmala Da Swal concerns the Kartarpur Bir. Dr Balbir Singh discusses allegations that Raagmala stands outside the manuscript's original numbered contents or was written by another hand. He then presents inspection reports to challenge those allegations. The distinction between allegation and response is essential. Claims of different ink, a different hand or an unnumbered addition appear within the controversy he is answering. They are not the findings he ultimately endorses. A group that inspected the Bir on 10 September 1945 reported that Raagmala appeared at number 974 and was entered at that number in the tatkara , the contents list. Its statement also described consistency in the writing, paper, ink and formation of the lines. A further inspection took place on 7 October 1945 through a subcommittee of the SGPC's religious advisory body. Its members included Principal Jodh Singh, Professor Teja Singh and Principal Ganga Singh. The report, as reproduced in the book, identified Raagmala in the same hand as several preceding pages and explained how the manuscript's numbering should be read. Dr Balbir Singh later visited the manuscript himself. His joint statement with Narain Singh records an inspection on 23 December 1945 lasting four hours. They concluded that Raagmala belonged to the Bir from its original writing and that the contents entry supported this conclusion. They also checked notes from the September visit and reported that the notes examined agreed with what they saw. The book then reproduces tracings of the opening Mool Mantar and Raagmala's concluding lines. Dr Balbir Singh presents these as visible support for his identification of the same main scribal hand at the beginning and end. These are historical inspection statements and reproduced tracings. Their importance should be explained in those terms. The book does not describe laboratory ink dating or a modern scientific authentication procedure. Its case rests on the observations recorded, the agreement between the accounts and the interpretation of the manuscript's arrangement."},{"t":"The Raagmala Mystery: Decoding the Final Pages of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji","u":"/articles/the-raagmala-mystery/#4-musical-classification-and-scriptural-sequence-answer-diff","k":"Article","s":"4. Musical classification and scriptural sequence answer different questions","b":"4. Musical classification and scriptural sequence answer different questions Another objection concerns the order of the ragas. Raagmala begins with Bhairau, while the sequence of raga sections in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji begins with Sri Rag. Does that difference establish that Raagmala does not belong? Dr Balbir Singh rejects the inference. His answer is an analogy from language learning. An alphabet can have one accepted order, while a pronunciation exercise using its sounds follows another. The difference in arrangement does not, by itself, make either exercise illegitimate. He applies that reasoning to music. Raagmala organises musical names through relationships. Its six principal ragas are associated with raginis and sons. The order of compositions within scripture serves a different organisational purpose. To treat Raagmala as though its only possible function were a matching contents page assumes what still needs to be established. The later chapters develop a related distinction between a raagmala , which expresses a musical classification, and a raga-namavali , a listing of musical names. This matters to his reading of Alam's romance. A courtly performance scene may naturally contain names of melodies, but a classification also contains explanatory language about their relationships and the practices of singers. For Dr Balbir Singh, some of that explanatory language sits awkwardly in the scene where Kamakandala is supposed to be performing. He treats the mismatch as evidence that a ready-made classification has been inserted into the story. The family structure itself comprises six principal ragas, thirty raginis and forty-eight sons, giving eighty-four positions in the scheme. Eighty-four refers to the musical classification; it is not a count of Raagmala's verses. Nor does that arithmetic establish a complete inventory of every possible raga or musical expression."},{"t":"The Raagmala Mystery: Decoding the Final Pages of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji","u":"/articles/the-raagmala-mystery/#5-a-different-spelling-is-not-automatically-a-corrupted-text","k":"Article","s":"5. A different spelling is not automatically a corrupted text","b":"5. A different spelling is not automatically a corrupted text The final sections examine attempts to use Alam's text as a standard for correcting Raagmala's musical names. Dr Balbir Singh asks whether the proposed standard is itself stable. He places readings from several manuscript copies of Alam's work alongside one another. The copies differ. If one version supplies a supposedly correct name while another supplies a different form, the critic must first explain why the selected reading deserves authority. This leads to a larger question about language. Words change in pronunciation and written form across places and periods. A form that differs from a Sanskrit equivalent is not thereby a copying error. Dr Balbir Singh uses comparisons involving names such as Champak and the forms associated with Suhau to argue that historical usage must be considered before a correction is imposed. His last chapter applies the same care to counting. Deepak is said to have eight sons, yet a reader can separate the written sequence into nine names. He examines the possibility of compound raga names and compares how other writers have grouped them. The result is an argument about interpretation and consistent standards: a written word boundary does not necessarily identify a separate musical entity. There is a useful discipline running through these discussions. Before declaring a text defective, establish its language, its technical conventions and the reliability of the comparison being used against it."},{"t":"The Raagmala Mystery: Decoding the Final Pages of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji","u":"/articles/the-raagmala-mystery/#reading-the-debate-with-the-book-open","k":"Article","s":"Reading the debate with the book open","b":"Reading the debate with the book open Ragmala Da Swal is a committed defence, and its language can be sharp. Its claims range from reports of physical inspection to literary and historical inferences. Reading it carefully means preserving those distinctions while following the position its author actually takes. His central case is that Raagmala belongs within the original scriptural tradition, that the Kartarpur evidence supports its inclusion, and that Alam's romance received material from Sikh sources. The book's discussions of dates, handwriting, translation and musical terminology are directed towards that conclusion. The lasting value of the investigation also lies in its demand for accurate reading. A shared passage requires a chronology. A manuscript allegation requires an observation. A spelling difference requires a linguistic explanation. A scholar's reputation requires the support of the particular evidence being cited. Those habits allow the reader to encounter the Raagmala question in its full seriousness, with both the sacred context and the actual documentary argument in view. Source: Dr Balbir Singh, Ragmala Da Swal, supplied 2006 edition. Principal passages: printed pp. 1-26 , 47-69 , 123-178 and 181-204 ; handwriting tracings, pp. 179-180 . Printed page numbers are six lower than the corresponding PDF page numbers. All historical works and reports discussed above are encountered through this book; no external sources have been added."},{"t":"The Family Tree of Melody: An Introduction to Raagmala","u":"/articles/the-family-tree-of-melody/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Ragmala Da Swal","b":"Raagmala presents musical names as a family. Six principal ragas stand at the centre of the arrangement, each accompanied by five raginis and eight sons. The reader encounters an ordered world of relationships rather than an unexplained succession of names. That family structure offers an accessible way into the composition. It also creates questions. What does the number eighty-four count? Does a list of raga names explain how to perform them? Why does the order differ from the raga sections of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji? And how should we read a passage that appears to name nine sons while announcing eight? Dr Balbir Singh addresses these questions in Ragmala Da Swal . Although the book is primarily a defence of Raagmala's place within Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, its discussions provide a useful introduction to the composition's musical language. They encourage a reader to understand the classification on its own terms before drawing conclusions from it."},{"t":"The Family Tree of Melody: An Introduction to Raagmala","u":"/articles/the-family-tree-of-melody/#what-the-family-image-helps-us-see","k":"Article","s":"What the family image helps us see","b":"What the family image helps us see The title Raagmala conveys the idea of a garland of ragas. In the scheme described by Dr Balbir Singh, the musical names are arranged through kinship: principal ragas, their associated female forms or raginis, and their sons, called putras . The terms make the structure memorable. A name belongs somewhere; it has an association with other names; it occupies a place within a larger grouping. That is the practical value of thinking about a family tree. The metaphor needs to be handled carefully, however. The book does not establish that a ragini necessarily has softer phrases, more delicate ornamentation or a particular kind of microtone because it is described as female. Equally, the word son does not supply a technical recipe for generating a raga from a parent. The family terms identify positions within this classification. To infer a performance method from them would require information beyond the naming structure. A beginner gains more by first understanding what the text actually organises than by attaching attractive but unsupported descriptions to each relationship."},{"t":"The Family Tree of Melody: An Introduction to Raagmala","u":"/articles/the-family-tree-of-melody/#the-six-principal-ragas","k":"Article","s":"The six principal ragas","b":"The six principal ragas In its final chapter, the book gives the six principal ragas in the following order: Principal raga Associated raginis Associated sons Total positions in the family Bhairau 5 8 14 Malkaus 5 8 14 Hindol 5 8 14 Deepak 5 8 14 Sri Rag 5 8 14 Megh 5 8 14 Each family contains the principal raga itself as well as its associated raginis and sons. That produces fourteen positions per family and eighty-four across the six. The spelling of a musical name can vary in English transliteration. The essential point here is the structure Dr Balbir Singh describes, rather than the suggestion that one English spelling fixes every historical form of a name. The table also shows why the six principal ragas alone do not represent the whole scheme. They provide its main divisions. The raginis and sons supply the remaining relationships through which the classification unfolds."},{"t":"The Family Tree of Melody: An Introduction to Raagmala","u":"/articles/the-family-tree-of-melody/#what-the-number-eighty-four-means","k":"Article","s":"What the number eighty-four means","b":"What the number eighty-four means The arithmetic is straightforward once the three levels are kept separate: Part of the scheme Calculation Number Principal ragas Six principal names 6 Raginis Six families, each with five 30 Sons Six families, each with eight 48 Total 6 + 30 + 48 84 This is a count of positions in the musical family arrangement. It is not a count of eighty-four verses. It also does not establish that all music, every possible emotional state or every raga in every classification can be contained within this one number. Dr Balbir Singh explicitly recognises that raagmalas can follow different systems. The existence of other arrangements is part of his discussion, especially when he compares the names and numbers given by different writers. A classification can be coherent without being the only classification available. Keeping that point in mind prevents the family tree from becoming a claim that the book never demonstrates: that one arrangement exhausts the entire field of music."},{"t":"The Family Tree of Melody: An Introduction to Raagmala","u":"/articles/the-family-tree-of-melody/#why-the-order-differs-from-the-scripture-s-raga-sequence","k":"Article","s":"Why the order differs from the scripture's raga sequence","b":"Why the order differs from the scripture's raga sequence A reader familiar with Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji may notice that its sequence of raga sections begins with Sri Rag, whereas Raagmala begins with Bhairau. The contrast formed part of the historical dispute. Dr Balbir Singh's response begins with a familiar experience: learning letters and sounds. The accepted ordering of an alphabet and the ordering used in a pronunciation exercise can differ. The difference serves the exercise being performed. He asks the reader to apply similar care to the two musical arrangements. The order in which a scripture presents compositions and the order in which a classification presents musical relationships need not perform the same task. His argument is therefore directed against a particular assumption: that Raagmala must function as a contents list reproducing the scripture's arrangement. Once that requirement is questioned, a difference in sequence no longer settles the composition's status. This helps a beginner read the family structure without forcing it into another pattern. First ask how the families are organised and what relationships the text describes. The separate question of how compositions are ordered within Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji can then be considered without treating the two arrangements as interchangeable."},{"t":"The Family Tree of Melody: An Introduction to Raagmala","u":"/articles/the-family-tree-of-melody/#a-classification-contains-more-than-a-list-of-tunes","k":"Article","s":"A classification contains more than a list of tunes","b":"A classification contains more than a list of tunes Later in the book, Dr Balbir Singh draws a distinction between a raagmala and a raga-namavali , a list of musical names. The distinction becomes especially useful in his comparison with Alam's Madhavanal Kamakandala . In the romance, the heroine Kamakandala performs before a royal assembly. A list of the melodies she performs could describe that particular event. A classification of ragas does something broader: it explains musical groupings and can refer to how singers in general understand or perform them. Dr Balbir Singh notices that the shared passage contains the language of a classification. It refers to singers following their own manner and includes a first-person statement about setting out eight sons. He asks how comfortably such explanatory wording fits a scene supposedly reporting one performer's actions. For him, the awkwardness supports the view that an existing classification was incorporated into the narrative. His literary conclusion depends on the wider argument of the book, but the musical distinction remains helpful in its own right. A text can name music while also explaining a system of relationships. Reading it only as a concert programme misses that second function. He develops the point through another treatment of the romance, associated with Bodha. In the account he discusses, instruction about musical classification occurs in an exchange between Madhav and Kamakandala, rather than as the whole substance of her court performance. The different setting makes the teaching function easier to recognise."},{"t":"The Family Tree of Melody: An Introduction to Raagmala","u":"/articles/the-family-tree-of-melody/#who-is-singing-when-the-text-says-the-ragas-were-sung","k":"Article","s":"Who is singing when the text says the ragas were sung?","b":"Who is singing when the text says the ragas were sung? Some arguments about Raagmala depend on interpreting its verbs as references to Kamakandala. Dr Balbir Singh examines whether that is necessary. He compares expressions in a raagmala attributed to Tansen with those in the scriptural composition. His examples include present-tense and past-tense references to singing, statements about singers, and terms connected with sur and taan . His explanation is that this language belongs naturally to musical description. A writer may say that a raga is sung, has been sung or is sung by knowledgeable performers while explaining its place in a system. Such wording does not automatically introduce a particular fictional character. For the beginner, the lesson is about the reach of a sentence. A statement describing an established musical practice is broader than a statement narrating an individual performance. The surrounding genre and purpose help determine which kind of statement is being made. This is one reason the family arrangement deserves to be read as an organised composition. Its words participate in a technical discussion of musical relationships, even where their surface form appears simple."},{"t":"The Family Tree of Melody: An Introduction to Raagmala","u":"/articles/the-family-tree-of-melody/#the-puzzle-of-deepak-s-eight-sons","k":"Article","s":"The puzzle of Deepak's eight sons","b":"The puzzle of Deepak's eight sons The book ends with a close examination of a counting objection. Raagmala identifies eight sons of Deepak, yet the relevant wording can be separated into nine names: Kalanka, Kuntal, Rama, Kamal, Kusam, Champak, Gaura, Kanra and Kalhana. The question is whether every apparent name must be counted independently. Dr Balbir Singh first considers a chart in Bhai Kahn Singh's Mahan Kosh . As he reproduces it, the chart reaches a total of eight by treating Kamal Kusam as one name. He then asks how that grouping is justified, since the musical works he discusses also provide grounds for distinguishing Kamal and Kusam. His wider answer concerns compound raga names. Two terms can name one combined musical form. The number of written components and the number of musical entities are consequently different questions. He discusses combinations such as Todi Bhairavi and Madhu Madhav, then considers the association of Kanra and Kalyan. In relation to Raagmala's wording, this supports reading Kanra Kalhana together. He also notes that a chart published by the Khalsa Tract Society uses the corresponding grouping to arrive at eight sons. The chapter does more than offer a way of making the total work. It asks for evidence behind the grouping and compares the standards applied to different texts. If joining names is accepted when explaining Alam's list, the same interpretative possibility must be considered when reading the scriptural list. Other classifications, he points out, also produce apparent numerical difficulties when each written term is counted separately. His reply is that the intended compound names must be understood before the arithmetic is used to declare the text defective. This remains his explanation of the problem. The chapter does not provide a full practical demonstration of every musical combination it discusses, and a beginner should retain that distinction between interpreting a name and learning the musical form itself."},{"t":"The Family Tree of Melody: An Introduction to Raagmala","u":"/articles/the-family-tree-of-melody/#reading-the-names-with-patience","k":"Article","s":"Reading the names with patience","b":"Reading the names with patience The family tree is a useful starting point because it gives the reader a manageable structure: six principal ragas, with five raginis and eight sons associated with each. The next step is to pay attention to how the composition speaks about those relationships. Some words are names; others explain an association or describe a singing practice. Some names can have more than one written component. Some forms differ across the texts being compared. These details determine how the structure is understood. Dr Balbir Singh's larger defence also places music within lived Sikh experience. His opening address discusses Gurmat Sangeet as something understood through hearing, participation and devotional practice. A written classification has value, but its names belong to an art experienced in sound. For a new reader, Raagmala can therefore be approached in two connected ways. Its family arrangement makes the composition easier to follow, while the questions raised by that arrangement encourage closer study of its language and musical purpose. The most useful first achievement is precise understanding: know what the eighty-four counts, recognise the distinction between classification and sequence, and allow technical naming conventions to inform the reading. From that foundation, the family tree becomes a guide into the composition rather than a collection of assumptions placed over it. Source: Dr Balbir Singh, Ragmala Da Swal, supplied 2006 edition, especially printed pp. 8-15 , 169-178 and 198-204 . Printed page numbers are six lower than the corresponding PDF page numbers. The musical comparisons above are those discussed within the supplied book; no external musicological material has been added."},{"t":"Raagmala and the Historical Record: Manuscripts, Printed Texts and the 1945 Debate","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-historical-record/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Ragmala Da Swal","b":"A claim about a manuscript can travel much further than the person who first examined it. Once repeated in books, newspapers and public discussion, it can acquire the appearance of established fact. Recovering the underlying observation then becomes as important as assessing the claim itself. This problem runs through Dr Balbir Singh's Ragmala Da Swal . His defence of Raagmala repeatedly returns to the physical evidence of the Kartarpur Bir, the wording of earlier reports and the ways those reports were reused. He asks readers to distinguish what someone saw from what another writer inferred or repeated. The resulting historical discussion centres on four questions: where Raagmala occurs in the Bir, whether it appears in the contents list, whether its handwriting agrees with the surrounding text, and how the manuscript's numbering should be understood. The book presents those questions as grounds for defending Raagmala's original inclusion."},{"t":"Raagmala and the Historical Record: Manuscripts, Printed Texts and the 1945 Debate","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-historical-record/#the-controversy-in-which-the-evidence-was-gathered","k":"Article","s":"The controversy in which the evidence was gathered","b":"The controversy in which the evidence was gathered The supplied edition preserves an argument formed during an active public dispute. Its publication history lists articles in Khalsa Samachar during 1945-46, special issues of Khalsa Advocate in December 1946 and March 1947, and publication in book form in January 1969. The supplied edition is dated August 2006. In the introductory note, Maha Singh Gyani describes the controversy that followed the SGPC's decision to stop Raagmala recitation in gurdwaras under its management in 1945. He credits Dr Balbir Singh's writings with helping to defend its recitation and reports its subsequent restoration. This is the editor's retrospective account, and it establishes the purpose with which the material was collected. Dr Balbir Singh's opening address provides a longer background. He links the Raagmala question to earlier attempts to remove material from the Bir and to rearrange compositions through publications associated with Bhasaur. The historical documents he reproduces need to be read according to their particular scope. The Patiala order of 20 May 1918 opposes removing a portion of the sacred volume while expressly declining to settle the theological question of whether Raagmala is Gurbani. The Akal Takht hukamnama dated 6 August 1928 addresses a broader set of alterations to scripture and religious practice. These episodes help explain why physical inclusion and recitation became connected in the controversy. They do not turn every administrative intervention into the same kind of theological determination. Nor does this historical account, by itself, provide a statement of present-day institutional policy."},{"t":"Raagmala and the Historical Record: Manuscripts, Printed Texts and the 1945 Debate","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-historical-record/#the-allegations-about-the-kartarpur-bir","k":"Article","s":"The allegations about the Kartarpur Bir","b":"The allegations about the Kartarpur Bir Dr Balbir Singh quotes earlier descriptions associated with Bhai Kahn Singh that place Mundavani at number 973, describe the following numbered space as blank, and treat Raagmala as an addition beyond the original contents. He also discusses claims that other writings appeared among the Bir's additional material. These include compositions or records whose presence, he argues, had been confused with the contents of another manuscript tradition. The central issue is the accuracy of the description. If the numbering has been misunderstood, a conclusion about an unnumbered addition may rest on a false premise. If the contents of one Bir have been attributed to another, an argument based on association with additional writings must be reconsidered. Dr Balbir Singh therefore separates the Kartarpur Bir from the Bir associated with Bhai Banno. The two cannot be treated as a single interchangeable witness. A statement about material in the Banno tradition does not automatically describe what an examiner will find at Kartarpur. His critique also concerns what earlier descriptions leave unanswered. If someone discusses Raagmala's position but does not clearly report whether its hand agrees with the preceding writing, the physical question remains open. The later inspections become important because they address such points directly."},{"t":"Raagmala and the Historical Record: Manuscripts, Printed Texts and the 1945 Debate","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-historical-record/#three-visits-to-kartarpur-in-1945","k":"Article","s":"Three visits to Kartarpur in 1945","b":"Three visits to Kartarpur in 1945 The book records three inspections relevant to its case. Their dates and reported findings should remain distinct. Inspection People identified in the book Principal observations reported 10 September 1945 A group including Man Singh and Hukam Singh, with eight signatories listed Raagmala at number 974; a corresponding contents entry; consistency in handwriting, paper, ink and line formation 7 October 1945 Principal Jodh Singh, Professor Teja Singh and Principal Ganga Singh, acting through the SGPC religious advisory structure Raagmala in the same hand as several preceding pages; number 974 in the Bir and contents list; an explanation of the numbering convention 23 December 1945 Dr Balbir Singh and Narain Singh, a retired railway officer Agreement of Raagmala's hand with the Bir's main writing; confirmation of the contents entry; agreement with the September notes they checked The September statement concludes that Raagmala was present from the time of the Bir's writing. Dr Balbir Singh uses this report to challenge the allegation that it had been added later by another writer. The October subcommittee adds a more explicit account of its procedure. As quoted in the book, its members examined the manuscript from midday until a quarter to six and turned through its leaves. They also stated that several additional writings previously attributed to the Bir were not found there. The December statement records a four-hour visit. Dr Balbir Singh and Narain Singh describe their conclusions in relation to the examination possible within that time. They identify the volume as the original Adi Bir rather than a copy and refer to the shabad sumari , the record of the count of compositions, in support of that identification. They then affirm their view that Raagmala belongs to the Bir from its original writing. Their checking of the earlier group's notes supplies an additional connection between the visits, although the statement concerns the notes checked during the available time rather than an unlimited examination of every earlier observation."},{"t":"Raagmala and the Historical Record: Manuscripts, Printed Texts and the 1945 Debate","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-historical-record/#why-the-number-974-matters","k":"Article","s":"Why the number 974 matters","b":"Why the number 974 matters The dispute over number 974 can appear like a minor disagreement over pagination. In the book's argument, it has much larger consequences. An allegation that Raagmala lies beyond the manuscript's original numbered contents can make it appear to occupy an added space. A finding that the contents list directs the reader to Raagmala at 974, and that the text occupies that numbered position, supports a different account of its relationship to the volume. The October report explains that the relevant numbering unit is not simply the two sides of one physical leaf. It describes the numbered page together with the facing page of the next leaf as forming the unit counted in that arrangement. This detail matters because an examiner using an assumed modern page sequence could misidentify where one unit ends and the next begins. The manuscript's own convention has to be established before its numbering can support an argument about inclusion or exclusion. Dr Balbir Singh also compares earlier references to a total of 974 with Bhai Kahn Singh's later description of 975 leaves in Mahan Kosh . He interprets this development as weakening the earlier account that placed Raagmala outside the relevant total. That interpretation should be attributed precisely. Dr Balbir Singh reads changes in wording, counting and classification as evidence of revision. They should not be rewritten as an explicit declaration by Bhai Kahn Singh accepting every part of Dr Balbir Singh's position. The reader is being shown an argument from the development of the printed record."},{"t":"Raagmala and the Historical Record: Manuscripts, Printed Texts and the 1945 Debate","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-historical-record/#the-contents-list-as-a-separate-point-of-evidence","k":"Article","s":"The contents list as a separate point of evidence","b":"The contents list as a separate point of evidence The tatkara , or contents list, matters alongside the position of the text itself. In the September report, Raagmala is described as entered in the same hand and ink, with its location given as 974. The October report also states that 974 appears both in the contents list and in the Bir. Dr Balbir Singh's December statement again identifies the contents entry as supporting original inclusion. The agreement between the reported contents entry and the position of the text is therefore an affirmative part of Dr Balbir Singh's case for inclusion. It also gives readers a specific observation to examine alongside the handwriting evidence. The distinction illustrates a recurring danger in reading polemical literature. A passage can quote an opponent at length before refuting it. Extracting the quotation without following the response can assign the opponent's claim to the author and reverse the meaning of the chapter. Following the sequence of quotation, examination and conclusion restores the structure of Dr Balbir Singh's case."},{"t":"Raagmala and the Historical Record: Manuscripts, Printed Texts and the 1945 Debate","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-historical-record/#handwriting-and-the-reproduced-tracings","k":"Article","s":"Handwriting and the reproduced tracings","b":"Handwriting and the reproduced tracings The inspection reports give handwriting an important role. The September group reports consistency with the rest of the Bani. The October group refers specifically to agreement with several preceding pages. The December statement describes agreement with the Bir's main writing. After discussing his own visit, Dr Balbir Singh provides a further visual aid. Printed pages 179 and 180 reproduce tracings of the opening Mool Mantar and the concluding lines of Raagmala. He states that the tracings were prepared from the Bir during his visit and presents them as examples of the same scribal hand, identified with Bhai Gurdas Ji. Their function is to let readers see the correspondence he is arguing for. They are selected reproductions within his published presentation of the manuscript. The evidence should be described at that level. The book offers inspection testimony and comparative handwriting material. It does not report chemical analysis of ink or independently dated tests of the paper. A reader working from the supplied scan can examine the author's reproduced material and account; the physical manuscript remains the object those accounts describe. This boundary gives the historical evidence its proper form. It prevents the word forensic from implying procedures the source never claims to have performed."},{"t":"Raagmala and the Historical Record: Manuscripts, Printed Texts and the 1945 Debate","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-historical-record/#how-a-possibility-became-a-categorical-allegation","k":"Article","s":"How a possibility became a categorical allegation","b":"How a possibility became a categorical allegation The book also follows the claim that Baba Dhir Mal was responsible for adding Raagmala. Dr Balbir Singh compares wording used by earlier critics with later assertions. In the earlier discussion he quotes, Dhir Mal's involvement appears as a possibility, alongside uncertainty about the person and circumstances. A later statement associated with Giani Shamsher Singh Ashok presents Dhir Mal's authorship of the entry much more directly. Dr Balbir Singh asks what new evidence justifies that increase in certainty. A suggestion becoming more definite through repetition does not supply the missing documentary link. He extends the point through a discussion of punctuation in a passage attributed to Bhai Santokh Singh. In his analysis, introducing a comma alters how a statement of uncertainty can be read. The example shows why even apparently small editorial decisions matter when a line is being used as historical evidence. His stated requirement is that unresolved claims remain unresolved until evidence sufficient to settle them is presented. That principle applies to the wording of the claim as well as to the reputation of the writer advancing it."},{"t":"Raagmala and the Historical Record: Manuscripts, Printed Texts and the 1945 Debate","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-historical-record/#printed-editions-are-part-of-the-evidence-too","k":"Article","s":"Printed editions are part of the evidence too","b":"Printed editions are part of the evidence too The manuscript dispute cannot be separated from the history of printed texts. Dr Balbir Singh repeatedly compares editions, dates and copied statements. He examines the 1917 Gurmukhi edition of Alam's romance associated with Bhasaur and identifies errors through comparison with another version. Some involve misplaced lines whose sequence changes the apparent meaning. Others concern stanza numbering and the handling of additional introductory material. These are consequential faults when a printed edition is used to challenge the wording or authority of scripture. A comparison is only as reliable as the texts being compared. The book also preserves the author's own correction of a publication date. Earlier instalments used 1901 for the first edition of Gurmat Sudhakar . In a later chapter, he accepts a reader's correction to 1899 and explains the source from which he had taken the earlier date. This episode is particularly revealing in a work concerned with the circulation of error. It shows that the obligation to check an edition and correct a mistaken statement applies within the defence itself."},{"t":"Raagmala and the Historical Record: Manuscripts, Printed Texts and the 1945 Debate","u":"/articles/raagmala-and-the-historical-record/#what-the-historical-argument-establishes-within-the-book","k":"Article","s":"What the historical argument establishes within the book","b":"What the historical argument establishes within the book Dr Balbir Singh draws the documentary strands together in support of original inclusion. The location of Raagmala, the corresponding contents entry, the reported continuity of handwriting and the agreement among the 1945 visits form the main structure of his manuscript argument. That argument should also be distinguished from the question of personal authorship. Establishing a composition's place in a Guru-authorised manuscript tradition and identifying the individual who composed its words are related enquiries, but they are not identical. The inspection statements primarily address the Bir and the history of the entry. The author's literary chapters pursue the separate problem of Alam and the direction of borrowing. They complement the manuscript case rather than replacing it. The historical value of Ragmala Da Swal therefore extends beyond a collection of supporting statements. It records a dispute about how evidence should be handled: identify the correct manuscript, understand its numbering, report the contents accurately, distinguish observation from inference, and check whether a later writer has repeated a claim or actually supplied new evidence. For anyone approaching the Raagmala debate through this book, those are the habits that make its argument intelligible. They also explain why its manuscript chapters must be read as a defence of Raagmala's inclusion, with the author's evidence and conclusions preserved in their actual direction. Source: Dr Balbir Singh, Ragmala Da Swal, supplied 2006 edition. Publication history and introductory note: PDF pp. 2-6 . Main discussion: printed pp. 15-23 , 47-49 , 57-83 , 89-113 and 176-180 . Printed page numbers are six lower than the corresponding PDF page numbers. Reports, documents and other books named here are discussed only as reproduced or described in the supplied source."},{"t":"Decoding the Raagmala Debate: Following Dr Balbir Singh's Investigation","u":"/articles/decoding-the-raagmala-debate/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Ragmala Da Swal","b":"A date written inside a book seems to offer a firm starting point. Yet if the book is a translation, the date may belong to the work being translated. If the translator has added material from elsewhere, different parts of the same volume may also have different histories. That problem stands near the centre of Dr Balbir Singh's Ragmala Da Swal . His investigation follows the relationship between Raagmala and the romance Madhavanal Kamakandala , especially the version associated with Alam. The shared material had been used to argue that Raagmala was borrowed into Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji from a secular poem. Dr Balbir Singh argues for borrowing in the other direction. To make his case, he moves through Sanskrit and vernacular versions of the story, compares literary passages, examines how dates are being used and considers Alam's association with Guru Gobind Singh Ji's court. The enquiry becomes a study of how a text is made from older and newer material, and how that history can be reconstructed."},{"t":"Decoding the Raagmala Debate: Following Dr Balbir Singh's Investigation","u":"/articles/decoding-the-raagmala-debate/#first-identify-the-people-and-the-books","k":"Article","s":"First, identify the people and the books","b":"First, identify the people and the books The investigation becomes much easier when its names are kept separate. Madhavanal, also called Madhav, is the male protagonist of the romance. Kamakandala is its principal female character. Their names provide the title of the story; they are not the names of its authors. Jodh Kavi is the Sanskrit poet whose work Dr Balbir Singh places alongside Alam's adaptation. Alam is the poet associated with the vernacular version under examination. The book also discusses Shaikh, whom it identifies as Alam's wife and a poet in her own right. There is another Jodh in the wider historical discussion: Principal Jodh Singh, a member of the 1945 manuscript inspection subcommittee. He belongs to the twentieth-century investigation and should not be confused with Jodh Kavi. Dr Balbir Singh himself encountered confusion over these names. One correspondent mixed the author and characters together when asking about the translation. The episode is humorous in the book, but it illustrates a serious point. Before comparing dates or making claims about authorship, the identities of the work, its characters and its writers must be secure."},{"t":"Decoding the Raagmala Debate: Following Dr Balbir Singh's Investigation","u":"/articles/decoding-the-raagmala-debate/#the-first-clue-what-alam-says-about-his-own-work","k":"Article","s":"The first clue: what Alam says about his own work","b":"The first clue: what Alam says about his own work Dr Balbir Singh begins by examining how Alam describes the making of his romance. He reads these statements as identifying three contributions to the finished work: Material taken from a Sanskrit narrative. Material contributed by Alam himself. Material taken from other people's compositions. This description changes the question. If Alam's text is a composite adaptation, every passage within it cannot automatically be treated as his original creation. The book pays particular attention to wording that Dr Balbir Singh understands as referring to another person's composition. He disputes an interpretation that turns the relevant expression into the name of the Prakrit language. To support his reading, he supplies variants from manuscript copies whose wording more explicitly refers to material taken from others. He also resists treating conventional storytelling expressions too literally. A poet's statement that he has heard a story does not necessarily prove that he could not read the language of the source. Similarly, saying that he will speak or tell the story does not establish that the work was never written. These small linguistic points matter because large historical conclusions had been built upon them. Dr Balbir Singh insists that the wording must first be understood in the context of literary practice."},{"t":"Decoding the Raagmala Debate: Following Dr Balbir Singh's Investigation","u":"/articles/decoding-the-raagmala-debate/#comparing-jodh-and-alam-passage-by-passage","k":"Article","s":"Comparing Jodh and Alam passage by passage","b":"Comparing Jodh and Alam passage by passage The comparison begins with the opening invocations. Dr Balbir Singh places Jodh's praise of the divine alongside Alam's and identifies a sequence of corresponding ideas: divine presence throughout creation, the absence of beginning and end, and the relationship between spiritual understanding and the condition of the person seeking it. His interest lies in the relationship between the passages as a whole. Similar vocabulary is more useful when accompanied by corresponding order and meaning than when it appears as a single isolated word. The poetic forms differ. Jodh's Sanskrit is organised in a different metrical form from Alam's chaupais and dohras. The translation therefore involves reshaping. A line can move, an idea can be expanded, and a dohra can gather together material developed in the preceding chaupai. Dr Balbir Singh uses that process to explain why fidelity need not look like identical lineation. The relationship between source and adaptation can remain clear even where the number and arrangement of lines change. He also notes the appearance of gurmukh in Alam's wording. Such vocabulary is compatible with contact with Sikh literary circles, in his view. He explicitly stops short of treating the single word as final proof of Alam's place in Guru Gobind Singh Ji's court. Its value belongs to a larger collection of correspondences."},{"t":"Decoding the Raagmala Debate: Following Dr Balbir Singh's Investigation","u":"/articles/decoding-the-raagmala-debate/#the-date-that-carries-the-argument","k":"Article","s":"The date that carries the argument","b":"The date that carries the argument The controversial date is 991 Hijri. The book gives its equivalent as 1583 CE. Critics treated this as a date for Alam's composition. Dr Balbir Singh's reply is that the date belongs to the earlier Sanskrit work and was retained in the vernacular adaptation. On that reading, the translated date identifies the source's historical setting rather than the translator's own lifetime. His investigation therefore has two tasks. It must show why Alam's work should be understood as a translation with additions, and it must identify evidence that those additions belong to a later literary setting. The distinction is fundamental. A date printed within a work, the date when the work was composed, the date of an adaptation and the date when a surviving copy was written need not be the same. Dr Balbir Singh returns to that problem elsewhere in the book when discussing Alam Keli . A closing note associated with Alam Keli gives the year 1753. He asks whether this marks composition or copying, whether the copyist was contemporary with Alam, and which calendar the date uses. He does not present every part of that problem as resolved. His confidence in the later dating of the romance consequently rests on the wider comparison he develops, rather than on treating that closing date as a simple, self-explanatory answer."},{"t":"Decoding the Raagmala Debate: Following Dr Balbir Singh's Investigation","u":"/articles/decoding-the-raagmala-debate/#looking-for-a-later-literary-setting","k":"Article","s":"Looking for a later literary setting","b":"Looking for a later literary setting Dr Balbir Singh next considers the identification of Alam with a poet associated with Guru Gobind Singh Ji's court. He brings together accounts, lists of court poets, poetry and traditions discussed within his source material. The varying descriptions of Alam are part of this enquiry. Some call him a Brahmin; others use the name Alam Shah. Dr Balbir Singh relates those descriptions to the account of a Brahmin poet who became Muslim and married Shaikh. He treats them as compatible elements of one life rather than sufficient reason to separate every reference into a different person. He also discusses a tradition in which Alam asks Bhai Daya Singh about the account of Kharag Singh in Krishnavtar . For Dr Balbir Singh, the subject of the question helps place the encounter within the literary activity of the Guru's court. Further chapters consider Alam's association with Prince Muazzam and the possibility that the prince's imprisonment helps explain a move towards the Guru's court. These passages reconstruct a plausible historical setting. Their reasoning differs from the observation of a written date or a matching line: they connect known elements of the account to propose circumstances in which the association could have developed. The same care is needed with the comparisons involving Shaikh's poetry. Dr Balbir Singh reads similarities with Akal Ustat as evidence of influence and considers whether the setting described suits Paonta Sahib. The resulting picture is cumulative and interpretative."},{"t":"Decoding the Raagmala Debate: Following Dr Balbir Singh's Investigation","u":"/articles/decoding-the-raagmala-debate/#the-comparison-with-the-madhavanal-story-in-the-dasam-granth","k":"Article","s":"The comparison with the Madhavanal story in the Dasam Granth","b":"The comparison with the Madhavanal story in the Dasam Granth The enquiry becomes more specific when Dr Balbir Singh compares Alam's romance with the ninety-first charitra in the Dasam Granth, which concerns Madhavanal and Kamakandala. He identifies corresponding lines, images and narrative details. One example concerns the music played by Madhav. Another concerns the language of suffering and separation. The argument is strengthened, in his view, where a particular episode agrees in both detail and expression. The clearest narrative example is the king's test of Madhav's musical effect on women. Dr Balbir Singh reports that Jodh refers to a test without supplying the same elaboration. Other versions he discusses use a different device involving sesame seeds. Alam's version and the charitra instead share a detail involving lotus leaves. The importance of this comparison lies in specificity. Many versions can share the broad outline of a romance. A more particular agreement can provide a stronger reason to investigate literary dependence. On the chronology advanced in the book, Dr Balbir Singh treats material associated with 1753 Bikrami as a basis for placing Alam's romance at or after that point. He later considers an even later date, while retaining 1753 as the boundary he regards as established by his comparison. The conclusion depends on the direction of influence he argues for. The passages are evidence within that reasoning; the claim that Alam used them is the historical inference drawn from their relationship and the surrounding chronology."},{"t":"Decoding the Raagmala Debate: Following Dr Balbir Singh's Investigation","u":"/articles/decoding-the-raagmala-debate/#what-another-translator-reveals","k":"Article","s":"What another translator reveals","b":"What another translator reveals The comparison with the court poet Tahikan broadens the discussion from particular borrowed passages to methods of adaptation. Dr Balbir Singh contrasts a close translation, which follows the source and disclaims additions, with a freer adaptation that permits new material. He presents Tahikan's Ashvamedh Bhasha as an example of the latter. Tahikan describes hearing a Sanskrit story, reshaping it into vernacular verse and incorporating material from elsewhere. Dr Balbir Singh compares these statements with Alam's description of his own practice. He also examines their handling of chaupai and dohra, including the regularity with which they maintain the length of the chaupais. The point is that a literary environment can leave traces in the way writers introduce, arrange and expand their work. Dr Balbir Singh reads the similarities as support for Alam's participation in the same courtly world of translation and poetic exchange. A related chapter examines how Krishnavtar expands musical references found in its Sanskrit source. Where the earlier narrative refers to flute music, the adaptation can specify a succession of ragas. Dr Balbir Singh sees in that practice a possible model for Alam's insertion of a musical classification into his own romance."},{"t":"Decoding the Raagmala Debate: Following Dr Balbir Singh's Investigation","u":"/articles/decoding-the-raagmala-debate/#why-raagmala-s-position-inside-the-romance-matters","k":"Article","s":"Why Raagmala's position inside the romance matters","b":"Why Raagmala's position inside the romance matters Kamakandala performs in a royal court. In Alam's version, the passage corresponding to Raagmala appears within the description of that performance. Dr Balbir Singh asks whether its language fits comfortably there. A musical classification can speak about families of ragas, the practices of singers and the writer's arrangement of names. A narrative of one woman's performance has a different immediate purpose. He points to expressions that seem to step outside the scene: singers perform in their own ways; the voice explains that eight sons have been set out; musical figures are described as arriving. Such expressions make sense within the technical language of a classification, while their relation to Kamakandala's particular performance requires more explanation. He compares other versions of the story, including one in which discussion of raga relationships occurs later as instruction between the protagonists. For him, these comparisons expose the point where an existing composition has been inserted into Alam's narrative. This argument accompanies the manuscript case elsewhere in the book. If Raagmala is already present in the original Bir, and Alam belongs to the later literary environment Dr Balbir Singh reconstructs, the shared passage can be explained as movement from scripture into the romance."},{"t":"Decoding the Raagmala Debate: Following Dr Balbir Singh's Investigation","u":"/articles/decoding-the-raagmala-debate/#the-limits-of-a-vivid-literary-argument","k":"Article","s":"The limits of a vivid literary argument","b":"The limits of a vivid literary argument Dr Balbir Singh sometimes personifies his argument. In one passage, he imagines Alam acknowledging how he used material from elsewhere. The writing is forceful and memorable, but the imagined speech must be read as the author's rhetorical device. Alam's general statement about using other people's material does not explicitly name Raagmala or Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Dr Balbir Singh himself introduces the more specific interpretation as an assumption to be examined through the continuing enquiry. Turning that passage into a literal confession by Alam would erase the work the later chapters are trying to do. The specific borrowing is the conclusion supported by the combined argument, rather than a fact secured by an independently recorded admission. The book also preserves a correction to Dr Balbir Singh's own reading of Jodh. After initially treating the verses incorrectly, he accepts that they are in the Anushtubh metre. He explains that examining the Sanskrit in Devanagari clarified what a faulty Gurmukhi presentation had obscured. That correction belongs to the investigation's substance. It shows why examining a better witness can change a technical judgement and why the published enquiry should be read through to its later qualifications."},{"t":"Decoding the Raagmala Debate: Following Dr Balbir Singh's Investigation","u":"/articles/decoding-the-raagmala-debate/#where-the-investigation-leads","k":"Article","s":"Where the investigation leads","b":"Where the investigation leads Dr Balbir Singh's conclusion is clear: he identifies Alam as a later adapter who incorporated Raagmala from Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. The path to that conclusion passes through the distinction between source and translation, the interpretation of dates, shared literary material, the context of court poetry and the fit of the passage inside the romance. Readers can understand his case most accurately by keeping each kind of evidence in view. A parallel line establishes a relationship to investigate. A chronology helps determine the possible direction of borrowing. A narrative irregularity can suggest insertion. A manuscript observation addresses the history of the scriptural entry. The enquiry's value lies in bringing those questions together without collapsing them into one. It asks the reader to follow the history of a passage through the actual texts, while remembering that the loudest or most frequently repeated account still has to answer to the evidence. Source: Dr Balbir Singh, Ragmala Da Swal, supplied 2006 edition, especially printed pp. 24-56 , 84-88 , 107-117 and 123-180 . Printed page numbers are six lower than the corresponding PDF page numbers. The other literary works mentioned are discussed through this book only; no external sources or additional historical claims have been introduced."},{"t":"Assessing Raagmala: Dr Balbir Singh's Theological and Historical Defence","u":"/articles/assessing-dr-balbir-singhs-defence/","k":"Article","s":"Notes on Ragmala Da Swal","b":"The strength of an argument depends partly on knowing what kind of argument it is. A statement about handwriting, an inference about literary borrowing and a conviction about the authority of scripture can support one another, but they do not perform the same work. Dr Balbir Singh's Ragmala Da Swal brings all three into a sustained defence of Raagmala. His position is explicit: he regards the composition as belonging to Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and challenges accounts that present it as a later intrusion from Alam's romance. The book deserves to be assessed in that form. Its author is a committed participant in the controversy, combining devotional conviction with manuscript inspection, comparison of editions and close reading. Understanding both the commitment and the method allows readers to identify the questions he asks, follow his answers and assess the evidence he presents."},{"t":"Assessing Raagmala: Dr Balbir Singh's Theological and Historical Defence","u":"/articles/assessing-dr-balbir-singhs-defence/#the-theological-foundation-the-integrity-of-the-bir","k":"Article","s":"The theological foundation: the integrity of the Bir","b":"The theological foundation: the integrity of the Bir Dr Balbir Singh's opening address places akhandta , the wholeness or integrity of the sacred Bir, at the centre of the question. He understands Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji through the authority of the Gurus and the community's relationship to that authority. The Bir is therefore received as Guru, and its preservation carries a responsibility beyond the ordinary editing of a literary collection. From this position, a proposal to remove or alter a composition demands scrutiny. The question concerns who has the authority to make that decision, as well as whether a particular argument appears convincing to an individual reader. His account of the Bhasaur controversy supplies the practical background. He connects the removal of Raagmala with other selections, alterations and rearrangements. The history, as he presents it, shows why he fears the consequences of giving later editors control over the form of the scripture. This concern also explains his refusal to reduce Raagmala to an isolated musical curiosity. A brief concluding composition can become the point at which much larger assumptions about scriptural authority are tested. The preservation principle is the book's theological foundation. Its historical chapters then argue that the available evidence supports preserving Raagmala in the place it already occupies."},{"t":"Assessing Raagmala: Dr Balbir Singh's Theological and Historical Defence","u":"/articles/assessing-dr-balbir-singhs-defence/#what-the-manuscript-evidence-contributes","k":"Article","s":"What the manuscript evidence contributes","b":"What the manuscript evidence contributes The Kartarpur Bir provides the most concrete strand of the defence. Dr Balbir Singh reproduces statements from two inspecting groups in September and October 1945, then supplies his own joint statement with Narain Singh following their December visit. The reports discuss Raagmala's position at number 974, its entry in the contents list and the relationship of its handwriting to the surrounding or main text. The book also provides tracings of the opening Mool Mantar and Raagmala's final lines. Dr Balbir Singh presents these as supporting the continuity of the principal scribal hand, associated with Bhai Gurdas Ji. The force of this material lies in its engagement with particular allegations. A claim that Raagmala occupies an unnumbered additional space can be compared with the manuscript's numbering convention. A claim that its hand differs can be compared with the recorded observations. A claim about its absence from the manuscript's original arrangement has to address the contents entry described by the examiners. Dr Balbir Singh concludes that Raagmala belongs to the Bir from its original writing. That is a conclusion about the history and integrity of the manuscript. It should not be casually expanded into a separate claim that handwriting alone identifies the individual composer of every passage copied by that hand. Preserving this distinction strengthens the account. The manuscript evidence addresses the question it is equipped to address: the relationship of the entry to the sacred volume and its writing history."},{"t":"Assessing Raagmala: Dr Balbir Singh's Theological and Historical Defence","u":"/articles/assessing-dr-balbir-singhs-defence/#the-literary-argument-asks-a-different-question","k":"Article","s":"The literary argument asks a different question","b":"The literary argument asks a different question The appearance of corresponding material in Alam's Madhavanal Kamakandala introduces the question of borrowing. Dr Balbir Singh's case begins with the nature of Alam's work. He argues that it combines a Sanskrit source associated with Jodh Kavi, material added by Alam and material taken from elsewhere. The presence of Raagmala in the romance therefore cannot, by itself, establish Alam as its originator. He then challenges the use of 991 Hijri as a straightforward date for Alam's own activity. His reading places that date with the earlier source whose material was carried into the adaptation. The later chapters search for a more suitable setting for Alam. They consider his association with the Guru's court, compare his poetry with other courtly writing, and identify parallels with compositions discussed within the Dasam Granth. Dr Balbir Singh also examines how the musical classification fits into the romance's performance scene. These strands lead him to argue that Alam took Raagmala from Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Their contribution is cumulative: chronology, literary relationship and narrative context are used together to support a direction of transmission. A useful assessment keeps the parts of that argument visible: Kind of material Its role in Dr Balbir Singh's case What needs to remain distinct Reports of the Kartarpur inspections Support Raagmala's place within the original Bir The observations reported and the conclusion drawn from them Shared wording and narrative details Establish relationships between literary works The existence of a parallel and the direction of borrowing Dates within texts and closing notes Help construct a chronology Source date, composition date, adaptation date and copy date Awkwardness within Alam's performance scene Supports the argument for insertion of a ready-made classification A literary interpretation and a direct record of the act of insertion The principle of the Bir's integrity Explains the duty of preservation A theological commitment and an independently observable manuscript feature The book becomes easier to evaluate when these categories remain connected without becoming interchangeable."},{"t":"Assessing Raagmala: Dr Balbir Singh's Theological and Historical Defence","u":"/articles/assessing-dr-balbir-singhs-defence/#why-spelling-is-a-theological-issue-in-this-debate","k":"Article","s":"Why spelling is a theological issue in this debate","b":"Why spelling is a theological issue in this debate The chapters on disputed raga names show how a linguistic judgement can become a proposal to alter scripture. A critic presents one form as correct and another as corrupted. If the allegedly corrupted form appears in Raagmala, the difference is then used as evidence that an unskilled copyist introduced the composition into the Bir. Dr Balbir Singh challenges both steps. First, he asks whether the comparison text has a sufficiently established reading. His examples from manuscripts of Alam's romance show variation among the copies. A selected form cannot become the standard merely because it supports the preferred conclusion. Second, he questions the assumption that a word must match its Sanskrit form to be legitimate. Language changes through use. Written forms and pronunciations can vary historically without representing accidental damage to a text. His discussion of Suhau illustrates the approach. He compares forms across the relevant copies and brings in the use of a related form in the raagmala attributed to Tansen, as discussed in the book. The purpose is to establish a context of usage before declaring the scriptural form mistaken. The theological implication follows directly. If a later editor mistakes historical language for corruption, an apparent correction can become an alteration to the received text. For Dr Balbir Singh, knowledge of language should help a reader understand the wording rather than provide an unchecked licence to replace it."},{"t":"Assessing Raagmala: Dr Balbir Singh's Theological and Historical Defence","u":"/articles/assessing-dr-balbir-singhs-defence/#musical-objections-require-musical-interpretation","k":"Article","s":"Musical objections require musical interpretation","b":"Musical objections require musical interpretation Dr Balbir Singh applies comparable reasoning to Raagmala's organisation. The composition's family arrangement and the order of raga sections in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji do not coincide. His response is to examine their different purposes. The sequence of material within scripture and a classification of musical relationships need not have an identical order. He also examines the apparent discrepancy between Deepak's eight sons and a sequence that can be read as nine separate names. His answer turns on compound raga names and the principles used to combine or separate them. The important methodological demand is consistency. When a commentator groups two terms together to explain the number in Alam's list, a corresponding possibility cannot be rejected without examination in the scriptural list. The grouping should be supported through musical terminology and comparison, rather than accepted or dismissed according to which text is being defended. This argument does not require the family metaphor to supply a complete theory of performance. It requires the reader to establish what counts as one musical name before using an apparent counting problem to judge the text's origin."},{"t":"Assessing Raagmala: Dr Balbir Singh's Theological and Historical Defence","u":"/articles/assessing-dr-balbir-singhs-defence/#scholarship-reputation-and-the-circulation-of-error","k":"Article","s":"Scholarship, reputation and the circulation of error","b":"Scholarship, reputation and the circulation of error One of the book's recurring concerns is the power of a respected scholar's name. Dr Balbir Singh examines changes across Bhai Kahn Singh's writings and argues that later writers continued to circulate earlier descriptions without adequately considering revisions. He also traces allegations that become more definite as they pass from one publication to another. His target is the habit of treating repetition as verification. Several writers can reproduce the same statement while relying on a single earlier account. The number of repetitions does not establish that several independent examinations have occurred. He makes a related point about respect. A scholar's contribution can be substantial while a particular claim remains mistaken. Dr Balbir Singh expressly resists the wholesale dismissal of Bhai Kahn Singh's writings, even while criticising specific descriptions with considerable severity. The distinction is valuable because it protects both intellectual standards and proportion. Respect does not require perpetuating an error. Correcting an error does not require denying everything the scholar accomplished."},{"t":"Assessing Raagmala: Dr Balbir Singh's Theological and Historical Defence","u":"/articles/assessing-dr-balbir-singhs-defence/#the-author-s-own-corrections-belong-in-the-assessment","k":"Article","s":"The author's own corrections belong in the assessment","b":"The author's own corrections belong in the assessment The book records occasions on which Dr Balbir Singh changes his own published position on a detail. He accepts a correction to the date of the first edition of Gurmat Sudhakar , replacing 1901 with 1899. He also corrects his description of Jodh's metre after examining the Sanskrit more closely. The verses are recognised as Anushtubh, and he explains how the earlier presentation had contributed to his mistake. These are meaningful features of the work. They show the investigation responding to better information and to readers' objections. They also establish how the collected volume should be used. A statement in an early instalment may be modified later. Extracting only the first occurrence can reproduce an error that the author has already corrected. The same principle governs his criticism of others: the relevant object of study is the development of the actual printed record. A convenient quotation should not take priority over the author's later clarification."},{"t":"Assessing Raagmala: Dr Balbir Singh's Theological and Historical Defence","u":"/articles/assessing-dr-balbir-singhs-defence/#where-the-book-leaves-room-for-judgement","k":"Article","s":"Where the book leaves room for judgement","b":"Where the book leaves room for judgement A faithful assessment also needs to recognise that the book does not offer the same degree of certainty for every proposition. Its discussion of the date in Alam Keli explicitly raises unresolved questions about composition, copying and the calendar involved. Its reconstruction of Alam's movements between patrons depends on connecting historical circumstances. Its comparison of poetic style offers interpretative support rather than a dated record of every act of composition. The vivid passage imagining Alam's acknowledgement of borrowing also needs care. Alam's general statement about using others' material is part of the evidence. The imagined speech identifying the particular borrowing is Dr Balbir Singh's exposition of his case. It is not a separately preserved confession by the poet. Similarly, the handwriting tracings and inspection statements should be presented as the evidence the book supplies. They should not be described as laboratory tests of ink or paper, and the supplied scan cannot substitute for a fresh examination of the original Bir. These distinctions do not change the direction of the author's conclusion. They give readers a fair account of how he reaches it and which parts rest on observation, interpretation or reconstruction. His style is another part of the assessment. The writing can be satirical and confrontational. It emerged from a controversy in which the author believed the integrity of scripture was at stake. Describing it as consistently detached or diplomatically neutral would conceal that character."},{"t":"Assessing Raagmala: Dr Balbir Singh's Theological and Historical Defence","u":"/articles/assessing-dr-balbir-singhs-defence/#the-contribution-of-the-defence","k":"Article","s":"The contribution of the defence","b":"The contribution of the defence Dr Balbir Singh's case joins a clear religious commitment to a demanding programme of textual enquiry. He defends Raagmala's place in the Bir, challenges the claim of borrowing from Alam and asks critics to justify the manuscript descriptions and linguistic standards on which their conclusions depend. His broader contribution lies in the questions that this work requires readers to ask. Has the right manuscript been identified? Has its numbering been understood? Is a quoted view the author's own, or an objection he is answering? Does a date belong to the source, the adaptation or a copy? Has a supposed correction been tested against the actual witnesses? For him, the preservation of scripture and the careful examination of evidence belong to the same responsibility. The argument deserves to be represented with equal care: its defence made explicit, its supporting material described accurately, and its inferences distinguished from direct observations. Read in that way, Ragmala Da Swal offers a substantial account of why its author regards Raagmala as an integral part of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, while leaving the reader able to follow and assess the reasoning on which that account depends. Source: Dr Balbir Singh, Ragmala Da Swal, supplied 2006 edition, especially printed pp. 1-23 , 57-83 , 96-117 , 123-178 and 181-204 . Printed page numbers are six lower than the corresponding PDF page numbers. This assessment uses only the arguments and material contained in the supplied book."},{"t":"Short introduction to Raagmala","u":"/articles/short-introduction-to-raagmala/","k":"Article","s":"From the archive","b":"The spiritual light of the ten Guru Sahibs is enshrined within Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, and thus the commandments of Gurbani are to be adhered to. From 'Ik Oankaar' to 'Atharah Das Bis'. Gurbani is to be accepted as the Guru. Raagmala was authored by Guru Ji. First, Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji had Bhai Gurdas Ji write an edition of Aad Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji in which Raagmala is present. It is written in the same ink, on the same quality of paper and in the same handwriting as the rest of the Gurbani (this was also confirmed by various Sikh scholars, as recorded in the book Kartarpuri Bir De Darshan ). This edition is now at Sri Kartarpur Sahib (Doaba). Bhai Banno Ji copied that edition, which also includes Raagmala. At Takhat Damdama Sahib, Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji had Bhai Mani Singh Ji as scribe and dictated the whole of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, in which Raagmala is present. It is also present in the four editions written by Shaheed Baba Deep Singh Ji. Those who argue that the poet Jodh wrote Raagmala in Madavanal Kamkandla , or that the poet Alam wrote it, are mistaken. The poet Jodh wrote Madavanal Kamkandla in Sanskrit in the Hijri year 991, which is 1640 Bikrami, and Raagmala is not present in it. The poet Alam was one of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji's 52 poets; he lived from 1712 Bikrami to 1774 Bikrami and wrote his Raagmala according to what he heard spoken in the court of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji. Alam lived 113 years after the first edition of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji was compiled. How can it be argued that he wrote Raagmala 113 years before the first edition? From this it is clear that Guru Sahib wrote Raagmala. Bhai Sahib Bhai Vir Singh Ji, in Sri Gur Partap Suraj Granth from page 2128 to page 2133, explains in detail why Raagmala was authored by Guru Ji. If one were to read Giani Sahib Singh Ji's (Damdama Sahib) detailed discourse on the authenticity of Raagmala, no confusion or doubt would be left. There is also a small book called Raagmala Gurbani Hai , published by Damdami Taksal, which details the spiritual meaning of Raagmala and answers every point that has been raised against its authenticity. Furthermore, the book Anbhavi Arth by Sant Sundar Singh Ji Bhindranwale gives the in-depth spiritual meaning of Raagmala; those arths are the basis of the Arths page on this site."},{"t":"The story of Raagmaala","u":"/articles/the-story-of-raagmaala/","k":"Article","s":"From the archive","b":"There has been much debate and controversy by certain groups surrounding the authenticity of Raagmaala and its position within Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Here I will attempt to explain the background to Raagmaala and why Guru Arjan Dev Ji wrote and added this particular Baani. Raag or Raga as we know them to be is the classical melodic modes of traditional Indian music, thought to evoke specific emotions of the mind and moods of a particular time of day or season. Derived from Sanskrit, Raga means the act of colouring or dyeing. In the context of Gurbani, it is the act of colouring or dyeing the mind with the Lord's Name. Nevertheless, Ragas are not mere musical modes, but were in fact a generation of aristocratic kings and queens, where celestial musical ballads were attributed to them. Raja Aasa was the son of Raja Sarang. He was a very beautiful prince. His step mother wrongly accused him of committing a crime and ordered for him to be punished. His punishment was to have both his hands and feet chopped off. The executioner hacked off one hand and left Raja Aasa in another town. Raja Aasa became a servant to a laundress. The king of that village passed away. He had no children. There was no one left to take over his reign. The courtiers made a decision that the next person who enters the door will be made King of this city. The laundress' cow escaped and Raja Aasa went looking for it. Thinking he saw the cow, Raja Aasa entered the doors of the King's palace. The guards seized Raja Aasa and took him to the minister, who after much deliberation declared him the next King. After some time, Raja Sarang passed away and his other son, the step brother of Raja Aasa, Sardhool Rai seized the kingdom. He waged a war against Raja Aasa. Raja Aasa won the battle. In praise of Raja Aasa's, the court poets composed a ballad, which corresponded to Raja Aasa's heroic defeat of Sardhool Rai. The sixth Guru, Guru HarGobind Sahib Ji decided that Aasa Ki Vaar should be sung in Tundeh Aas Rajeh Ki Dhuni, meaning that the Baani should be sung in the tune of the ballad attributed to Raja Aasa, which produces the martial and heroic essence of victory. Within Gurbilas Patshahi 6, it tells us that during the time when Guru Arjan Dev Ji began to compile the Aad Granth at Sri Ramsar Sahib, the Ragas appeared before the Guru. The Ragas sang the praises of Guru Arjan Dev Ji and the previous four Gurus and thanked them for having blessed their ancestors. The Ragas made a supplication before Guru Arjan Dev Ji to give them a place within the Aad Granth and may they continue singing the Lord's praises when invoked through their musical form. The Ragas not only wanted to attain salvation through the sweet ambrosial nectar of the Guru's Words but to produce the ultimate experience of supreme bliss and inner peace to the mind and soul when the Divine Words are sung through the various harmonious styles of Ragas. sathigur th paaeiaa sehaj saethee man vajeeaa vaadhhaaeeaa || I have found the True Guru, with intuitive ease, and my mind vibrates with the music of bliss. raag rathan paravaar pareeaa sabadh gaavan aaeeaa || The jewelled melodies and their related celestial harmonies have come to sing the Word of the Shabad. Guru Amar Das Ji, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Ang 917 Fulfilling the supplication of the Ragas, Guru Arjan Dev Ji sequenced the compositions and hymns within the Aad Granth according to the traditional Indian musical measures to not only emphasise the Divine Message but to arouse heavenly experiences through devotional worship of the Lord. In total, thirty-one Ragas were selected. raag rathan pareeaa paravaar || The divine crystalline harmonies, their consorts, and their celestial families this vich oupajai a(n)mrith saar || from them, the essence of Ambrosial Nectar is produced. Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, Ang 351 Upon completing the Aad Granth with the musical measures in place, Guru Arjan Dev Ji sealed the Granth with an epilogue of the Ragas, known as Raagmaala, the garland of musical measures. Here Guru Arjan Dev Ji evokes and tributes the Almighty Lord through the form of Ragas. The formation of the Raagas strung or beaded into a garland or string emphasises the message, although we may have different qualities and forms, in essence we are all strung or unified by the One Creator, where there is no beginning or end. In a similar way within Sri Dasam Granth, Guru Gobind Singh Ji evokes and praises the Lord in the form of weapons in his composition of Shastar Naam Maala (The Garland of Weapons). It is believed that Raagmaala represents the lotus feet of the Guru (represented by the 'Maala') and the Jap Ji is thought to be the head of the Guru, which is full of Divine Wisdom and Knowledge. Source: SikhNet, The Story of Raagmaala ."},{"t":"About this site and contact","u":"/about/","k":"Page","s":"Why we made this, credits, privacy, contact form","b":"About About this site Due to controversy regarding the authenticity of Raagmala, we have created this website which aims to collect and collate all research into one place. We are still in development and will be adding new content as time goes on, as more research is completed. If we have made any mistakes then we ask for the Sadh Sangat's maafi and ardaas that this seva can be done truthfully. The site brings together the spiritual meanings of Raagmala (Sant Giani Sundar Singh Ji Bhindranwale's arths, translated by Kamalpreet Singh Pardeshi), photographs of Raagmala in handwritten Saroops , answers to the objections , katha and kirtan from across the Panth, and two published Punjabi defences with English reading notes. Credits for the video and audio belong to the channels and producers named beside each one. The Patna Sahib manuscript pages were digitised by the Panjab Digital Library. If you hold the rights to anything here and would like it credited differently or removed, please write to us. Privacy This site is a set of static pages. It sets no cookies of its own and runs no advertising. Two things to know: Videos. The video thumbnails are stored on this site. A YouTube player (youtube-nocookie.com) loads only when you press play, and from that point YouTube's own privacy policy applies to the player. Contact form. Messages go through Web3Forms, a form-delivery service, to the inbox we read. Web3Forms processes your name, email and message to deliver them; we don't use them for anything else and we don't send automatic replies. Visitor counts are measured with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies and no client-side state and does not track individuals across sites. Share Contact us Please contact us with any queries. Your name Your email (so we can reply) Your message or question Send message Your message is sent through Web3Forms to the site's inbox. We read every message and reply where we can. We don't send automatic replies and we don't add you to any list. You can also reach us on Facebook and Instagram ."}]