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The
term Puratan janam-sakhis means ancient janam-sakhis
and is generally used with reference to the composite work which
was compiled by Bhai Vir Singh and first published in 1926. Of
the still existing copies of the Puratan Janam-sakhis the two
most important were the Colebrooke and Hafizabad versions. The
first of these was discovered in 1872, the manuscript had been
donated to the library of the east India company by H.T. Colebrooke
and is accordingly known as the Colebrooke or Vailaitwali
Janamsakhi. Although there is no date on it the manuscript points
to around 1635. |
According
to the Puratan Jana-sakhi Guru Nanak Dev Ji was born in the month of Vaisakh,
1469. The date is given as the third day of the light half of the month
and the birth is said it have taken place during the last watch before
dawn. His father Kalu, was a khatri of the Bedi sub-cast and lived in
a village Rai Bhoi di talwandi, his mothers name is not given. When Guru
Ji turned seven he was taken to a pundit to learn how to read. After only
one day he gave up reading and when the pundit asked him why Guru Ji lapsed
into silence and instructed him at length in the vanity of worldly learning
and the contrasting value of the Divine Name of God. The child began to
show disturbing signs of withdrawal from the world. He was sent to learn
Persian at the age of nine but returned home and continued to sit in silence.
Locals advised his father that Nanak should be married. This advice was
taken and at the age of twelve a betrothal was arranged at the house of
Mula of the Chona sub-caste. Sometime later Nanak moved to Sultanpur where
his sister Nanaki was married. Here he took up employment with Daulat
Khan. One day Nanak went to the river and while bathing messengers of
God came and he was transported to the divine court. There he was given
a cup of nectar (amrit) and with it came the command “ Nanak, this
is the cup of My Name (Naam). Drink it.” This he did and was charged
to go into the world and preach the divine Name.
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all the manuscripts this is probably the most neglected as it
has acquired a disagreeable reputation. Sodhi Miharban who gives
his name to the janam-sakhi was closely associated to the Mina
sect and the Minas were very hostile towards the Gurus around
the period of Guru Arjun Dev Ji. The Minas were the followers
of Prithi Chand the eldest sone of Guru Ram Das Ji. Prithi Chands
behaviour was evidently unsatisfactory as he was passed over in
favour of his younger brother, (Guru) Arjun Dev, when his father
chose a successor. The Minas were a robber tribe and in punjabi
the word has come to mean someone who conceals his true evil intent.
The Minas were subsequently execrated by Guru Gobind Singh Ji
and Sikhs were instructed to have no dealings with them. The sect
is now extinct. It is said that it was due to this janam-sakhi
and its hostility towards the Gurus that prompted Bhai Gurdas
Ji’s account and the commission of the Gyan-ratanavali.
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The
first three sakhis recount the greatness of Raja Janak and describes an
interview with God wherein Raja Janak is instructed that he is to return
to the world once again to propagate His Name. Details of Guru Nanak’s
birth are given in the fourth sakhi and his father was Kalu, a Bedi and
his mother Mata Tripta. The account of Guru Ji learning to read from the
pundit is also recounted here. After the interlude at Sultanpur Guru Nanak
Dev Ji set out to Mount Sumeru. Climbing the mountain Guru Ji found all
nine Siddhus seated there – Gorakhnath, Mechhendranath, Isarnath,
Charapatnath, Barangnath, Ghoracholi, Balgundai, Bharathari and Gopichand.
Gorakhnath asked the identity of the visitor and his disciple replied,
“ This is Nanak Bedi, a pir and a bhagat who is a housholder.”
What follows is a lengthy discourse with the siddhas which ends with the
siddhas asking what is happening in the evil age of kaliyug. Guru Ji responds
with three sloks :
| There
is a famine of truth, falsehood prevails, and in the darkness of kaliyug
men have become ghouls ..1 |
|
| The kaliyug
is a knife, kings are butchers, dharama has taken wings and flown
…..2 |
|
Men give
as charity the money they have acquired by sinful means …….3
|
The Bala Janam-sakhi.
This
janam-sakhi has had an immense influence over determining what is generally
accepted as the authoritative account of Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s life.
Throughout the nineteenth century the authority of the Bala version was
unchallenged. An important work based on the Bahi Bala janam-sakhi is
Santokh Singh’s Gur Nanak Purkash commonly known as Nanak Parkash.
Its lengthy sequel, Suraj Parkash carries the acount up to the tenth Guru
and contains a higher proportion of historical fact, this was completed
in 1844.
In
the first journey or udasi Guru Nanak Dev Ji left Sultanpur towards eastern
India and included, in the following sequence :
| Panipat
(Sheikh Sharaf) Delhi (Sultan Ibrahim Lodi) Hardwar Allahbad Banaras Nanakmata Kauru, Kamrup in Assam (Nur Shah) Talvandi (twelve years after leaving Sultanpur) Pak Pattan (Sheikh Ibrahim) Goindval Lahore Kartarpur. |
| Delhi Ayodhya Jagannath Puri Rameswaram Sri Lanka Vindhya mountains Narabad River Ujjain Saurashtra Mathura |
| Kashmir Mount Sumeru Achal |
| Afghanistan
Persia Mecca Madina Baghdad |
The
fourth and eveidently the latest is the Gyan-ratanavali attributed to
Bhai Mani Singh who wrote it with the express intention of correcting
heretical accounts of Guru Nanak Dev Ji. Bhai Mani Singh was a Sikh of
Guru Gobind Singh Ji. He was approached by some Sikhs with a request that
he should prepare an authentic account of Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s life.
This they assured him was essential as the Minas were circulating objectionable
things in their version. Bhai Mani Singh referred them to the Var of Bhai
Gurdas Ji, but this, they maintained was to brief and a longer more fuller
account was needed. Bhai Mani Singh writes :
Just
as swimmers fix reeds in the river so that those who do not know
the way may also cross, so I shall take Bhai Gurdas’s var
as my basis and in accordance with it, and with the accounts that
I have heard at the court of the tenth Master, I shall relate to
you whatever commentary issues from my humble mind. |
At
the end of the Janam-sakhi there is an epilogue in which it is stated
that the completed work was taken to Guru Gobind Singh Ji for his seal
of approval. Guru Sahib Ji duly signed it and commended it as a means
of acquiring knowledge of Sikh belief.
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