Dasam Granth - Authorship

Authorship

There are three major views on the authorship of the Dasam Granth:

1. The traditional view is that the entire work was composed by Guru Gobind Singh himself.
2. The entire collection was composed by the poets in the Guru's entourage.
3. Only a part of the work was composed by the Guru, while the rest was composed by the other poets.

In his religious court at Anandpur Sahib, Guru Gobind Singh had employed 52 poets, who translated several classical texts into Braj Bhasha. Most of the writing compiled at Anandpur Sahib was lost while the Guru's camp was crossing the Sirsa river before the Battle of Chamkaur. There were copiers available at Guru's place who made several copies of writings. Later, Bhai Mani Singh compiled all the available works under the title Dasam Granth. The traditional scholars claim that all the works in Dasam Granth were composed by the Guru himself, on the basis of Bhai Mani Singh's letter. However, some others dispute this claim, saying that the some of the compositions included in Dasam Granth (such as Charitropakhyan) are out of tune with other Sikh scriptures, and must have been composed by other poets.