Guru Granth Sahib - History

History

During the Guruship of Guru Nanak, collections of his hymns were compiled and sent to distant Sikh communities for them to use in morning and evening prayers. His successor, Guru Angad, began the tradition of collecting his predecessors' sacred writings which was continued by the third and fourth gurus.

When the fifth Guru, Guru Arjan, was collecting the writings of his predecessor, he discovered that pretenders to the Guruship were releasing forged anthologies of the previous gurus' writings and including their own writings alongside them. In order to prevent spurious scriptures from gaining legitimacy, Guru Arjan began compiling a sacred book for the Sikh community. He finished collecting the religious writings of Guru Ram Das, his immediate predecessor, and convinced Mohan, the son of Guru Amar Das, to give him the collection of the religious writings of the first three Gurus. In addition, he sent disciples to go across the country to find and bring back any previously unknown writings. He also invited members of other religions and contemporary religious writers to submit writings for possible inclusion. Guru Arjan selected hymns for inclusion into the book and Bhai Gurdas acted as his scribe.

While the manuscript was being put together, Akbar, the Mughal Emperor, received a report that the manuscript contained passages vilifying Islam so while traveling north he stopped en route and asked to inspect it. Bhai Buddha and Bhai Gurdas brought him a copy of manuscript so far, and after choosing three random passages to be read, determined the report to be false. He also granted a request from Guru Arjan to remit the annual tax revenue of the district because of the failure of the monsoon.

In 1604, Guru Arjan's manuscript was completed and installed at the Harmandir Sahib with Bhai Buddha as the first granthi, or reader. Since communities of Sikh disciples were scattered all over northern India, copies of the holy book needed to be made for them. However, in this very first transcription a number of minor changes were made by the copyists.

The sixth, seventh, and eighth Gurus did not write religious verses, however the ninth Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur did and the tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh did as well.

In 1704, at Damdama Sahib during a one-year respite from the heavy fighting with Aurengzeb the Khalsa was engaged in at the time, Guru Gobind Singh and Bhai Mani Singh added the religious compositions of Guru Tegh Bahadur to the Guru Granth Sahib to create a definitive version. During these months of "intense literary activity" they used the original volume prepared by Guru Arjan by borrowing it from the descendants of Dhirmal, the elder brother of Guru Har Rai and inserted Guru Tegh Bahadur's verses in the appropriate places. The religious verses of Guru Gobind Singh were not included in the Guru Granth Sahib, but some of his religious verses are included in the daily prayers of Sikhs. During this period, Bhai Mani Singh also collected Guru Gobind Singh's writings as well as his court poets and included them in a non-religious volume known as the Dasam Granth.

This final compilation of the Guru Granth Sahib had many copies made, however, the original was lost in the Sikh holocaust of 1762. The edition used in Sikh Gurdwaras today is based on the copies produced at Damdama Sahib by Bhai Mani Singh.