Is Dasam Granth written by Guru Gobind Singh?

By Amarjit Singh Gulati | Opinion |

In the last couple of years, you may have come across various articles, books and even YouTube videos of people proclaiming the Dasam Granth (DG) is or is not the composition of Guru Gobind Singh. My sole purpose of preparing this article is to provide sufficient pointers and evidence that will hopefully help you take a stand and make a decision whether to accept the DG wholly as the works of Guru Gobind Singh or not.

FACT: There are many Sikhs out there who have not heard or read the DG for themselves. For the ones who have read it, some may NOT have understood the content.

Why has this happened? Probably due to these reasons:

• The Sikh clergy and a few staunch groups have put fear amongst practicing Sikhs saying they know Sikhi better and do not appreciate anyone questioning them. If you do, they say you have lack of ‘sharda’ (reverence).
• The DG is composed in several older languages mainly Brij Pasha, Persian etc. which the modern day Sikh cannot understand.
• Most of the English translations of the DG is misleading and inaccurate.

WHY I DECIDED TO WRITE ABOUT THE DG?

In April of 2016, the Malaysian Gurdwara Council (MGC) wrote an official letter to the committee of Titiwangsa Gurdwara to stop SGGS Academy from proceeding with a 3-day program named “Akaal Ustat Semagam”.

The academy ignored the MGC letter and boldly went ahead with the 3-day program. They even ignored to abide the Sikh Rehat Maryada (SRM) and Akaal Takhat’s directive to only sing, recite and do viaakhia of Gurbani from Guru Granth Sahib or Bhai Gurdaas Vaaran and nothing more.

SGGS Academy (in my personal opinion), was a fine academy. They were well received when they were focused on Gurbani from Guru Granth Sahib. But soon as they entered the domain of the DG, it was a downward spiral.

Let’s take a look at how the DG debacle actually started.

THE DG BEGINNINGS (HISTORICAL EVIDENCE)

Ever since the demise of Guru Gobind Singh in 1708, many anti-Sikh groups sprung up to create chaos and put a blemish on Sikhs and the Guru’s name.

Let it be known that a Giani Gian Singh has recorded that Guru Gobind Singh did indeed compose a few compositions but they were NEVER compiled in a book form.

All the 10th Guru’s compositions were found in separate sheets and some may have been transferred into texts called Rehatnamas (eg. Bhai Nand Lal, Bhai Dessa Singh, Bhai Chaupa Singh, Bhai Daya Singh and Bhai Prahlad Singh.)

It is said that in 1721, Bhai Mani Singh was collecting the writings of the 10th master but it is also known that most of the compilations were lost in 1704, during the evacuation of the Guru and His family members together with a handful of his soldiers from Anandpur Fort.

During this time, some of the writings of the 10th Guru also got lost when Guru Sahib and others were crossing the Sirsa river. In 1738, Bhai Mani Singh was martyred.

So, basically, NO one really knows where or what are the exact authentic writings of the 10th Guru.

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In 1785, (77-years after Guru Gobind Singh left this world), a granthi by the name of Sukha Singh together with two of his companions began compiling and writing a book called Bachitar Natak. A few copies of this Bachitar Natak were made available back then.

In 1897, a group of Sikhs from Gurmat Granth Parchaar Sabha, Amritsar, under the leadership of one Bhai Gurmukh Singh went about collecting copies of Bachitar Natak and other supposedly Guru Gobind Singh’s writings from gurdwaras, homes and libraries from all over Punjab.

They gathered 32 different versions of Bachitar Natak (now allegedly called Dasam Granth). Their justification of taking up such an arduous task was to come up with a final “true copy” of the writings of the 10th Guru and to compile everything in one volume or book.

NOTE: From these 32 different versions collected, eight (8) compositions of Guru Gobind Singh were NOT included in the final copy of the man-made DG.

List of eight (8) compositions not included:

• Sri Sahib Ji Ki Ustat Patshahi 10
• Shand Chakka Sri Bhagauti Ju Ka
• Sri Bhagwat Gita Sri Gobind Singh Kirt
• Sansahar Sukhmana Sri Mukhwak Patshahi 10 Raag Gauri
• Shabd Asa Tatha Sorathi Patshahi 10
• Vaar Malkauns Ki Patshahi 10
• Vaar Bhagauti Ji Ki Sri Mukhwak Patshahi 10
• Asfotak And Kabit Swaiyye

Three (3) baanis, namely Jaap Sahib, Tev Parsaad Sawaiyye, Benti Chaoupai were ADDED in the later versions of the DG. These baanis were NOT part of the Bachitar Natak initially.

The writer(s) of DG must have decided to affix Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s name and include some of the Guru’s baanis in the DG in order to create more credibility to their claims that the DG was written by the Guru himself.

A Bhai Manna Singh, who was put in charge of this task, writes in his Sodhak Report.

According to this report, 32-collected manuscripts were taken to Manna Singh’s house and upon completing the intended task, all 32 were returned to the original owners.

This is however untrue! Not even a single manuscript is to been found today.

What may have happened, according to some resources:-

Upon deciding which writings or compositions they were going to include and exclude, they burnt ALL 32 copies and since they promised to return the original 32 versions to the families, they must have prepared the new DG volume and sent these instead. Unfortunately, not even a single copy has surfaced to date.

Questions to ponder upon:

• Why isn’t even one copy of the original 32-manuscripts of Bachitar Natak anywhere to be found?
• What was Akaal Takhat and SGPC doing at that time when Khalsa Diwan’s and Gurmat Granth Parchaar Sabha’s started the compositions hunting and re-compiling, making corrections, etc? Which authority sanctioned and surpervised this work?
• Who has verified Sodhak Committee’s report of the new DG?
• Are we 100% sure all of the DG consists of authentic writings of Guru Gobind Singh?
• If Guru Gobind Singh or the poets in His courts (like some claim) wrote the DG, then why aren’t they allowing ‘carbon dating’ on the “original DG”? What are they afraid of?

These are some very important questions which have gone unanswered.

For those who are not familiar with ‘carbon dating’, it’s a scientific process of determining how old is an item. You can read all about this process here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating

FACT: From 1721 to 1897 (for 176 years), there was NO such book called Dasam Granth.

If the DG did exist, I believe Guru Ji would have either inserted the compositions within Guru Granth Sahib or he would have informed His Sikhs and made copies of it for distribution. Since the Guru was already inserting compositions of his father – Guru Tegh Bahadhur Ji’s Baanis in Adi Grath.

In fact, Guru Ji could have easily included His own Baanis too but He didn’t, reasons best known to the Guru. We are not to assume or judge.

So what’s inside the DG?

You can read the rest of the article here.

About the Author: Amarjit Singh Gulati, who runs a Malaysian-based blockchain academy and manages a software solutions company, blogs on Sikhi at JeevanJach.com. 





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Gurbani vs Sacred Shrine. Who wins? (Asia Samachar, 6 May 2022)

Dasam Granth: The weapon of mass control (Asia Samachar, 8 Nov 2021)



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