Adi Granth Saheb        All of the first four gurus wrote hymns about God. For Sikhs the guru’s hymns were everything:                      bwxI gurU gurU hY bwxI ivic bwxI AMimRqu swry ]   Translation:                                          The Word, the Bani is Guru, and Guru is the Bani.                                                 Within the Bani, the Ambrosial Nectar is contained.                            At the time, the Guru’s brother, Baba Prithi Chand was trying to write his own granth and the Guru knew that it would confuse many Sikhs. Guru Arjun Saheb collected all of these hymns plus hymns of other great saints (bhagats) and decided to put them together in one place.         Guru Amar Das Ji’s son Baba Mohan had two manuscripts (pothis) of the Guru’s hymns in Goindwal, but refused to give them to anyone. Bhai Gurdas Ji and Baba Budha Ji both tried to retrieve them, but were both turned away without even meeting Baba Mohan Ji. Finally Guru Arjun Saheb went himself and convinced Baba Mohan Ji to hand over the hymns.         The Sikhs then carried these pothis (manuscripts) on their shoulder and started to walk back towards Amritsar. According to Gurbilas Shevi Patshahi (written in 1718), Guru Arjun Saheb refused to ride on his horse in the presence of the pothis. The Guru walked barefoot all the way back to Amritsar, because he said that the hymns carried the spirit of the first four gurus.          According to the Gurbilas, Guru Arjun Saheb set up a tent in the middle of a forest just outside of Amritsar. The Guru along with Bhai Gurdas, a well respected Sikh undertook the task of writing all the hymns out in one scripture. The hymns were arranged by musical modes (raags) and were written in Gurmukhi. It took three years to finish this great task. In total there were 1948 pages (12 x 8 inches) including some blank pages. There is a shrine named Ramsar where Guru Arjun Saheb and Bhai Gurdas Ji completed this task.       Bhai Banno, a Sikh from Mangat in western Punjab had come to see the Guru. The Guru asked him to go to Lahore and have the pages binded together. Bhai Banno left for Lahore, but started to think that he should get a copy of the hymns for the sangat in his area. So he and his companions started to copy the hymns from the Granth onto blank paper and by the time they reached Lahore they had 2 copies of the Granth ready.          They got both copies binded and returned to Amritsar. When they presented both copies to Guru Arjun Saheb, he only approved of the original Granth. He did not approve of the second copy because Bhai Banno had added some extra hymns to the original text.           On August 30th, 1604 the Granth (scripture) was formally installed in           Harmandir Saheb (Golden Temple) and given the name Adi Granth Saheb. Baba Budha Ji was appointed the first granthi (priest) who would read and explain the meanings of the Adi Granth Saheb.          Baba Budha Ji ceremonially installed the Adi Granth and took the first ever Hukamnama (order) which was:   sUhI mhlw 5] sMqw ky kwrij Awip KloieAw hir kMm krwvix AwieAw rwm] Driq suhwvI qwl suhwvw ivic AMimRq jlu CwieAw rwm] AMimRq jlu CwieAw pUrn swj krwieAw sgl mnorQ pUry] jY jY kwr BieAw jg AMqr lwQy sgl ivsUry] pUrn purK Acuq AibnwsI jsu vyd purwxI gwieAw] Apnw ibrdu riKAw prmysir nwnk nwm iDwieAw]1]   Back to Main Page