Guru Nanak beyond Sikh Hagiography:

Continuities and Changes

Dr. Priyatosh Sharma,

Dept of History, Panjab University Chandigarh
Guru Nanak or Baba Nanak?

In tawassuf, Shaikh refers to a sufi who is competent

enough to enroll disciples (murid) under him and guide
them to the highest mystical path. In popular mentalities,
the shaikh is addressed as Pir, Baba, faqeer, sant and one
also notices the fluidity of these terms which were many a
time, assigned to same person by communities.

-Guru as the founder Sikhism

-Baba is best suited in terms of popular mentalities
and cultural milieu
Guru Nanak or Baba Nanak
contd.
Challenge:
Popular mentality or cultural ethos is also depended upon
hagiographical writings, Janamsakhis being the major
contributor

Methodology of the present Discussion:

While acknowledging the contribution of Janamsakhis,
the work attempts to enter the perspectives of non-sikh
scholars (over a period of time) to locate their respective
understanding while comprehending the life and
mission of Guru Nanak
Background
Guru Nanak representation in various frescoes.

 Guru Nanak philosophy and its acknowledgment in non Sikh sources i.e Sufi, Bhakti and
Christian/English.
Truth versus Distortion
 Modern sensibilities (idea of nation in Macauliffe’s work) when applied to
medieval writings create contradictory results. For long, historians of the
present kept dwelling in the debate of fact and fabrication.
 For example while writing about Barani, Muhammad Habib records, apart from
initial phase of Islam, ‘he knew little and what he knew was all wrong’ he
further writes about Fatava i Jahandari ‘were either cheap and fabrication
which have not survived to our day or else existed only in the imagination of
our author’
 In similar vein, while compiling various Sufi Malfuz and Tazkira except Fawaid
al fu’ad and Siyar ul-Auliya were dismissed by Habib as fiction and distortion
whereas Ernst argues that ‘the inauthentic malfuz were popular menifestation
of religious sentiment among Indian Muslims attached to the Chishti order’
 New work of Muzaffar Alam, Raziziddin Aquil, B. H. Auer all have challenged
the notion of concrete boundaries of such compartmentalization.
 The present lecture thus does not favour non-sikh hagiographical sources as fact or distortion but just
an entry point to understand the life and mission of Guru Nanak through the narrators eyes and
through the eyes of those intended audience for which the former is writing
 .
Religion, State and Nation
Macauliffe writes in The Sikh Religion: Its Guru, sacred
Writings and Authors (c. 1909). :-
As Buddhism without state support completely lost its hold
in India, so it is apprehended that without state support
Sikhism will also be lost in great chaos of Indian religious
system………….. notwithstanding the Sikh Gurus powerful
denunciation of Brahmans, secular Sikhs now rarely do
anything without their assistance..have partially succeeded
in persuading the Sikhs to restore to their niche the images
of Devi, the queen of heaven, and of the saints and gods of
the ancient faith ‘(pp. Ivi-Ivii).
J.D. Cunningham earlier recorded in A History of the Sikhs (c.1849) :-

‘Beginning in the sixteenth century, the Hindoo mind was no longer stagnant
or retrogressive……… led with Mahometanism and changed and quickened
for a new development. Ramanund and Gorakhnath had preached religious
equality and Cheitin had repeated faith leveled caste. Kubber had
deonounced images and appealed to the people in their own tongue , and
Vallabh had taught that effectual devotion was compatible with ordinary
duties of the world……..they aimed chiefly for emancipation from priestcraft,
or from grossness of idolatry and polytheism…..they perfected forms of
dissent rather than planted the germ of nations and their sects remains to
this day as they left them. It was reserved for Nanuk to perceive the true
principles of reforms, and to lay those broad foundations which enabled his
successor Gobind to fire minds of his countrymen with a new nationality,
and to give practical effect to the doctrine that the lowest is equal with the
highest, in race as in creed in political rights as in religious hopes.(p.36).
Contd .
Ernest trump’s Adi Granth or The Holy Scripture of
the Sikhs (c. 1877).
Response of Singh Sabha Amritsar.
Macauliffe’s The Sikh Religion: Its Guru, sacred
Writings and Authors (c. 1909).
Handalis and kabirpanthis versus the Sikhs

.
Fifteenth Century from Europe to Punjab
Post modern Sikh scholar have attempted to trace the formation of Punjab
in fifteenth century which one again finds emerging from colonial
discourse. ‘
Macauliffe writes:
‘the fifteenth century of Christian era was a period of singular mental and
political activity. Both in Europe and India men shook off the torpor of
ages and their minds awoke to the consciousness of intellectual
responsibility….during the very period that Luther and Calvin in Europe
were warning men if the errors that had crept into Christianity, several
Indian saints were denouncing priest craft, hypocrisy and idolatry with
considerable success. Several for those great men who had led crusades
against superstitions , founded sects still survive; but The most numerous
and powerful of all is great Sikh founded by Guru Nanak, which had
already forms a considerable section of population of the Punjab.’ (p. Xi) )
Contd.
Khushwant Singh( in History of the Sikhs, vol. I) writes
‘the story of the Sikhs is the story of the rise, fulfillment and collapse of Punjabi
nationalism. It begin in the latter part of the 15 th century with Guru Nanak initiating a
religious movement ..; (p. vii)
He adds further, ‘by the end of the 15h century the different races who had come together in
the Punjab had lost nostalgic memories of the lands of their birth and begun to develop an
attachment to the land of their adoption…it is significant that the spirit of Punjabi
nationalism first manifested itself in Majha , the heart of the Punjab. (p. 14) .
Infact he believed that the Sikhs became spearhead of the nationalist movement Which had
gathered the parent communities within its fold. (p. ix).

J.S. Grewal almost repeats similar sentiments when he writes ‘a common core of teachings
does not wholly account for ideological system they (Kabir and Guru Nanak) propounded.
The difference come into high relief if we keep n view the links between what they said and
actually did in their lifetime, and between the origin and development of the panths
associated with them’ (Guru Nanak and His Panth in The Sikhs : Ideology, Institutions and
identity, p. 18)
Guru Nanak: His Life and Travels
 Early Childhood
Khara sauda/ sacha sauda
Miracles
Rejected demarcated symbols of both Hinduism and
Islam
 Succession to Guru Angad Dev.

Importance of Travel and Divine Mission.

Some Famous Non Sikh Works
Mohisin Fani: Dabistan i Mazahib (c. 1653)
Mahipat: Bhaktaliamrit (c. 1773 )
Ghulam Hussain Khan: Siyar ul Mutakhrin (c. 1785)
John Malcom: Sketch of the History and Present State
of Sikhs: With Observation on their Religious
Institutions, Usages, Manners and Character (c. 1805)
J.D Cunningham: A History of the Sikhs (c.1849)
Max Arthur Macauliffe: The Sikh Religion: Its Guru,
sacred Writings and Authors (c. 1909).
Mohisin Fani: Dabistan I Mazahib
c. 1653
Place of Birth: Kashmir or Persian border

1. Recorded difference between Sikhs and Hindus in terms

of Sanskrit, temples, idol worship
He record, ‘they donot recite the mantra of the Hindus
they do not venerate their temples nor do they esteem
their avtars . the Sanskrit which according to Hindus is
the langauge of Gods is not held in such great esteem by
the Sikhs .
At same time:- He took help of other traditions like
intervention of dervish,
 Fani finds Nanak appealing both to Hindus and
Muslims while using their symbols.
Nanak called Mughals
 Vegetarianism or non vegetarianism (Devotion to the
guru .
 Story of Janaka of Videha region
 Forgoing the salvation to help mortals.
Mahipat ‘s
Bhaktaliamrit c. 1773
Nanak was born rich.
 Conflict of Hindus and Muslims
Construction of privies.
 Sakhi verse (referring to bhakti saints)
 matha and travels with Mardana
aakh nirnajan or (wah/sadh)guru
Gorakhnath and matsyadenrenatha test for the Guru.
Guru decided to live among mortals to work for their
salvation
Ghulam Hussain Khan’s
Siyar ul Mutakhrin c. 1785
Role of Faqir (Seid Hassan) who took the affection for Guru Nanak
and introduced him to the esteemed writing of Islam.
‘Grant’ as continuity of ‘esteemed writings of Mussalman)
Muhammad Latif in his work ‘History of Punjab from the Earliest
Times to the Present’ c. 1891 used with the blessings of a faqir
Karra sauda of rs40
Mardana was burnt in Afghanistan
Prophet was accepted but as ‘faqir before the threshold of God’’ not
as per Arabian version
‘Asa’ at pakpattan.
River but not Ganga in sun salutation
Food incident to test devotion.
John Malcom’s
Sketch of the History and Present State of Sikhs : with observation
on their religious Institutions, Usages, Manners and Character
c. 1805

Incident of fakir(khara sauda) alongwith Bala

Travels with mardana and bala
Babar meeting and refudsal of jagir
Visit to Multan as ‘ I may come into the country full of pirs like the
sacted ganga visting the ocean’
Tomb near the bank of ravi and flooded by ravi
Basic objective to reconcile Hindus and Muslims “his wish was to recall
both Mohammaden and Hindus to an exclusive attention to that
sublimest of all principles ..and peace towards man…..convincing proof
of general character if that doctrine which he taught a..it did not rouse
the bigotry of intolerance and tyrannical Mohemmedan government
under which he lived
J.D Cunnigham
A History of the Sikhs c.1849
Beginning in the sixteenth century, the Hindoo mind was no longer stagnant or
retrogressive, it had been leavened with Mahometanism and changed and quickened for a
new development. Ramanund and Gorakhnath had preached religious equality and Cheitin
had repeated faith leveled caste. Kubber had deonounced images and appealed to the people
in their own tongue , and Vallabh hd taught that effectual devotion was compatible with
ordinary duties of the world……..they aimed chiefly for emancipation from priestcraft, or
from grossness of idolatry and polytheism…..they perfected forms of dissent rather than
planted the germ of nations and their sects remains to this day as they left them. It was
reserved for Nanuk to perceive the true principles of reforms, and to lay those broad
foundations which enabled his successor Gobind to fire minds of his countrymen wit a new
nationality, and to give practical effect to the doctrine that the lowest is equal with the
highest, in race as in creed in political rights as in religious hopes

Nanak disillusionment with both Hinduism and Islam.

Appointment of Bhai Lehna as Guru Angad (test of devotion through the test of eating of a
corpse)
Max Arthur Macauliffe The Sikh Religion: Its Guru, Sacred Writings and Authors (c. 1909)

 Significance of fifteenth century: Perceiving Sikhism through Renaissance

Maclauiffe writes:
the fifteenth century of Christian era was a period of singular mental and political activity.
Both in Europe and India men shook off the torpor of ages and their minds awoke to the
consciousness of intellectual responsibility….during the very period that Luther and
Calvin in Europe were warning men if the errors that had crept into Christianity, several
Indian saints were denouncing priest craft, hypocrisy and idolatry with considerable
success. Several for those great men who had led crusades against superstitions ,
founded sects still survive; but The most numerous and powerful of all is great Sikh
founded by Guru Nanak, which had already forms a considerable section of population of
the Punjab.’ (p. Xi) )
 Age of Persecution/ dark age.
 “There is a wonderful analogy between the spiritual condition of Europe and India during
the dark ages’
 from ‘na koi Hindu Muslim na koi Muslim’ to one shrine and one
tomb in Kartarpur.
Submission
Changes and Continuities: Reconsidered

Allama Iqbal on Nanak

Qoum Ne Pegham-e-Gautam Ki Zara Parwa Na Ki

Qadar Na Pehchani Na Apne Gohar-e-Yak Dana Ki

(The nation could not care less about Gautama’s message—

It did not know the price of its unique pearl!)

Phir Uthi Akhir Sada Touheed Ki Punjab Se

Hind Ko Ek Mard-e-Kamil Ne Jagaya Khawab Se

Again from the Punjab the call of monotheism arose:

A perfect man roused India from slumber.
Thank you