Janamsakhis

The Janamsakhis have been historically popular in the Sikh community and broadly believed as true, historical biography of the founder of their religion.[10] They have been recited at religious gatherings, shared as reverential fables with the young generation, and embedded in the cultural folklore over the centuries. Any academic questioning of their authenticity and critical comparative historical studies have "angered many Sikhs", states Toby Johnson – a scholar of Sikhism.[10] Guru Nanak is deeply revered by the devout Sikhs, the stories in the Janamsakhis are a part of their understanding of his divine nature and the many wonders he is believed to have performed.[11]

17th century preliminary Janamsakhi sketches

According to The Encyclopædia Britannica, the Janam-sakhis are "imagined product of the legendary" stories of Guru Nanak's life, and "only a tiny fraction of the material found in them can be affirmed as factual".[1]

Max Arthur Macauliffe – a British civil servant, published his six volume translation of Sikh scripture and religious history in 1909.[12] This set has been an early influential source of Sikh Gurus and their history for writers outside of India. Macauliffe, and popular writers such as Khushwant Singh who cite him, presented the Janamsakhi stories as factual, though Macauliffe also expressed his doubts on their historicity.[12][13][14] Khushwant Singh similarly expresses his doubts, but extensively relied on the Janamsakhis in his A History of the Sikhs.[15] Macauliffe interspersed his translation of the Sikh scripture between Janamsakhis-derived mythical history of the Sikh Gurus.[16][12] Post-colonial scholarship has questioned Macauliffe's reliance on Janamsakhis as "uncritical" and "dubious", though one that pleased the Sikh community.[12]

The post-colonial era major studies led by W.H. McLeod – a scholar of Sikh literature and history, have examined the Janamsakhis by methods of scientific research and literary cross examination. These have examined over 100 episodes about Guru Nanak in the different Janamsakhis. According to McLeod and other scholars, there are some historical elements in these stories but one so small that they can be summarized in less than one typeset page. Rest is fiction and ahistorical.[10][17] McLeod's textual criticism, his empirical examination of genealogical and geographical evidence, examination of the consistency between the Sikh texts and their versions, philological analysis of historic Sikh literature, search for corroborating evidence in external sources and other critical studies have been influential among the Western academics and Indian scholars working outside India, but highly controversial within the Sikh community and some Sikh scholars based in Punjab.[17][18]

According to Singha and Kapura, the Janam sakhi authors incorporated miracles and supernatural elements because they were competing with and under the influence of similar miracle-filled Islamic literature in the Punjab region.[19] According to an alternate apologetic hypothesis, some Janamsakhis such as one written by Paida Mokha are accurate and true life stories of Guru Nanak and his travels to distant lands. The corruption such as Guru Nanak forecasting the birth of future Sikh leaders was deliberately added when "heretic" Sikh sects were formed by brothers or family relatives of the Sikh Gurus.[18]

According to Toby Johnson, the Sikh Janamsakhis may have been the early didactic texts in the Sikh tradition.[20] The fantasy-filled stories are more than mere adulation of the founder of Sikhism. They generally include a teaching, a moral instruction along with an associated hymn found in the Sikh scripture. This, states Johnson, makes them a pedagogical texts.[20] They are, in this way, similar to pedagogical Puranas-style literature found in Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. They create and provide the context through a fable for recitation and an associated moral teaching to the reader or listener at a community gathering.[20] The episodes connect the fantastical with a concrete teaching that a devotee finds easier to understand, relate and connect. This naturally endears these fables to the devout disciples.[20]

A page from a Janamsakhi manuscript with the story about Guru Nanak at a school.

The Bala janamsakhi claims to be wrriten by Bhai Bala a supposed contemporary of Guru Nanak and was supposedly written at the request of Guru Angad.[21]

There are reasons to doubt this contention as Guru Angad, who is said to have commissioned the work and was also a close companion of the Guru in his later years, was, according to Bala's own admission, ignorant of the existence of Bala.[22]

The oldest accepted manuscript of the Bala Janamsakhi was written by Gorakh Das in 1658, but the actual date of the Janamsakhi is believed to be earlier.[23]

It is generally believed this janamsakhi were written by Hindals as in a number of stories Guru Nanak praises Baba Hindal. Some are of the belief that this is a contemporary work and was later edited by the Hindals. One of the people who subscribed to this belief was Santhok Singh the author of the famed Suraj Granth. Santhok Singh wrote Nanak Parkash based on the Bala Janamsakhi with the goal of removing parts he believed were edited and added by the Hindals.[24]

Dr. Trilochan Singh counters some of the points raised against the Bala janamsakhi by stating that Mehma Parkash and Mani Singh Janamsakhi both mention Bhai Bala. Bala is further mentioned in Suchak Prasang Guru Ka by Bhai Behlo written during Guru Arjan Dev’stime. Bhai Behlo says, “Bala discarded his body there, At the holy city of Khadaur, Angad, the master, preformed the rites, Graciously with his own two hands.” He also raises the point that Bhai Bala’s family is still living in Nankana Sahib and that Bala’s samadhi exists in Khadaur.[25]Singh claims the Janamsakhi was written by Bhai Bala and is mostly authentic but was edited and changed by anti-Sikh sects.[25]

In the first journey or udasi Guru Nanak Dev Ji left Sultanpur towards eastern India and included, in the following sequence : Panipat (Sheikh Sharaf), Delhi (Sultan Ibrahim Lodi), Hardwar, Allahbad, Banaras, Nanakmata, Kauru, Kamrup in Assam (Nur Shah), Talvandi (twelve years after leaving Sultanpur), Pak Pattan (Sheikh Ibrahim), Goindval, Lahore and Kartarpur.

The Second udasi was to the south of India with companion Bhai Mardana. Delhi, Ayodhya, Jagannath Puri, Rameswaram, Sri Lanka, Vindhya mountains, Narabad River, Ujjain, Saurashtra and Mathura

The third udasi was to the north : Kashmir, Mount Sumeru and Achal

The fourth udasi was to the west. Afghanistan, Persia, and Baghdad

Bhai Mani Singh's Janamsakhi

A page from a Janamsakhi found in Lahore: the upper half shows Guru Nanak sleeping under tree and a cobra providing him shade, while numerous cows watch

The fourth and evidently the latest is the Gyan-Ratanavali attributed to Bhai Mani Singh, who wrote it with the express intention of correcting heretical accounts of Guru Nanak.[26]

There are some doubts about the authenticity and author of this janamsakhi. Older manuscript of the Mani Singh janamsakhi have different dates for the death and birth of Guru Nanak compared to popular renditions. The language from this janamsakhi compared to Mani Singh’s Sikhian di Bhagat Mal is noticeably different. No eighteenth century manuscript of this text exists. All of this has led some to doubt whether Mani Singh was the author and the reliability of this janamsakhi.[27]

The work is an expansion of the first Vaar of Varan Bhai Gurdas.[26] This janamsakhi tradition makes no mention of Bhai Bala amongst the list of Guru Nanak's close companions and associates.[28]

Of all the manuscripts this is probably the most neglected as it has acquired a disagreeable reputation. Sodhi Miharban who gives his name to the janam-sakhi was closely associated with the Mina sect and the Minas were very hostile towards the Gurus around the period of Guru Arjan Dev Ji. The Minas were the followers of Prithi Chand the eldest son of Guru Ram Das Ji. Prithi Chand's behaviour was evidently unsatisfactory as he was passed over in favour of his younger brother, (Guru) Arjan Dev, when his father chose a successor. The Minas were a robber tribe and in Punjabi the word has come to mean someone who conceals his true evil intent. The Minas were subsequently execrated by Guru Gobind Singh Ji and Sikhs were instructed to have no dealings with them. The sect is now extinct. It is said that it was due to this janam-sakhi and its hostility towards the Gurus that prompted Bhai Gurdas Ji's account and the commission of the Gyan-ratanavali.

Guru Nanak meeting Nath Yogi Siddhas

The first three sakhis recount the greatness of Raja Janak and describes an interview with God wherein Raja Janak is instructed that he is to return to the world once again to propagate His Name. Details of Guru Nanak's birth are given in the fourth sakhi and his father was Kalu, a Bedi and his mother Mata Tripta. The account of Guru Ji learning to read from the pundit is also recounted here. After the interlude at Sultanpur Guru Nanak Dev Ji set out to Mount Sumeru. Climbing the mountain Guru Ji found all nine Siddhas seated there – Gorakhnath, Mechhendranath, Isarnath, Charapatnath, Barangnath, Ghoracholi, Balgundai, Bharathari and Gopichand. Gorakhnath asked the identity of the visitor and his disciple replied, "This is Nanak Bedi, a pir and a bhagat who is a householder." What follows is a lengthy discourse with the siddhas which ends with the siddhas asking what is happening in the evil age of Kali Yuga. Guru Ji responds with three slogans :

1. There is a famine of truth, falsehood prevails, and in the darkness of kaliyug men have become ghouls
2. The kaliyug is a knife, kings are butchers, dharama has taken wings and flown
3. Men give as charity the money they have acquired by sinful means