ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>&#256DI S&#256KH&#298&#256&#7748 </TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="DI,SKH*D"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279&#256DI S&#256KH&#298&#256&#7748 (<i>&#257di</i> = first; <i>s&#257kh&#299&#257&#7749</i>, plural of <i>s&#257kh&#299</i> = anecdotes, stories, discourses, parables) is one of the early compilations but not the first of the extant <i>janam s&#257kh&#299</i> traditions to evolve. The manuscript, dated 1758 Bk/ AD 1701, and copied by Shambh&#363 N&#257th Br&#257hma&#7751 was first located by Dr Mohan Si&#7749gh D&#299w&#257n&#257. While teaching at Pañj&#257b University, Lahore, prior to the partition of India in 1947, Mohan Si&#7749gh D&#299w&#257n&#257 discovered in the University's Library a <i>janam s&#257kh&#299</i> manuscript which differed from other extant <i>janam s&#257kh&#299s</i> and bore an earlier date. Dr D&#299w&#257n&#257 believed it to be a version of the earliest of all <i>janam s&#257kh&#299</i> traditions and bestowed on it the name <i>&#256di S&#257kh&#299&#257&#7749</i>. Since then four more copies of the manuscript have been located on the Indian side of the border by Professor Pi&#257r Si&#7749gh who published in 1969 a text based on the manuscript held in the Library of Motib&#257<u>gh</u> Palace, Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257, and supplemented by the manuscript in the Sikh Reference Library, Amritsar. This text was issued under the title <i>Shambh&#363 N&#257th V&#257l&#299 Janam Patr&#299 B&#257be N&#257nak J&#299 K&#299 Prasidh N&#257&#7749 &#256di S&#257kh&#299&#257n</i>.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The fact that the two earliest of the dated manuscripts were both completed in AD 1701 obviously implies that it is a work of the seventeenth century. It is, however, most unlikely that the tradition in its extant form would have evolved earlier than the mid-seventeenth century. This conclusion is indicated by such marks of maturity as a multiplicity of sources and a coherent ordering of its various anecdotes. Two principal sources were evidently used by the first compiler of the <i>&#256d&#299 S&#257kh&#299&#257&#7749</i>. One of these provides a link with the <i>Pur&#257tan</i> tradition, particularly with the manuscript available in the Languages Department, P&#257&#7789i&#257l&#257. The other appears to have been a manuscript, no longer extant, which was later to be used by the compiler of the <i>B40 Janam-s&#257kh&#299</i>. Four anecdotes have also been taken from the <i>Miharb&#257n</i> source (<i>s&#257kh&#299s</i> 26, 27, 28a and 28b), thus introducing the <i>go&#7779&#7789&#299</i> form into the <i>janam s&#257kh&#299</i>. Essentially, however, the <i>&#256d&#299 S&#257kh&#299&#257&#7749</i> is a collection of narrative <i>s&#257kh&#299s</i> and it seems clear that its first recension was exclusively narrative in content. The go&#7779&#7789s (discourses) borrowed from the <i>Miharb&#257n</i> tradition appear to be a later supplement to an original compilation. Although the <i>&#256d&#299 S&#257kh&#299a&#7749</i> shares an important source with the <i>Pur&#257tan</i> tradition, it lacks the characteristic <i>Pur&#257tan</i> division of Gur&#363 Nanak's travels into four separate journeys known as four <i>ud&#257s&#299s</i>. Almost all the travel anecdotes utilized by the <i>&#256di S&#257kh&#299&#257&#7749</i> compiler are drawn from his second major source, i. e. the manuscript shared with the B40 compiler, and most of them are presented as a single journey (<i>s&#257kh&#299s</i> 8-16). The only exception to this pattern is the story of Gur&#363 Nanak's visit to R&#257j&#257 &#346ivan&#257bh (<i>s&#257kh&#299</i> 21B). This also derives from his second source, but appears in the <i>&#256di S&#257kh&#299&#257&#7749</i> chronology as an isolated journey, solely concerned with R&#257j&#257 &#346ivan&#257bh. In addition to these two journeys beyond the Punjab, the manuscript also incorporates <i>s&#257kh&#299s</i> describing Gur&#363 Nan&#257k's visit to P&#257k Pa&#7789&#7789an, Saidpur, and Achal (<i>s&#257kh&#299s</i> 17, 18, 19 and 23). Towards its conclusion (<i>s&#257kh&#299s</i> 29-30) an element of confusion becomes evident and the identity of the sources used for this portion is unclear. The compiler's usual care is relaxed, possibly because of a hasty concern to terminate the work or perhaps because the concluding portion is the work of a later, less competent contributor. The result is a somewhat garbled account of the death of Gur&#363 N&#257nak. It is, however, an interesting account in that it draws heavily on the <i>Miharb&#257n</i> tradition which was also used in the later stages of the <i>B&#257l&#257 Janam S&#257kh&#299</i> development.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Kirp&#257l Si&#7749gh, <i>Janam S&#257kh&#299 Prampar&#257</i>. Patiala, 1969<BR> <li class="C1"> Pi&#257r Si&#7749gh, ed. , <i>Shambh&#363 N&#257th V&#257l&#299 Janam Patr&#299 B&#257be N&#257nak J&#299 K&#299 Prasidh N&#257&#7749 &#256di S&#257kh&#299a&#7749</i>. Patiala, 1969<BR> <li class="C1"> McLeod, W. H. , <i>Early Sikh Tradition</i>. Oxford, 1980<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">W. H. McLeod<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>