ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>GUR PUR PRAK&#256SH</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 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<i>GUR PUR PRAK&#256SH</i> is a versified history in four parts of the ten Sikh Gur&#363s on the same lines as Bh&#257&#299 Santokh Si&#7749gh's <i>N&#257nak Prak&#257sh</i> and <i>Sr&#299 Gur Prat&#257p S&#363raj Granth</i>, following as far as possible the same style, but much reduced in volume. The author, Sant Re&#7751 Prem Si&#7749gh who claims direct descent from Gur&#363 A&#7749gad through B&#257b&#257 D&#257s&#363, the Gur&#363's elder son, was born in November 1879, the son of B&#257b&#257 Lachhma&#7751 Si&#7749gh of the village of Nary&#257b in Ha&#7749g&#363 <i>tahs&#299l</i> of Koh&#257&#7789 district in the North-West Frontier Province (now in Pakistan). He received religious instruction at Amritsar under the famous classical scholar, Gi&#257n&#299 Am&#299r Si&#7749gh, and studied Bh&#257&#299 Santokh Si&#7749gh's monumental works under different scholars. He found that these works contained several statements which did not conform to the teaching of the Gur&#363s. These, he considered, were due to the fact that their author died soon after the completion of his <i>magnum opus</i> without having time for a revision. He undertook fresh researches and travelled extensively to places connected with the lives of the Gur&#363s. His main source, he claims, was a rare manuscript dated 1709 by B&#257b&#257 Binod Si&#7749gh a collateral descendant of Gur&#363 A&#7749gad and contemporary of Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh and Band&#257 Si&#7749gh Bah&#257dur. He set down to compiling in 1914 his own <i>Sr&#299 Gur Pur Prak&#257sh</i>. The first three editions of the work came out in 1919, 1924 and 1944, respectively. The fourth edition was published in 1965 from Pa&#7789i&#257l&#257, where the author had settled after the partition of the country (1947).</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The work generally follows the traditional sequence of events and anecdotes as found in <i>janam S&#257kh&#299s, gurbil&#257ses</i> and in the <i>Sr&#299 Gur Prat&#257p S&#363raj Granth</i>. All dates are in the N&#257naksh&#257h&#299 era with the exception of the initial one of the birth of Gur&#363 N&#257nak, which is given as Kattak P&#363ranm&#257s&#299 of 1526 Bikram&#299. The author's dates are not all reliable. For example, the date according to him of the birth of Gur&#363 R&#257m D&#257s is NS. 55 corresponding to AD 1524 against the generally accepted 1534; the date of his marriage to B&#299b&#299 Bh&#257n&#299 is NS. 68/AD 1537 against the traditional 1553; and the date of Gur&#363 Arjan's birth is NS. 84/AD 1553 against the commonly accepted date AD 1563. Moreover, in his anxiety to make his history strictly to conform to the Sikh view he at times gives a free reign to imagination. For him the marriage of Gur&#363 N&#257nak was performed not according to the traditional ceremony of circumambulations around the burning fire. According to him, when asked how he would wish the wedding ceremony to be solemnized, the bridegroom wrote out the M&#363l Mantra on a piece of paper around which the couple circumambulated four times. This the Gur&#363 named as the "anand marriage" ceremony.</p> </ol><p class="CONT">Major Gurmukh Si&#7749gh (Retd.)<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>