Kashmiri Bhatta

Online Chat

Add New Qutation

The Janamsakhis (Punjabi: ਜਨਮਸਾਖੀ, IAST: Janam-sākhī, lit. birth stories), are legendary biographies of Guru Nanak – the founder of Sikhism.[1] Popular in the Sikh history, these texts are considered by scholars as imaginary hagiographies of his life story, full of miracles and travels, built on a Sikh oral tradition and some historical facts.[1][2] The first Janamsakhis were composed between 50 and 80 years after his death.[1] Many more were written in the 17th and 18th century. The largest Guru Nanak Prakash, with about 9,700 verses, was written in the early 19th century.

The four Janamsakhis that have survived into the modern era include the Bala, Miharban, Adi and Puratan versions, and each hagiography contradicts the other.[4][2] Each of these are in three parts, each with an idealized and adulatory description of Guru Nanak. The first part covers his childhood and early adulthood.[2] The second part describes him as a traveling missionary over thousands of miles and mythical places such as Mount Meru. The last part presents him as settled in Kartarpur with his followers.[2] These mythological texts are ahistorical and do not offer chronological, geographical or objective accuracy about Guru Nanak's life.[4] The Sikh writers were competing with mythological stories (mu'jizat) about Muhammad created by Sufi Muslims in medieval Punjab region of South Asia.

The early editions of the Janam-sakhi manuscripts are more than Guru Nanak's life story. They relate each story with a teaching in the hymn of the Sikh scripture and illustrate a fundamental moral or teaching.[2] They thus invent the context and an exegetical foundation for some of the hymns of the Adi Granth.[2] They may have been an early attempt to reach people and popularize Sikhism across different age groups with a combination of abstract teachings and exciting fables for a personal connection between the Guru and the followers.[2] The various editions of Janamsakhi include stories such as fortune tellers and astrologers predicting at his birth of his destined greatness, he meeting mythical and revered characters from Hindu mythology, his touch creating a never drying fount of spring water, cobra snake offering shade to Guru Nanak while he was sleeping, Guru Nanak visiting and performing miracles at Mecca - a holy place for Muslims, and his visit to Mount Meru - a mythical place for Hindus, Buddhists and Jains.[4] At Mecca, the Janamsakhis claim Guru Nanak slept with his feet towards the Kaba which Muslims objected to but when they tried to rotate his feet away the Kaaba, all of Kaba and earth moved to remain in the direction of Guru Nanak's feet. The texts also claim Guru Nanak's body vanished after his death and left behind fragrant flowers, which Hindus and Muslims then divided, one to cremate and other to bury.

Over 40 significant manuscript editions of the Janamsakhis are known, all composed between the 17th and early-19th centuries, with most of these in the Bala and Puratan sub-genre.[3] The expanded version containing the hagiographies of all ten Sikh Gurus is the popular Suraj Prakash by Santokh Singh. This poetic Janamsakhi is recited on festive occasions in Sikh Gurdwaras, Sikh ceremonies and festivals.

Courtesy – Wikipedia
- Janamsakhi

Online Chat

© 2021 - All Rights Reserved