The Making of Sikh Scripture

The Adi Granth (‘original book’), primary scripture of the Sikhs, comprises approximately 3,000 hymns. About 2400 of these were written by the six Sikh Gurus who lived in the Punjab between 1469 and 1675. The remaining hymns are attributed to fifteen bards associated with the sixteenth century Sikh court and fifteen non-Sikh saint-poets, known in the Sikh tradition as Bhagats (‘devotees’), who lived between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. Although the authorship of the hymns is well-recorded, the history of the compilation of the Adi Granth – the creation of the Sikh ‘canon’ – is the subject of considerable speculation and debate. Gurinder Mann constructs a comprehensive picture of the making of the Sikh scripture, drawing on recently discovered early manuscripts as well as extensive secondary literature on the topic. His findings on some key issues differ from the traditional Sikh position and from the hypotheses of other twentieth century scholars, and raise some entirely fresh questions. Mann’s revised and expanded history of the text and institution of Sikh scripture will interest not only scholars of Sikhism and comparative canon formation, but also general readers.