Debating the Dasam Granth
- ISBN-10
- 019975506X
- ISBN-13
- 9780199755066
- Category
- Religion
- Pages
- 210
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2011-02-02
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Author
- Robin Rinehart
Description
The Dasam Granth is a 1,428-page anthology of diverse compositions attributed to the tenth Guru of Sikhism, Guru Gobind Singh, and a topic of great controversy among Sikhs. The controversy stems from two major issues: a substantial portion of the Dasam Granth relates tales from Hindu mythology, suggesting a disconnect from normative Sikh theology; and a long composition entitled Charitropakhian tells several hundred rather graphic stories about illicit liaisons between men and women. Sikhs have debated whether the text deserves status as a "scripture" or should be read instead as "literature." Sikh scholars have also long debated whether Guru Gobind Singh in fact authored the entire Dasam Granth. Much of the secondary literature on the Dasam Granth focuses on this authorship issue, and despite an ever-growing body of articles, essays, and books (mainly in Punjabi), the debate has not moved forward. The available manuscript and other historical evidence do not provide conclusive answers regarding authorship. The debate has been so acrimonious at times that in 2000, Sikh leader Joginder Singh Vedanti issued a directive that Sikh scholars not comment on the Dasam Granth publicly at all pending a committee inquiry into the matter. Debating the Dasam Granth is the first English language, book-length critical study of this controversial Sikh text in many years. Based on research on the original text in the Brajbhasha and Punjabi languages, a critical reading of the secondary literature in Punjabi, Hindi, and English, and interviews with scholars and Sikh leaders in India, it offers a thorough introduction to the Dasam Granth, its history, debates about its authenticity, and an in-depth analysis of its most important compositions.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
Chandi-Di-Vaar: Punjabi with English Translation
By Sri Guru Gobind Singh JiChandi-Di-Vaar by Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji in Punjabi with English translation.
-
The Dasam Granth
Sacred work of the Sikhs, attributed to Guru Gobind Singh, 1666-1708.
-
Making Lahore Modern: Constructing and Imagining a Colonial City
By William J. GloverIn Lahore, unpaid college students were selected to carry out census operations in the Old City.72 Maclagan wrote that his Indian staff were erroneously prone to count men sleeping in lodging houses and dining in local public eating ...
-
The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies
By Pashaura Singh, Louis E. FenechA number of essays within this collection also provide a more practical dimension, written by artists and practitioners of the tradition. The handbook is divided into eight thematic sections that explore different 'expressions' of Sikhism.
-
Routledge Handbook of South Asian Religions
By Knut A. JacobsenThe Routledge Handbook of South Asian Religions presents critical research, overviews, and case studies on religion in historical South Asia, in the seven nation states of contemporary South Asia: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, ...
-
Exploring Gender and Sikh Traditions
By Doris R. JakobshThis volume gathers scholars who focus on gender through a variety of disciplines and approaches to Sikh Studies. The intersections of religion and gender are here explored, based on an understanding that both are socially constructed.
-
Sharing the Sacred: Practicing Pluralism in Muslim North India
By Anna BigelowThe author looks at a place where the conditions for religious conflict are present, but active conflict is absent, focusing on a Muslim majority Punjab town (Malkerkotla) where both during the Partition and subsequently there has been no ...
-
Gods, Heroes, and Ancestors: An Interreligious Encounter in Eighteenth-century Vietnam
By Anh Q. TranThis is the first translation in English of the anonymously authored 1752 manuscript Tam Gi?o Chu Vong (The Errors of the Three Religions).
-
The Ubiquitous Siva: Somananda's Sivadrsti and His Tantric Interlocutors
By John NemecThis book examines the beginnings of the non-dual tantric philosophy of the famed Pratyabhijna or ''Recognition'' School of tenth-century Kashmir.
-
Sikh Identity: Continuity and Change
By Norman Gerald Barrier, Pashaura SinghPapers presented at an international conference in 1996.