MANMAT PRAHAR LARI (lit., a series to overcome heresy) comprises tracts written by Bhai Mohan Singh Vaid of Tarn Taran between 1903 and 1908, denouncing unSikh customs and rituals to which the Sikhs had succumbed. This had been one of the primary objectives of the Singh Sabha reform and a most forceful exponent of it was Giani Ditt Singh, a prolific writer and editor of the Khalsd Akhbdr. With his death in 1901, a vacuum occurred in the reformers` crusade against ignorance and superstition among the Sikh masses. Bhai Mohan Singh Vaid entered the arena in 1903 and attempted to fill this gap.
The series that flowed from his pen consisted of six books. The first four were published by Khalsa Agency, Lahore, and the last two by the author himself. Sharddh Prabodh, the first in the series, was published in 1903, with a reprint brought out in 1905. The booklet aims to bring to the readers true understanding of sharddh, ritual feeding of the Brahmans as homage to one`s departed ancestors. Bhai Mohan Singh presents the custom as unworthy of a Sikh. Gurmat Anusdr Mritak Sanskdr de Ldbh commends the simple Sikh custom of cremation amid, and followed by, recitation of gurbdm, kirtan and ardds or prayer for the departed soul.
The third in the series, entitled Birdh Vivdh, Durdashd Ndtak is a play, published in 1904, depicting the plight of young innocent girls given away in marriage by greedy parents to those advanced in years. There was at the time much misleading criticism of Sikhism by Arya Samaj. Th¬ Gurmat Gauravatd dilates on the dignity of the Anand form of marriage, mustering quotations from the Sikh texts and stressing its importance for the Panth. The last in the series, Gurmat Virodh Byndsh, published in June 1908, was in reply to a tract, Anand Vivah par Vichar, brought out earlier by Durga Press, Nabha, attacking the Anand marriage.
References :
1. Dukhi, Munsha Singh, Jivan Bhai Sahib Bhai Mohan Singh Vaid. Lahore-, 1931
2. Ahnash Kam, Bhai Mohan Singh Vaid ate Panjabi Sabhiachar. Patiala, 1982
