VIDIA SAGAR GRANTH

VIDIA SAGAR GRANTH, lit. the book (granth) of the ocean (sagar) of wisdom {vidia), is the title given to a legendary literary corpus created at Anandpur under the patronage of Guru Gobind Singh. The volume, also known as Vidiasar Granth, Vidiadhar Granth and Samund Sagar Granth, was supposed to comprise the writings of die Guru as well as of the fifty-two poets and scholars he kept with him. As the tradition goes, it weighed nine maunds (approximately 320 kilograms) and got lost in the River Sarsa when Guru Gobind Singh and the Sikhs were crossing it after evacuating Anandpur in 1705.

The compositions which now form part of the Dasam Granth and the Sarabloh Granth may be portions of it which were salvaged or which had been earlier copied and preserved by the devotees. Guru Gobind Singh`s poets at Anandpur Sahib among them, Amrit Rai, Ani Rai, Siam, Sainapati, Alam, Tahikan, Daya Singh, Sukha Singh and Dharam Singh had been mostly assigned to the task of translating ancient Sanskrit texts into Braj, Sadh Bhakha and Punjabi. These translations may have formed the bulk of the Vidia Sagar Granth references to which exist in old Sikh works such as Mahima Prakash (1776), Kesar Singh Chhibbar`s Bansavalinama (1796) and Sri Gur Pratap Suraj Granth (1843).

References :

1. Padam, Piara Singh, Sri Guru Gobind Singh jl de Darbari Ratan. Patiala, 1976
2. Kahn Singh, Bhai, Gurushabad Ratanakar Mahan Kosh [Reprint]. Patiala, 1981
3. Macauliffe, M.A., The Sikh Religion. Oxford, 1909