GUR KIRAT PRAKASH

GUR KIRAT PRAKASH, by Vir Singh Bal, is a versified account of the lives of the first nine of the ten Gurus or spiritual teachers of the Sikh panth. Written in Braj, Gurmukhi characters, the work was completed in 1891 Bk/ AD 1834. The manuscript, two copies of which are available one each in the Punjab State Archives at Patiala (No. 682) and the Punjabi University at Patiala, has since been published (Punjabi University, 1986). The work is divided into ten chapters, here called hulas, each dealing with the life of one of the nine Gurus. The opening chapter on Guru Nanak comprises 414 chhands or stanzas, followed by one on Guru Angad (135 stanzas).

The cliaptcr on Guru Hargobind is the longest, 593 stanzas. The ninth chapter on Guru Tegh Bahadur (71 stanzas) and the tenth (45 stanzas), which deals with the life and work of the author, are the briefest. The book excludes the life of Guru Gobind Smgh which forms part of the author`s larger work Singh Sdgar. The colophon at the end says that the author belonged to the village of Sathiala in Amritsar district and spent a good part of his life at the court of the Patiala ruler. It was here during the reign of Maharaja Karam Singh (1798-1845) that he completed this work.