HARIJAS GRANTH

HARIJAS GRANTH, by Bhai Darbari, is a collection of verse the first part (ff. 1530) of which is, in imitation of the Guru Granth Sahib, cast in rdgas, totalling thirty-four in number, adding Malkauns, Malva and Hindol to the thirty-one employed in the Sikh Scripture. The only known manuscript of the Harijas Granth, comprising 918 folios, which has so far remained unpublished and which was, according to internal evidence (f. 760), completed on Thursday, Jeth vadi 13, 1860 Bk/20 May 1803, is preserved in the Gurdwara Bhai Darbari at the village of Vairoke in Faridkot district. Bhai Darbari was a follower of Bhai Abhai Ram who was fifth in the line from Baba Miharban, leader of the schismatic Mina group of the Sikhs, and who later received the rites of Sikh baptism at the hands of Guru Gobind Singh and came to be known as Abhai Singh. The Harijas Granth begins with the Sikh Mul Mantra, here recorded in a somewhat changed order.

Then follows a hymn attributed to Mahala 7 or Nanak VII which here stands for Hariji.Then there is a sloka by Bhai Darbari in which he pays laudation to God and then to the first five Gurus, thereafter praising the Mmas who had broken away from the main Sikh tradition and set up a separate sect. The first major composition, untitled, imitates Guru Nanak`s Japu(ji) and comprises like the latter 38 stanzas. Whereas the first part (jf. 1530) of the Granth contains hymns in different metres, forms and rdgas, the latter part (ff. 531918) is not set in any rdga and is titled Parchidn Bhagatdn Kidn, containing accounts of thirty saints such as Dhru, Prahlad,Janak, Sita, Daropadi, Arjun, Udho, Ramanand, Jaidev, Namdev, Trilochan, KabTr, Ravidas, Sadhna, Sain, Pipa and Sur Das.

The Granth represents an amalgam of Sikh and Hindu tenets. Some of a total of twenty vdrs in the first part of the Granth are entirely devoted to eulogizing the various incarnations of God accepted in Hinduism. The author has stressed the transience of this world, and impressed on man need to be detached. Crucial is the role of the Guru in helping man in his spiritual pursuit. The language of the Granth is a mixture of Punjabi and Sadh Bhakha; the script is Gurmukhi.