dasam

BACHITRA NATAK (bachitra = marvellous, wondrous + natak = drama, play) is the name given a complex of compositions, commonly attributed to Guru Gobind Singh, the Tenth Guru or prophet teacher of the Sikh faith, assembled in his book, the Dasam Granth: hence, the name dasam (tenth) granth (book), i.e. Book of the Tenth Master to distinguish it from the earlier work, the Adi (first, primary or original) Granth, now venerated as Sri Guru Granth Sahib. The most familiar section of compositions collectively called Bachitra Natak Granth is the Bachitra Natak itself, some of the others being Chandi Chritra Ukti Bilas, Chandi Chritra, Var Sri Bhagauti Ji Ki (or Chandi di Var), Gian Prabodh, and Chaubis Autar.The composition of Bachitra Natak may have begun in 1688, at Paonta during the first spurt of Guru Gobind Singh\'s literary activity.

BHAGVANT SINGH HARIJI, BHAI (1892-1968), a lover of game, horticulturist and scholar, was born on 15 February 1892 to the erudition of his celebrated father, Bhai Kahn Singh, of Nabha, the creator of the immortal Gurushabad Ratnakar Mahan Kosh. Unobtrusively, and in his characteristically gentle and self abnegating manner, Bhagvant Singh carried the family learning into the second generation. His home provided the best education then available to a young man, though he did attend formally the Khalsa College at Amritsar, then the premier educational institution of the Sikhs.

CHANDI CHARITRA, title of two compositions by Guru Gobind Singh in his Dasam Granth, the Book of the Tenth Master, describing in Braj verse the exploits of goddess Chandi or Durga. One of these compositions is known as Chandi Charitra Ukti Bilas whereas the second has no qualifying extension to its title except in the manuscript of the Dasam Granth preserved in the toshakhana at Takht Sri Harimandar Sahib at Patna, which is designated Chandi Charitra Trambi Mahatam. The former work is divided into eight cantos, the last one being incomplete, and comprises 233 couplets and quatrains, employing seven different metres, with Savaiyya and Dohara predominating. The latter, also of eight cantos, contains 262 couplets and quatrains, mostly employing Bhujangprayat and Rasaval measures.

CHAUBIS AVTAR, a collection of twenty-four legendary tales of twenty-four incarnations of the god Visnu, forms a part of Bachitra Natak, in Guru Gobind Singh`s Dasam Granth. The complete work contains a total of 4,371 verseunits of which 3,356 are accounted for by Ramavtar and Krishnavtar. The shortest is Baudh Avatar comprising three quatrains, and the longest is Krishnavtar, with 2,492 verseunits, mostly quatrains. The introductory thirty-eight chaupais or quatrains refer to the Supreme Being as unborn, invisible but certainly immanent in all objects.

CHRITROPAKHYAN, a long composition comprising women`s tales in verse, forms over one-third of the Dasam Granth. The work is generally ascribed to Guru Gobind Singh. A school of opinion, however, exists which asserts that Chritropakhyan and some other compositions included in the Dasam Granth are not by the Guru but by poets in attendance on him. According to the date given in the last Chritra or narrative, this work was completed in 1753 Bk/AD 1696 on the bank of the River Sutlej, probably at Anandpur. The last tale in the series is numbered 405, but number 325 is somehow missing.

DAS, BHATT. See BHATT BANI DAS GRANTHI, a pothi, i.e. a small book, containing selected barns or texts from the Dasam Granth. Das, meaning `ten`, here stands for `tenth`, or the Tenth Master`s granth or book to distinguish it from the older Adi Granth, i.e. the first or primary granth ; granth i, a small book (the suffix "I" is generally added to a word in Punjabi to indicate its diminutive form; an exception is the word granthi when it stands for a gurdwara officiant), Das Granthi thus being a small anthology comprising selections from the Dasam Granth of Guru Gobind Singh. Anthologies styled Das Granthi" evidently began to be compiled with a view to making the writings of Guru Gobind Singh which constitute a voluminous granth accessible to beginners and lay readers.

GIAN PRABODH (Guide to Enlightenment), included in Guru Gobind Singh`s Dasam Granth, is a long poem in Braj employing sixteen different metres. It comprises two independent pans, the first, i.e. the introductory one (stanzas 1 to 125), beginning with laudation of the Almighty who is depicted as Supreme, beyond comprehension, nondual, infinite, invisible, unattached, desirelcss and fearless. The Supreme Being is the Creator and Succourer of the universe, and the Embodiment of Supreme Bliss. He is beyond Time and beyond retribution for karma. All pilgrimages, practices of yoga, renunciation of the world, are meaningless if He is not remembered.

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