Divine burden

I t is a daunting task, translating the Adi Granth, with its nearly 6,000 hymns which would take a relay of reciters, reading non-stop, two days and nights to finish. For the Sikhs it is the word of god, told through six of their ten gurus and sants, both Hindu and Muslim.

Many people have translated the more popular portions: Acharya Vinoba Bhave and Osho Rajnish did a commendable job rendering the morning prayer, Japji, in Hindi and English. The first to try his hand at translating the entire Adi Granth was the German scholar Trumpp. He gave up after a few pages. The task was taken up by M.A. Macaulliffe who had Sikh scholars to assist him. All his translations are incorporated in his six volumes on the Sikh religion. The translations, though literal, read poorly.

The first Sikh to undertake the task was Manmohan Singh of Amritsar. He translated the scriptures into Punjabi and English prose. They were accurate but no attempts had been made to capture the melodic element in the hymns. Next came Gopal Singh Dardi who had undoubted ability to handle the task. He presented his translations to the pope, claimed to have been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature and persuaded Indira Gandhi to nominate him as a member of the Rajya Sabha and then the governor of Goa and Nagaland. Somehow I felt that anyone who could do that sort of thing could not have imbibed very much from the gurus? teachings. I did not read his translation.

The SGPC then commissioned Gurbachan Singh Talib, a professor of English, to do the translations and published them. They too are lacking in poetic content. Two years ago, G.S. Maken of Chandigarh published four volumes of his translations. I went through them, cover to cover, and learnt a lot about the faith I was born into without knowing much about it. Maken too did not try to capture the poetry of the original.

The most recent translation is by Kartar Singh Duggal, published by Hemkunt Press in four volumes: The Holy Granth ? Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Duggal has written scores of novels and collections of poetry, won many awards and been a member of the Rajya Sabha. He rightly describes his renderings as transcreations instead of translations, and has done his best to convey the meaning of the hymns in verse. His work is bound to be more acceptable to readers than any of the others. His volumes should find a place in every public library in the country and abroad, and hopefully in some private homes as well.

References in context

While examining old documents for writing The History of the Sikhs, I came across many Indian names and places which early European visitors had spelt out in English and which made amusing reading. For instance, Sikhs had six different spellings: Sikhs, Sicques, Sykes, Sicks and Seecks. Khalsa was Colsa or Colassa. Amritsar was Ambarsar, Amritsaria and Umraotisioux. And so on.

Nevertheless, though not entirely reliable as source material, they provided reliable corroboration of events that took place in the 17th and 18th centuries. Father Jerome Xavier, a Jesuit priest, mentions the martyrdom of Guru Arjan in Lahore in 1606. References to the martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur in Delhi (1675), and the execution of Banda Bairagi and 700 of his followers in Delhi in 1716 were noted by agents of the East India Company as well as travellers financed by it.

After the execution of Banda Bahadur, Sikhs reorganized themselves into several independent misls and ravaged the plains from the Ganges to the Indus, including Delhi and its suburbs. The sight of one Sikh on horse-back, with matchlock on his shoulder and kirpan dangling by his side, struck terror in the hearts of people: he was like a one-man army (sava lakh fauj).

In 1768, Francis Xavier wrote, ?Among 10,000 men there will be at least as many commanders and what is more each independent of the other.?

In 1716, a Swiss national, Major Polier, sent a note of warning to the English about Sikh potential as ?a snake with many heads?. He wrote, ?As for the Seikhs, that formidable aristocratic republick, I may safely say, it is only so to a weak defence-less state, such as this is. It is properly the snake with many heads. Each Zamindar who from the Attock to Hansey Issar, and to the gates of Delhi lets his beard grow, cries wah gorow, eats pork, wears an iron bracelet, drinks bang, abominates the smoking of tobacco and can command from ten followers on horseback to upwards, set up immediately for a Seik Sardar, and as far as is in his power aggrandizes himself at the expense of his weaker neighbours; if Hindu or Mussulman so much the better; if not, even amongst his own fraternity will he seek to extend his influence and power; only with this difference in their intestine divisions, from what is seen everywhere else, that the husbandman (sic) and the labourer, in their own districts, are perfectly safe and unmolested, let what will happen around them.?

It is hard to believe that when Baghel Singh of the Karorasinghia misl was invited by Emperor Shah Alam to take Delhi under his protection, all he asked for was land to build Delhi?s seven historic gurdwaras and collect a third of all octroi duties. He left only two Sikhs agents in Subzi Mandi to see the undertaking was fulfilled.

You will find all this in the delightful compilation, Sicques, Tigers, or Thieves (1606-1809), edited by Amandeep Singh Madra and Parmjit Singh.

Many of the characteristics of the Sikhs noted by foreign observers persist to this day. They are notorious for being unable to come together to work as a team. Everyone regards himself a jathedar (leader), even if he has no jatha (troop) to lead. The Sikhs themselves are well aware of the shortcomings in their character:

Where there is one Sikh, there is one Sikh;

Where there are two Sikhs, there is a Singh Sabha

Where there are three Sikhs, there is rowla-rappa (rowdiness)