Dasam Granth

The Dasam Granth (Gurmukhi: ਦਸਮ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ dasama gratha) is a collection of various poetic compositions attributed to Guru Gobind Singh.

[8] The Dasam Granth lost favor during the colonial period when reformist Singh Sabha Movement scholars couldn't contextualize the reworkings of Puranic stories or the vast collection of 'Tales of Deceit' Sri Charitropakhyan.

[4] The Dasam Granth contains hymns, from Hindu texts,[5] which are a retelling of the feminine in the form of goddess Durga,[10][5] an autobiography, letter to the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, as well as reverential discussion of warriors and theology.

There are three major views on the authorship of the Dasam Granth:[13] In his religious court at Paonta and Anandpur, Guru Gobind Singh had employed 52 poets, who translated several classical texts into Braj Bhasha.

Most of the writing compiled at Anandpur was lost while the Guru's camp was crossing the Sirsa river before the Battle of Chamkaur in 1704.

[15] Traditionalist scholars claim that all the works in Dasam Granth were composed by the Guru himself, often on the basis of a letter attributed to Bhai Mani Singh.

[16] Some others dispute the claim of the authorship, saying that some of the compositions included in Dasam Granth such as Charitropakhyan are "out of tune" with other Sikh scriptures, and must have been composed by other poets.

What is germane, however, is that pre-colonial Sikh society wholeheartedly accepted the Dasam Granth as the work of Guru Gobind Singh.

[4] The Dasam Granth has many sections covering a wide range of topics: Ath Rudra Avtar Kathan(n) ਚੌਪਈ ਸਾਹਿਬ Ugardanti (Punjabi: ਉਗ੍ਰਦੰਤੀ, pronunciation: [ʊɡɾd̪aɛt̪iː]) is a poetic composition said to be written by Guru Gobind Singh, after the creation of the Khalsa Panth at Anandpur Sahib.

Guru Gobind Singh Ji invokes Adi Shakti in the form of the Fierce Toothed Ugardanti, writing various attributes of Ugardanti and asking for blessings and protection for the prosperity of the new Panth which is free from hypocrisy, ritualism, casteism, human worship and worships only One Non-Dual God.

Nihang and Namdhari Sikhs believe it to be written by Guru Gobind Singh and is part of their daily liturgy.

The Composition is divided into six verses called Chhands in which the syllables and the rhythm are arranged in a precisely controlled pattern.

‘exclusively you, in war song meter’) is a short composition of 10 stanzas which is part of daily liturgy among Sikhs (Nitnem).

[11] The early Anandpuri, Patna, and Mani Singh manuscripts include writings that are disputed in the contemporary era, as well as sections such as the Ugradanti and Sri Bhagauti Astotra that were removed from the Dasam Granth codified in the 20th century by the Sodhak Committee.

According to the Indologist Wendy Doniger, many orthodox Sikhs credit the authorship and compilation of the earliest Dasam Granth manuscript to Guru Gobind Singh directly, while other Sikhs and some scholars consider the text to have been authored and compiled partly by him and partly by many poets in his court at Anandpur.

Prior to 1902, there were numerous incomplete portions of manuscripts of Dasam Granth in circulation within the Sikh community along with the complete, but somewhat variant, major versions such as the Anandpuri and Patna birs.

The committee deleted some hymns found in the different old manuscripts of the text, merged the others and thus created a 1,428-page version thereafter called the standard edition of the Dasam Granth.

[66] According to Robin Rinehart – a scholar of Sikhism and Sikh literature, modern copies of the Dasam Granth in Punjabi, and its English translations, often do not include the entire standard edition text and do not follow the same ordering either.

Acclaimed letter of Bhai Mani Singh discussing the compilation of various banis of Dasam Granth
Guru Gobind Singh with the Goddess Bhagwati
1700s Dasam Granth with Missing space after 324th Charitar