Sri Charitropakhyan or Pakhyan Charitar and also Tria Charitra (Punjabi: ਪਖ੍ਯਾਨ ਚਰਿਤ੍ਰ, also known as ਸ਼੍ਰੀ ਚਰਿਤ੍ਰੋਪਾਖ੍ਯਾਨ and ਤ੍ਰਿਯਾ ਚਰਿਤ੍ਰ) is a huge composition of short stories, with the purpose of learning from others' mistakes to acquire more refined judgement in all fields, present in Dasam Granth, which is generally and traditionally ascribed to Guru Gobind Singh.

The composition contains 405/404 tales or episodes of wiles of men and women, containing many historical, mythological and philosophical aspects, having 7558 verses.

[6] There is dispute over the authorship of Charitropakhyan among scholars, with some claiming that it is out of tune with other Sikh scriptures, and thus must have been composed by other poets.

The plot is explained in the second tale, which is as follows: King Chitra Singh of Chitravati married a damsel of Indra's kingdom.

She grew heavily attracted to him and tried to seduce him into a sexual relationship, but Hanuvant Singh was religious in thought and did not go for incest.

In order to prevent the wrongful execution of Hanuvant Singh, the adviser shared various accounts of stories depicting different situations, with the intention of making the King realize his folly and improve his decision-making skill.

[11] Following is the list of tales present in Dasam Granth: The following are the summaries of several tales, translated from the work of Dr Rattan Singh Jaggi Steek of the Dasam Granth Ranjha was an avatar of Indra and Heer was avatar of Apsara Meneka who was given abhi-shaap (curse) by Rishi Kapil to get born on Matlok.

Rishi kapil was visiting inderlok when he got opportunity to saw Menaka for first time in king Inder darbar and his "Biraj" fell on seeing her.

As the epic moves forward they fell in love and heer was married to Khera family as her father doesn't agree with Ranjha.

Bhai Gurdas also references this epic in Vaar 27 Pauri 1 ਰਾਂਝਾ ਹੀਰ ਵਖਾਣੀਐ ਓਹੁ ਪਿਰਮ ਪਰਾਤੀ॥ Ranjha and Heer are renowned for the love they bore each other.

They sing it at the ambrosial hour of morning In Raghu-kul a king named Roopeswar was a famous and respected in Nagar of Ropar (now Punjab).

Hearing this the Danav wrote a Jantar for her and told her take this and whosoever sees it once will be burned to ashes.

Learning: Thus, One Person (her own Brother) constructed a plot (Charitar) which ended up killing sohni and mahiwal.

Bhai Gurdas also references this epic in Vaar 27 Pauri 1 ਮੇਹੀਵਾਲ ਨੋ ਸੋਹਣੀ ਨੈ ਤਰਦੀ ਰਾਤੀ। The fame of Sohni who used to swim the Chenab river in the night to meet Mahival is well known.

They sing it at the ambrosial hour of morning The Rishi Kapil came over to some place and saw an Apsara named Rambha.

He started taking care of her as a daughter and named her Sassi or "Sassiya" as she was more beautiful than the Moon (Sass).

The 325th Charitar of the Charitropakhyan is missing in a plethora of Dasam Granth Manuscripts, and for this reason the Charitropakhyan is typically listed as having 404 charitars, even though the last charitar gives the notation of being the 405th (at the end of the Chaupai Sahib)ਇਤਿ ਸ੍ਰੀ ਚਰਿਤ੍ਰ ਪਖ੍ਯਾਨੇ ਤ੍ਰਿਯਾ ਚਰਿਤ੍ਰੇ ਮੰਤ੍ਰੀ ਭੂਪ ਸੰਬਾਦੇ ਚਾਰ ਸੌ ਪਾਂਚ ਚਰਿਤ੍ਰ ਸਮਾਪਤਮ ਸਤੁ ਸੁਭਮ ਸਤੁ ॥੪੦੫॥੭੫੫੮॥ ਅਫਜੰੂ ॥ eit sree charitr pakhayaane tirayaa charitre ma(n)tree bhoop sa(n)baadhe chaar sau paa(n)ch charitr samaapatam sat subham sat ||405||7558|| afaja(n)oo ||

[15] According to Robin Rinehart in Debating the Dasam Granth (2011), the letter first appeared publicly in the late 1920s and its style of writing and handwriting was analyzed by Rattan Singh Jaggi in the 1960s who concluded that it does not match with Bhai Mani Singh's time period, casting doubts on its authenticity.

[17] He mentioned that Guru Gobind Singh had written tales in Persian in Zafarnama, called Hikaaitaan during his lifetime.

He had access to whole Dasam Granth and mentioned that 404 Charitars and Chaubis Avtar was written by Guru Gobind Singh.