Guru Nanak Dev University hosts 2-day exhibition of rare 330 years old manuscripts of Sri Guru Granth Sahib

Guru Nanak Dev University hosts 2-day exhibition of rare 330 years old manuscripts of Sri Guru Granth Sahib

The Rising Panjab Bureau

Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar hosted a two-day exhibition dedicated to 418 years of Parkash of Sri Guru Granth Sahib earlier this month. It was inaugurated by Padam Shri Baba Sewa Singh ji of Khadur Sahib in presence of Prof. S.S. Behl, Dean Academic Affairs, faculty, students, researchers and other staff members of the varsity.

Speaking on the occasion, Baba Sewa Singh said that our heritage is very rich and its preservation is a big responsibility. He said that our young generation should be made aware of our heritage and the information obtained in such exhibitions can be very useful. He said that art work done in old birs of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji is an example of rich art culture among Sikhs.

Prof. Behl said that the art forms on these ancient birs of Sri Guru Granth Sahib ji shows that the ancient Sikhs paid full attention to spirituality as well as art, history and other aspects of life. He said that today's exhibition is an important step in the direction of more research work in this field and its preservation.

Prof. (Dr) Amarjit Singh, Director, Centre on Studies in Sri Guru Granth Sahib said that exhibition will explore the not yet seen incredible floral art work of different designs in the manuscripts of Sri Guru Granth Sahib of seventeenth to nineteenth century. He said that Sri Guru Granth Sahib is not only a treasure of spiritual knowledge but also has an authentic and exclusive history of its preparation, completion and acquisition of Guruship.

Prof. Singh said that there is a long tradition in Sikh history of recording Gurbani in Pothis. The tradition of preparing handwritten Granths began with the compilation of the 'Adi Sri Granth Sahib' in 1604 AD. The history of writing Granths helps us in understanding the growth of calligraphy of Gurmukhi script at various stages. Apart from this, the utmost care and devotion used while writing Gurbani also has its own interesting history.

There also came a golden period in the history of writing Granths when very beautiful artwork started to be done in these handwritten Granths. So far, there has been very little discussion about how colored vines and various other shapes like rectangular, square, octagonal, circular, domes of different designs had been depicted in the margins while writing Granths. Information regarding this topic has also been very limited. One of the major reasons behind this situation is that access to these manuscripts has been very difficult. Centre on Studies in Sri Guru Granth Sahib has reached out to Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, UP, Bihar, Nepal, Rajasthan, Madhya-Pradesh, Maharashtra states under the project of digitizing them to preserve the ancient and rare manuscripts. More than five hundred manuscripts have been digitized by Prof. Amar Singh of the Centre from these places.