VAISAKH

The Month Of History

Prelude:

Vaisakh, the second month of the Nanakshahi Calendar has historically provided momentous bounties for the Sikhs in the form of significant events and incidents. Its importance in the Sikh psyche, primarily, hinges on two specific watershed milestones. Contrary to the charge it is some Sikh New Year (let the Sikhs be the judge of that), it is the month in which the tenth Sikh human Guru-Guru Gobind Singh- selected to ratify the Khalsa: the collective fraternity of all orthodox Sikhs dedicated to Guru Nanak’s ethos in 1698 A.D. But why did the Guru select Vaisakh? Was there a more deeper rationale to his decision? We say: yes!

Vaisakh of 1698:

1698 provides one of the two significant events associated with Vaisakh. On a crisp clear day Guru Gobind Das, the tenth Sikh Guru, boldly mounted the stage in front of thousands of Sikhs from diverse regions of the subcontinent. Decked out in electric blue apparel he withdrew his sword and thundered aloud an even bolder challenge. “This sword of mine”, he roared, “is forever thirsty for blood”! Lowering it with a dramatic flourish he continued, “I have not been able to sate it for some time now with the blood of the Mughals and the Rajputs besieging us. Much like the path of Guru Nanak it demands sacrifice. Who among you, my beloved Sikhs, will sate its unquenchable thirst”?

Chroniclers fall head-over-heels to exuberate that a deathly silence rapidly fell over the attendees. Many in the rear started fleeing. The Guru had enacted a similar spectacle after Bhangani. Then, five young Sikhs had arisen and the Guru had bade them sit down. This time, though, the entire event had a surreal hint of bloodshed. The Guru thundered aloud three times. Demanding the head of a Sikh to quench the thirst of his sword. An exasperated mum quelled even the staunchest of talkers until ultimately the Guru suddenly pointed his sword to a warrior. “Daya Ram”, came the cry, “if no one else than why not you”? Daya Ram arose with a grave dignity and begged forgiveness for not having arisen earlier. Approaching the Guru, he allowed himself to be roughly grabbed and pushed within the tent. The Guru subsequently re-emerged with his sword bloodied. Panic ensued within the spectators.

The Guru again demanded a head and again the same reluctance to arise. He then signalled out Dharam Das, another warrior Sikh, who too was similarly dragged into the tent. Once again the bloodied sword reemerged; coated with blood and gore. The Guru repeated his challenge thrice more. Finding no volunteers he identified three more veteran Sikhs: Mokham Chand, Himmat Rai and Sahib Chand. All five were generational Sikhs with Sikhi being an ancestral faith. All five had proven themselves in battle. What befell them in the tent? Not even the greatest of clairvoyants have been able to reveal. But what transpired next is well known.

The Guru emerged with all five dressed in similar accoutrements to him. He enjoined them to sit in the archer’s pose while mixing sugar crystals into an iron bowl and stirring them to dissolution within water with an iron cleaver. He then sprinkled the resulting intermixture atop them and explicated to them the do’s and don’ts of Guru Nanak’s path. After issuing them their disciplinary codes (Rehat), he provided them with four items commonplace among the Sikh military forces from the times of Guru Arjan. To maintain their Kesh (unshorn hair)-the most fundamental standard of Sikh identity-he issued them Kangeh (combs). For manoeuvrability and differentiation from the base human animal he gave them Kachere (special underdrawers). For defense and offense he armed them with Karads (daggers). To protect their wrists in combat he put Kare (metal discs) on their wrists. Finished, he proclaimed that this was the Sikh initiation positing one on the path of Guru Nanak’s Sikhi. Men undergoing the ceremony were to be recognized by the last name Singh meaning tigers; women were given the more regal Kaur or foremost among the favored. More astounding for witnesses, he and his family underwent the initiation themselves.

Prelude to 1698:

Recent researches in the first decade of the 21st century evince what certain contemporary chroniclers believed at the time (foremost being Sainapati): that the Khalsa was long in the making. The picturesque location of Kapal Mochan offered up an even more intriguing artifact: a deed formed by the Guru mentioning the term Khalsa and undersigning himself as Singh. Historians authenticated it to the pre-Khalsa period and confirmed it was in the Guru’s hand.

The inability of Sikh academics to build upon this significant find and the lay Sikh to escape the mythology imposed by the Pujari clique disallowed this artifact from being fully appreciated. The Khalsa was no overnight military of common veterans (as Orientalists are wont to believe); nor was it a Pujari fabrication (our nod to the Upgrade mob) and neither was it intended as some super saintly nexus of miracle makers (our Pujari contenders). It was the sum of Guru Nanak’s vision: the society of Sikhs pursuing disciplined perfection until their last breath; a fraternity of true humans among countless human animals. It was the outcome of 9 Gurus preceding Guru Gobind Singh.

The rediscovery of Bhai Jaita’s contemporary (Jivan Singh’s) Sri Gur Katha casts the tenth Guru in a contemplative mood upon being officiated as Guru. This contemplation lasted for the consecutive two decades as he flushed out the most advantageous means to realize Guru Nanak’s vision. Countless Sikhs were observed and tested by the tenth Guru for the entirety of these two decades until only five remained standing in the battle for perfection. These five vindicated his faith in them when they agreed to answer his straight-out-of-the-blue call for sating his sword’s thirst. But all this begs the question, why do this in Vaisakh? The height of the Punjabi harvest?

Guru Nanak:

Look up Guru Nanak online and you see his date of birth being 15th April 1469. Look at today’s Sikhs and they rush to gorge on spiced-up Langar in the name of marking his birth anniversary in October. The descendants of valorous warriors and empire builders today suffer from the pangs of obesity and historical indifference; unable to even make up their mind about when the most revered figure in their faith was born. The Sikh Pujaris, awash with their ill-gotten gains, argue for Katak; the Sikh equivalent of October. On the other hand, historical sources mention April or Vaisakh. Below we reproduce the words of the legendary Sikh intellectual Karam Singh Historian who established the true chronology linked with the progenitor Guru’s life:

‘When did Satguru Nanak take birth? April or September? Answering this is not an impossibility. We are currently in the middle of discovering new sources and relearning older sources which, despite their disparity, all point towards one thing: Satguru Nanak was born on Vaisaakh Sudi Tin (3) {roundabout early April}. But despite the bulk of the evidence pointing to the contrary, the Bhai Bala Janamsaakhi {hagiography} mentions Katak Pooranmaashi {September}. What we must decide is which date is correct and which is blatantly incorrect.

The oldest Janamsaakhi we have today predated the incumbency of the Sixth Guru. I have seen a manuscript of it myself and can confirm based on authentication that yes, it is before the era of the Sixth Master. The nature of this manuscript indicates that it must have been part of another greater body of work prepared at the time of the Fifth Guru. In fact, based on what I have viewed and studied I can factually say that a majority of the Janamsaakhis we have today are derived from this one major Saakhi prepared during the Fifth Guru’s time. This manuscript, like others, mentions Vaisaakh Sudi Tin as Guru Nanak’s date of birth.

Besides this historical Saakhi, the other equally historic Saakhi I have seen is Baba Meharban Ji’s authored Janamsaakhi. Baba Meharban was a contemporary of both Guru Arjan and Guru Hargobind. His Janamsaakhi too mentions Vaisaakh Sudi Tin as Guru Nanak’s date of birth. Besides these Saakhis, the Bhai Mani Singh Ji Janamsaakhi too states Vaisaakhi Sudi Tin as Guru Nanak’s date of birth.

The first part of the Mehima Prakash rendered in 1826 too surprisingly mentions Vaisaakh Sudi Tin as Guru Nanak’s date of birth. What is interesting is that the second part of the Mehima Prakash, written in 1856 mentions the name of Bhai Bala and incorporates some details from his Janamsaakhi. What this indicates is that the Bhai Bala Janamsaakhi was in vogue around the period the Mehima Prakash was compiled and concluded.

Besides the above I have also studied numerable other Janamsaakhis too voluminous to mention here. However, from my studies, I have concluded beyond doubt that all those Janamsaakhis have used the major Janamsaakhi prepared during the Fifth Guru’s time as their source ergo the unanimous concurrence in them that Satguru Nanak was born on Vaisaakh Sudi Tin.

Yet despite the ever-increasing bulk of evidence the Bhai Bala Janamsaakhi flippantly argues for Katak Pooranmashi. A close perusal of this Saakhi reveals to us when this Saakhi was created. The verses of Guru Nanak are absent from this Saakhi while those of the second Guru are present. It is well known that Guru Arjan formatted the words of his predecessors into Raags and other orders within the Guru Granth Sahib and before him there was no such comprehensive order. The Bhai Bala Janamsaakhi mimics this same order 100%. The term Masand was appropriated by the Sikhs under the Fifth Guru, before him there is no evidence of Sikhs using it. The Bhai Bala Janamsaakhi is replete with it.

Besides these telling failings, it also plagiarizes off the later Kashmir Wali Janamsaakhi word-for-word; Purataan Janamsaakhi and multiple other even later Saakhis. Dating all these brings us to the unavoidable conclusion that the Bhai Bala Janamsaakhi was written during Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s time and not anytime before.

The current Bhai Bala Janamsaakhi replete among the Panth is even more deviant than the original Bhai Bala Janamsaakhi. What is mystifying is that Sikhs have unreasonably side-lined the Purataan Janamsaakhi and other more comprehensive Saakhi literature to deify this new Bhai Bala Janamsaakhi which isn’t even related to the original Bhai Bala Janamsaakhi in any way or form. The original Bhai Bala Janamsaakhi and the Saakhis of Baba Hindal when studied together lead us to the conclusion they have been written by the same author. In fact, the original Bhai Bala Janamsaakhi vilifies Guru Nanak and shows him more inferior to Hindal. This seems to be the primary purpose behind writing it.

To avoid any controversy which might have exposed them, the creators of the Bhai Bala Janamsaakhi credited it to some Bhai Bala who they propagated to be a companion of Guru Nanak and a close confidant. The Sikhs took the bait and fell for their scheming. There was never any such intimate Bhai Bala historically.

Bhai Gurdas within his Vaars lists the names of those Sikhs who had profound relationships with the Gurus in one form or another. We find no mention of Bhai Bala therein which should prove to us that there was no Bhai Bala near to Satguru Nanak. We find the name of Bhai Mardanna within these Vaars but not Bhai Bala. Neither do we find any mention of Bhai Bala’s name in any other contemporary account of the period which is somewhat surprising given that Bhai Mardanna’s name is mentioned in at least one. Now consider this stupidity: that there is a prominent Sikh such as Bhai Bala who is supposedly a very close confidant of the Guru, but Bhai Gurdas and other chroniclers do not know of him. Impossible!

As for the Hindalias, Baba Bidhi Chand who was the son of Bhai Hindal wished to establish his father higher than Guru Nanak and being a man of letters constructed the fake persona of Bhai Bala in whose mouth he inserted multiple words to shame Guru Nanak. To exacerbate his attack further he concocted the tale of Satguru Nanak being born in Katak which is vilified as an unholy month in Hindu theology. The historic practice observed among the Hindus was to eject anyone born on Katak out of their homes. This way, the author of the Bhai Bala Janamsaakhi made it out that even the birth of Guru Nanak was an unholy act of inauspiciousness, and his tours overseas were reflective of the cursed nature of those born on Katak.

It has been now 18 years since I wrote my well-publicized Katak Ke Vaisaakh which proves that Guru Nanak was born not on Katak Pooranmashi but in Vaisaakh. That the Bhai Bala Janamsaakhi is a Hindalia concoction. Anyone interested further in how I build up my arguments and the evidence concerned can read Katak Ke Vaisaakh.

In conclusion, Guru Nanak was accepted as having been born on Vaisaakh Sudi Tin. This same date was actively accepted without animosity during Guru Arjan’s era. This same date was accepted by all purataan great Gursikhs. The blind propagation of the Bhai Bala Janamsaakhi has resulted in many associated institutes accepting Katak Pooranmashi as the official date of the Guru’s birth when no prior antecedent for this exists or and it is evident that the Hindalias concocted this date with less than noble reasons in mind. The real date on which Satguru Nanak took birth was Vaisaakh Sudi Tin. All authenticated historic sources are agreed on this.’

-Karam Singh Historian Di Ithiaasic Khoja, edited by Hira Singh Dard.

Giani Gian Singh, historian supreme of the Pujari faction, would argue that the absence of Bhai Bala’s name from the Bhai Gurdas Vaars was not total evidence of there being no Bhai Bala at all. Karam Singh fired back that the proximity claimed by the Janamsaakhi between Guru Nanak and Bala was made out to be the same as that between the Guru and Mardanna. Bhai Gurdas could not have missed such a relationship had Bala truly been in such proximity to the progenitor Guru irrespective of whether he existed or not.

Another argument, advanced by other Pujari sections, held that superstitious Sikhs had altered Guru Nanak’s birth from Katak to Vaisakh owing to superstition. This, essentially, was duplicating Karam Singh’s own argument and juxtaposing it against him. Karam Singh remained unmoved and laughingly retorted that why then were other significant Sikh dates falling in Katak not altered? Particularly that of Sri Chand, the Guru’s disowned ascetic son who is worshipped by Pujari cults. And more crucially, it was Sant Singh-a renowned votary of the Pujari cliques-who started the tradition of sanctifying the Bala Janamsaakhi and celebrating the Guru’s birth anniversary in Katak. Karam Singh’s arguments have withstood the test of time. Slowly but surely, Sikhs who are proud of their heritage and retain intellectual curiosity have reverted to the authentic Vaisakh date.

Rationale:

Guru Gobind Singh was aware that for the ratification of the Sikhs in the form of the Khalsa he had to associate what he was about to do with the principles of the faith established by Guru Nanak. What better way to evidence the interconnection of the Khalsa with Guru Nanak’s vision than formalize it on the eve of its founder’s birth? To this end, the tenth Guru did what he eventually did on Vaisakh. It is the misfortune of the Sikhs today that they are blind to the profundity which intertwines the Khalsa with Guru Nanak.

ਵੈਸਾਖਿ ਧੀਰਨਿ ਕਿਉ ਵਾਢੀਆ ਜਿਨਾ ਪ੍ਰੇਮ ਬਿਛੋਹੁ ॥ ਹਰਿ ਸਾਜਨੁ ਪੁਰਖੁ ਵਿਸਾਰਿ ਕੈ ਲਗੀ ਮਾਇਆ ਧੋਹੁ ॥

“Within the month of Vaisakh those who are bereft of the realization of their true self enjoy no solace. How can they? They are allured more by illusion than the beloved (truth).”

-Guru Granth, 133.