Guru Gobind Singh's Death at Nanded Examination of - Vidhia.com

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38 AN EXAMINATION OF SUCCESSION THEORIES
This is, however, part of the art of Braji and Panjabi
poetry. Even in the second decade of the present century a
Kooka poet Bhai Kala Singh Namdhari introduced imaginary
supernatural matter in his Singhan Namdharidn da Shahid Bilas
and Singhan Namdharlan da Panth Prakash published in 1913
and 1914, respectively. In these he tells us that, in response to
the prayer of the Kookas sentenced to death for the murders
of butchers, all the Gurus and a number of Sikh martyrs like
Bhai Mani Singh, Taru Singh and Sabeg Singh, appeared to
them in their last moments at different times in different jails of
the Panjab. But they were visible only to the Kooka convicts
who formally bowed to them and received their blessings.
Nobody else saw them, says the poet. Yet he is relating to us
the story of their appearance woven in his account of the
Kooka 'martyrs'. Are we to believe, as the poet like his precursors
would expect us to, that the Ten Gurus and numerous
martyrs were then all alive in flesh and blood like Guru
Gobind Singh made by some to be living at Satara and other
places after his death ? There is, however, a difference in the
appearance of the imaginary Guru Gobind Singh to the
Maratha docoits imprisoned in the fort of Satara and the
appearance of the Gurus and martyrs to the Kookas in the
Panjab jails. While the spirit of the Guru, according to the
previous poets' stories, had rescued the dacoits from the fort
and had flown them to a place of safety in the' Vindhyachal
mountains over two hundred and eighty miles to the north,
those who appeared to the 'Kooka martyrs' only blessed them
and then left them to their fate in the hands of the hangmen
in the jails. [Shahid Bilas, pp. 50-51; Panth Prakash, 86, etc.]
Giani Gian Singh, the author of the Panth Prakash
(1880 A. D.) and the Tawarikh Guru Khalsa (1891-92 A.D.)
in Urdu and Panjabi, however, belongs to a different class of
poets. History is his main objective and he has used poetry
as a medium of expression as was the vogue at his time. And,
for the purpose of recitation in large assemblies, poetry alone
is the proper medium. To be an impressive poet, one must
have a forceful language and a fertile imagination.
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GURU GOBIND SINGH'S DEATH AT NANDED 39
Giani Gian Singh possessed both in ample measure. As a
scholar of ancient Hindu mythology, he believed in the Guru
having gone to heaven bodily along with his horse and accepted
the legend of the Guru having been seen by four sadhus
from the Panjab. To satisfy the inquisitive and sorrowful
Sikhs, Gian. Singh refers them, in the words of Bhai Daya Singh,
one of the Pdnj Pyaras, to the old legend about the first
Guru Nanak also having disappeared in the same supernatural
way to go to heaven. According to the poet, Guru Gobind Singh
was welcomed to heaven not only by the ancient Hindu gods
but also by the previous Sikh Gurus. [Panth Prakash, second
edition, Chaslma-i-Nur Press, Amritsar, 1889 A. D., pp.
284-85.] Ho wever, as the author tells us, Guru Gobind Singh
before his death formally installed the Guru Granth Sahib as
the future Guru of the Sikhs. [Ibid. 282, 283, 287, AppendixXll
(a).] With full faith in the death of the Guru, the Sikhs present
at Nanded, in spite of their having heard the story of the sadhus,
etc., which they did not evidently believe, performed the Bhog
ceremony of the Guru Granth Sahib on the tenth day of the
Guru's death with all the prevalent rites. [Ibid. 287.] This has
been repeated and confirmed by Giani Gian Singh in all the
subsequent editions of his Panth Parkash, and we find it mentioned
in almost the same words in its sixth edition [pp. 316-
318, 321] published in October 1923.
The most significant thing of the Panth Prakash (6th
edition) is that it altogether rejects the supernatural legends
and makes no mention of the Guru's darshan by the woodcutter
and sadhus or of the help rendered by the Guru's spirit
to the Maratha captives in the fort of Satara, nor does it say
anything about Birat (Peshawar) or the Kotha Sahib near
Kabul.
With the turn of the century and dawn of scientific
spirit and attitude and the development of the sense of historical
objectivity, Giani Gian Singh came to realize that his works
with imaginary stories of miracles, legends, etc., associated
with the names of the Sikh Gurus and saints which he had
blindly copied from previous writers— main marl makhi par