Bhai Vir Singh.pdf - Vidhia.com

Father of Modem Punjabi Literature / 79
vastrangeofits figures andimages,the abundanceofitsverbal
ornaments and embellishments, the subtlety of its prosodic
measures and rhythms. The Punjabi mind had not created a
workofthatwidthandrichness ofcanvas. For allthesereasons,
the textwas completely beyondthe reach of ordinary mortals.
People spent years learning it from the experts. Ability to
expound the Suraj Prakash was a hallmark of scholarship.
Bhai Vir Singh was attracted to this task perhaps by the
verycomplexity and. immensityofit--byits challengingnature
itself. The Suraj Prakash was a mine of information on Sikh
religionandhistory, a quarryunlimitedinrange. BhaiVirSingh
was conscious of its importance and delved deep into it.
Especially fascinating for him must have been its poetry. Its
history he neededfor his ownwriting. SurajPrczlmsh learning
had been in the family and his father Dr Charan Singh was in
hisdaya recognized. authorityonthiswork. Sohisacquaintance
withthisbookstartedearlyenoughandhisinterestinitbecame
more specialized as he grew inthe mastery of It.
In 1926, he was launched on the work of annotating the
entire volume. For nine years hewas completely immersed in
it. His scholarly and linguistic equipment matched the taskhe
had laid upon himself. Yet to accomplish it meant sustained
anddevotedlabourandplanningofa high, sophisticatedorder.
Besides annotating the text--by no means an easy
undertaking owing to the highly Sanskritized vocabulary and
the elaborate conventions of poetry--the text had to be
standardized and, as far as possible, matters of fact had to be
discriminated from poetic fancy and mythologizing.
Bhai Vir Singh first of all collected several of the
manuscripts which had become available since the workwas
completed in 1934. The oldest of these was dated 1862,
although later a portion of anotheronewas discovered which
precededitbyseVEm years. "Arrangementsweremade for one
person to ma:ke the reading and for others to hear along from
theremainingcopi.es. Inthis manner, all themanuscriptswere
compared and textual variations noted. AcorreC1ted copy was
prepared in which these variations were pointed out in
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