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80 / Bhai Vir Singh
footnotes. Where thetextwasapparentlyfaulted, likelycorrect
versions were suggested."l
Bhai Vir Singh now proceeded to explain the text. This
involved writing extensive glosses to difficult words and
phrases in Santokh Singh's magniloquent Braj, laced with
Sanskrit terminology not always in its pure shape, decoding
mythological andclassicalallusions, elucidatingphilosophical
concepts, pointing out the literary and rhetorical
characteristics of the poet's style, reconciling historical and
geographical discrepancies and redressing bias, deliberate
or unmeditated, which in this kind of verse history was not
wholly unexpected. To all of these tasks Bhai Vir Singh
addressed himself with his unique scholarly resource and
meticulousness. For history alone he made extensive
researches into the old Sikh records which Santokh Singh had
himselfconsulted andothers, especiallynon-Sikh, discovered
later which he had not. Bhai Vir Singh carefully studied the
Janamsakhis, Bhai Gurdas, GurBilasPatshahi Chhewin, Bhai
Mani Singh, Saina Pat (Gur Sobha), Sukha Singh (Gur Bilas
Daswin Patshahi), Sewa Das (Parchian), Sarup Das Bhall
(Mahima Prakash), Giani Gian Singh (Tawarikh Guru Khalsa),
Ramdas Walian Sakhian, and the Persian authorities such as
Tuzuk-i-Babari, Ardastani (Dabistan-i-Mazahib), SUjan Rai
Bhandari (Khulasat-·tu-Tawarikh), Khafi Khan (Muntakab-ul­
Lubbab), Ghulam Husain Khan (Siyar-ul-Mutakherin), Ghulam
Muhayy-ud-Din ITawarikh-i-Punjab),andSohanLal (Umadatut-Tawarikh).
He quoted extensively from these and many
other sources to illuminate or balance Santokh Singh's
perspective on some of the historical events.
Another of Bhai Vir Singh's calculable editorial concerns
was to test Santokh Singh's presentation of Sikhism by the
lights of Singh Sabha ideology. He believed that Sikh
historiography had been warped by the influence of
Brahminical thought. In his account of the life of Bhai Santokh
1. BhaiVir Singh, ed. Gur Pratap Suraj Granth, Khalsa Samachar,Amritsar,
1954, Vol. I, P.II.
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