Authenticity of Kartarpuri Bir - Global Sikh Studies
Authenticity of Kartarpuri Bir - Global Sikh Studies
Authenticity of Kartarpuri Bir - Global Sikh Studies
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
16<br />
contains many blank pages or spaces. Obviously, in a copy the<br />
very question <strong>of</strong> hundreds <strong>of</strong> pages being left blank does not<br />
arise, especially when it is copied by a single scribe. Because,<br />
in such a case the copyist has the entire material ready and in<br />
proper sequence, before him for being copied out. The Banno<br />
<strong>Bir</strong> which is supposed to be a copy <strong>of</strong> it, has only 467 folios. 29<br />
It is therefore, ridiculous to suggest that the <strong>Kartarpuri</strong> <strong>Bir</strong>.<br />
with 974 folios is a copy <strong>of</strong> a Granth which had material that<br />
could be accomodated in about 467 folios. Generally, all the<br />
old handwritten <strong>Bir</strong>s, including the <strong>Kartarpuri</strong> <strong>Bir</strong>, are in one<br />
hand. Therefore, this internal evidence in the <strong>Kartarpuri</strong> <strong>Bir</strong> is<br />
both incontrovertible and singly conclusive to show its<br />
originalty.<br />
4. There are many Sabads or pieces <strong>of</strong> Bani which have<br />
been originally written twice, but later this duplication has either<br />
been erased by ‘Hartal’ (a chemical used in those days to<br />
obliterate the writing), or scored out with the observation in<br />
the margin that the Sabad was a duplication. Here too the<br />
question <strong>of</strong> Sabad or the same Bani being written at two places<br />
in a copied <strong>Bir</strong> could never arise. Such a thing could happen<br />
only in the original in which case either the scribe himself i.e.<br />
Bhai Gurdas, or the compiler i.e. the fifth Guru, has on revision<br />
found the error and got the same removed by scoring out the<br />
duplicate Sabad or Salok. This duplication has happened at<br />
pages 96/2, 186/2.483/1, 511/1, 550/2, 836/1, 943/2, etc. 30<br />
One thing is even more conclusive about this volume being<br />
the original. At page 943/2 the Sabad has been scored out<br />
with the observation that the same stands copied at a<br />
subsequent page. In this case the error involved is not only a<br />
mistake <strong>of</strong> duplication but probably also <strong>of</strong> sequence.<br />
Therefore, the supervisor retained the Sabad where it had been<br />
copied later and fitted better in the scheme <strong>of</strong> the Adi-Granth<br />
and got it, cored out from the earlier place. Thus, these<br />
duplications too have a conclusive evidentiary value.