Authenticity of Kartarpuri Bir - Global Sikh Studies

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ever have been contemplated, that these three writings
requiring a space of over four pages could have been
accomodated on the two blank pages 973/2 and 974/1. Both
the tradition and the Banno family accept that these writings
are unapproved and were not present in the Granth compiled
by the Guru.
Now, we shall take up the three items which appear at
the earlier pages of the Banno Bir. These are (I) A hymn of
Bhagat Surdas (2) A hymn of Mira Bai and (3) a part hymn
said to be of Guru Arjun Dev Ji. In the case of the eight lines
of the hymn of Bhagat Surdas, only the first one verse is in the
band of the scribe who wrote the Banno Bir; the remaining
lines of the hymn are in a different hand, suggesting their
subsequent addition. 48 But at page 885/2 of the Kartarpuri Bir
there is only the first one verse of Bhagat Surdas and below it
there is vacant space that could accommodate about four lines
or even. less. We have seen that there are numerous blank
spaces in the Kartarpuri Bir. These really mean nothing and in
fact suggest the authenticity of the Kartarpuri Bir. In this case,
both in the Kartarpuri Bir and the Banno Bir originally there
was only one verse of Bhagat Surdas. But, in the Banno Bir
some other hand has later added the remaining verses of the
Sabad of Bhagat Surdas. Hence the suggestion that the whole
Sabad was in the Banno Bir but only one verse was copied in
the Kartarpuri Bir has no basis. On the contrary the Banno Bir
being admittedly a copy of the Adi-Granth, only one line was
originally copied in it, obviously because in the Kartarpuri Bir
there was only one verse. But later some other hand, other
than of the original scribe, copied out the additional hymn in
the Banno Bir. Therefore, the suggestion that the Kartarpuri Bir
is a copy of the Banno Bir and the scribe of Katrapuri Bir
ommitted to record the full hymn of Bhagat Surdas is factually
baseless.
The hymn of Mira Bai appears at page 369/A in the