Authenticity of Kartarpuri Bir - Global Sikh Studies

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suggestion, for the first time recorded by Pritam Singh, is that
the family had heard that once the gilded cover of the Bir had
been stolen and not the Bir. In other words, even Pritam Singh
does not accept the version of the loss of the cover only, and,
on his own, has tried to prop up the story that the Bir was
actually lost and a new Banno Bir was created. Secondly, can
any rational man accept a part suggestion of the custodians
who go to the length of inventing a false (as even believed by
Pritam Singh), story of theft of the cover only, of creating a
spurious Bir to substitute it for the original copy, of forging by
alteration or over-writing the date of its production, and then
also of creating new Nishans of the Gurus and pasting them
on the Bir. If it were assumed that the Banno family some how
lost the original, (though there is not the faintest suggestion in
this regard, and, on the contrary, known facts state that its
custody has been safe throughout the Sikh and the British
periods) and created a new Banno Bir, then where was the need
of tampering with the figure 1699, and who prevented them
from writing in the Bir the year of production as 1661 or 1659
instead of 1699. Secondly, what stopped the forger of the Bir
from writing in the Tatkara that the Nishan on the folio at page
34 was of the 5th Guru and not of the 6th Guru. Thirdly, if
the original Bir was lost, where from did the forger obtain the
Nishans of the 5th and 6th Gurus that would also have been
lost with original Bir. Fourthly, if the original Banno Bir was
lost, wherefrom was this Bir copied? And as such it could not
longer be designated as the Banno Bir, it being a copy of some
other Granth. Fifthly, one fact is patent that in the present
Banno Bir, the additional eight lines of the alleged Ramkali
Mahla 5, on the basis of which Mcleod builds his entire case
against the authenticity of the Kartarpuri Bir, are a clear
interpolation meaning thereby that the Granth or the alleged
original Banno Bir from which this present Banno Bir, was copied
distinctly did not contain these