Authenticity of Kartarpuri Bir - Global Sikh Studies

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additional eight lines otherwise the very need of this
interpolation made later than B.K. 1699 would not have arisen.
In fact, Pritam Singh’s argument about the loss of the real Banno
Bir is self contradictory. On the one hand he cites the features
of Bl from the examination of G.B. Singh made as recently as
in the midforties. On the other hand, he builds his argument
about the suggested loss of the cover only of which its present
custodians have even no clear recollection or inkling. It is
unthinkable that the real Banno Bir should have disappeared
after midforties, but neither the custodians of the Bir nor the
Sikh world should have been aware of it. The very fact that
the custodians of the Bir have tried to change the year of
production from 1699 to 1659, and the fact that Tatkara of
the Bir refers to the Nishan of the 6th Guru and not to that of
the fifth Guru, clearly, show that the Bir is without doubt the
original Banno Bir, but that the stories woven round the year
and the circumstances of its production are unreliable and are
obviously meant to camouflage its reality. It might be
questioned as to why the year of production of the Banno Bir
was changed to 1659 when no historian has ever asserted that
the 5th Guru completed the Adi-Granth in that year. The reason
for it is obvious. 1659 is the only year which with the least
effort at alteration could be changed from 1699 to 1659 as it is
a year close to the year of the production of the Adi-Granth
and the very minor alteration involved as such stood the least
chance of detection.
We have found that the both Mcleod and G.B. Singh
have suggestively used the Banno Bir as a lever to shake the
authenticity of the Kartarpuri Bir. So far as Mcleod is
concerned, he has tried to remain blissfully quiet or ignorant
about the factual position of the Banno Bir and has like G.B.
Singh blindly used the same as a weapon to attack the
authenticity of the Kartarpuri Bir, little realising that the weapon
he was wielding had only a phantom existence. But,