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COMPILATION OF SRI GURU GRANTH SAHIB21compositions. Guru Amar Das passed on his collection <strong>of</strong> compositionsincluding his own to Guru Ram Das. It was this collection that cameinto possession <strong>of</strong> Guru Arjun Dev. Pr<strong>of</strong> Sahib Singh has conclusivelyproved that the compositions <strong>of</strong> first five Gurus traveled from one tothe other as a normal course. This reading is justified by him firstly byidentity <strong>of</strong> language used by various Gurus – Ist to 3rd and thereafterby 4th and 5th Gurus. This showed that they were in possession <strong>of</strong>compositions <strong>of</strong> their predecessors. 9Secondly, there are supplementary or corrective hymns especiallyby third and fifth Gurus along with Bhaktas’ compositions. This againshowed that they were in possession <strong>of</strong> the collected bani, hymns. Atplaces, <strong>Sikh</strong> Gurus especially endorsed Bhakta’s bani or adopted thesame. This was the case with Guru Arjun adopting Kabir’s hymn nahum hindu na musalman. We are Neither Hindus nor Muslims... but anindependent entity.The uniformity <strong>of</strong> theme runs down to the tenth Guru, and isindicative <strong>of</strong> the uniformity <strong>of</strong> mission <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Sikh</strong> movement.The stories <strong>of</strong> Guru Arjun Dev’s seeking to acquire Ahyapur WaliPothis from Guru Amar Das’ son, Baba Mohan who representeddiscordant, rival, faction, and nursed a grudge against his father forignoring him, are cock and bull accounts, and wide <strong>of</strong> the mark.IVThe Pothi Sahib as composed in 1604 had compositions <strong>of</strong> thefirst five Gurus, 15 Bhaktas <strong>of</strong> all denominations, both Muslim andHindu, ranging from Brahmins to so-called low castes – 11 Bhattswho were all practising Brahmins and sang <strong>of</strong> sublimity <strong>of</strong> the firstfive Gurus in their own light comparing them to the best <strong>of</strong> Hindupantheons, apart from four others - Bhai Mardana, Sunder, Satta andBalwand. Guru Arjun Dev was a strict connoisseur <strong>of</strong> variouscontributions on the basis <strong>of</strong> ideology and rejected a lot <strong>of</strong>compositions, like those <strong>of</strong> Chhajju, Pilu, Kahna, Shah Hussain, MiraBai. He also rejected some others collected with a considerable effortand cost from Sri Lanka, but attributed to Guru Nanak; he regardedthese as spurious ones. Guru Arjun Dev was the best judge <strong>of</strong> thematerial placed before him, and once he rejected it as non-acceptable,it would be stupid for a practising <strong>Sikh</strong> to contend otherwise. However,
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