Jeavini of Bhai Vir Singh Ji - Panth Rattan

Khalsa Diwan, Sikh EducationalSociety (1908) and the Punjab andSind Bank (1908). Interest incorporate activity directed towardscommunity development remainedBhai Vir Singh's constant concern,simultaneously with his creativeand scholarly pursuits. In thisengagement and, at the same time,in his eschewal of political activity,the Christian missionary examplewas apparently his model.In determining the basicparameters of the modern phase ofSikhism, Bhai Vir Singh stressedthe autonomy of Sikh faithnourished and sustained by anawakening amongst the Sikhs ofthe awareness of their distincttheological and cultural identity.Secondly, he aimed at reorientingthe Sikhs' understanding of theirfaith in such a manner as to helpthem assimilate the differentmodernizing influences to theirhistorical memory and culturalheritage. Education of the masseswas the first requirement for thefulfilment of these objectives. In themeanwhile, the old educationalsystem which had till then servedas a channel for communication ofthe traditional knowledge to theyouth of the race had broken downwith the withdrawal, under Britishdispensation, of state patronagefrom the indigenous institutions, Asif to fill the vacuum as well as tobuild new channels of intracommunitycommunication, BhaiVir Singh through his singlemindedcultivation of Punjabilanguage as the medium of histheological, scholarly and creativework, resolved the cultural dilemmawhich the Sikhs faced at the turn ofthe century. On the one hand wasthe Sikh literary tradition in Brajlanguage which had collectedunmatched riches in multipledirections during the course of itsthree-centuries-long elitist career,on the other were the compulsionsfor mobilizing the common Sikhsthrough their own language. Bydrawing upon the Sikh tradition ofBraj literature for his basicinspiration and cultural motivationand upon the Punjabi literarytradition for its linguisticcomponents Bhai Vir Singhinitiated a new literary idiomdistinctly different from both. Thetracts produced by the KhalsaTract Society introduced a down toearth literary Punjabi remarkablefor lightness of touch as well as forfreshness of expression. In thiswriting lay the beginnings ofmodern Punjabi prose.The Khalsa Tract Societyperiodically made available underthe title Nirguniara lowcostpublications on Sikh theology,history and philosophy and onsocial and religious reforrn.Through this journal Bhai Vir Singhestablished a living contact with aneverexpanding circle of readers.He used the Nirguniara as avehicle for his own self expressionand some of his major creativeworks such as the epic Rana Surat

Singh, the novel Baba NaudhSingh, and the lives of the GurusSri Guru Nanak Chamatkar and SriGuru Kalgidhar Chamatkar wereoriginally serialized in its columns.In literature, Bhai Vir Singh startedas a writer of romances whichproved to be the forerunners of thePunjabi novel. His writings in thisgenre- Sundari (1898), Bijay Singh(1899), Satvant Kaur (published intwo parts, I in 1900 and II in 1927)-were aimed at recreating the heroicperiod (eighteenth century) of Sikhhistory. Through these novels hemade available to his readerstypical models of courage, fortitudeand human dignity.Subhagji da Sudhar Hathin BabaNaudh Singh, popularly known asBaba Naudh Singh (serialized inNirguniara from 1907 onwards andpublished in book form in 1921)shares with Rana Surat Singh (which he had started serializingtwo years earlier), Bhai Vir Singh'sfascination with the theme ofwidow's desperate urge for a reunionwith her dead husband. Butin Baba Naudh Singh this search issituated in a more mundanesetting. This makes all thedifference. The narrative here ismore realistic in tone, and almostcontemporary in its appeal. BhaiVir Singh weaves into the narrativenumerous motifs of social reformsmoral teaching and religiouspreaching and depicts severalsituations of intercommunal andurban-rural confrontation. In 1905,Bhai Vir Singh started serializingthrough tracts Rana Surat Singh,the first Punjabi epic, written inblank verse of Sirkhand, variety.This long narrative of over 14,000lines is a striking imaginativeevocation of the situation of theSikhs through a symbolic tale of awidowed queen in quest of her lostparadise. The spiritual voyage ofRani Raj Kaur, the mainprotagonist of the poem, fromexternal factuality to internalessence has been described byBhai Vir Singh in the form of afantasy of spiritual ascension.Apart from living out her earthlydestiny of suffering and pain, shesymbolized the total ethos of theSikh people at that historicalmoment when they were emergingout of their sense of defeat anddespair into an era of a freshbeginning.Bhai Vir Singh's quest for newforms of expression continued.Soon after the pubtication of RanaSurat Singh in book form in 1919,he turned to shorter poems andLyrics. In quick succession cameDil Tarang (1920), Earel Tupke (1921), Lahiran de Har (1921),Matak Hulare (1922), and Bijlian deHar (1927). Following at somedistance was Mere Salan Jio(1953). In this poetry, Bhai VirSingh's concerns were moreaesthetic than didactic,metaphysical or mystical. Herefined the old verse forms andcreated new ones. The metrical

patterns Kabir, Soratha, Baint, etc.,which he inherited from classicalPunjabi literature, weretransformed into lights nimblemeasures. Bhai Vir Singh alsonaturalized in Punjabi the Rubaiwhich he borrowed from Urdu. Bygrafting Soratha and Sirkhandvforms on English blank verse, hepaved the way for the emergenceof Punjabi poem. As it happened,the first play written in Punjabi,Raja Lakhdata Singh (1910)* alsocame from the pen of Bhai VirSingh. Tentative in form, the 1. playdid reveal the author's powers ofconstructing crisp and wittydialoguesb Change-over from BrajBhasa to Punjabi 2. as the mainmedium of Sikh literary and 3.scholarly expression created theneed for new materials such asglossaries,lexicons,encyclopaedias and exegeticalworks. Bhai Vir Singh himselfprovided several of the tools. Herevised and enlarged Giani HazaraSingh's dictionary, Sri Guru GranthKosh, originally published in 1898.The revised version, published in1927, gave evidence of Bhai VirSingh's command of the science ofetymology and of the classical andmodern languages. He publishedcritical editions of some of the oldSikh texts such as Sikhan diBhagat Mala (1912), Prachin PanthPrakash (1914), Puratan JanamSakhi (1926) and Sakhi Pothi(1950).Monumental in size andscholarship was his annotation ofBhai Santokh Singh's magnumopus, Sn Gur Pratap Suraj Granth,published from 1927 to 1935 infourteen volumes covering 6668pages.No sooner was the Sri Gur PratapSuraj Grallth completed than BhaiVir Singh launched on an evenmore arduous task. This was adetailed commentary on the GuruGranth Sahib. In a way, exegesishad been his lifelong occupation.Early in his career he hadannotated selections from the HolyBook published in 1906 under thetitle Panj Granth Saiik, and, as hehimself declared, all of his writingwas an exposition of the SikhScripture. He devoted himselfunsparingly to the commentary, butit remained unfinished. A lifetime ofunrelieved hard work and theweight of advancing years at lastbegan to tell. In early 1957 signs offatigue and weakness appeared.He was taken ill with a fever anddied in his home in Amritsar on 10June 1957. The portion of thecommentary- nearly one half of theHoly Book- he had completed waspublished posthumously in sevenlarge volumes.Article taken from:Encyclopedia of Sikhism editedby Harbans Singh ji.Bhai Vir Singh: Life, Times andWorks. by Gurbachan SinghTalib, and Attar Singh, ed.,Chandigarh,1973 Bhai Vir SinghHarbans Singh, Delhi, 1972Bhai Vir Singh: Poet of theSikhs. Harbans Singh andGurbachan Singh Talib