Abstract
The present paper analyses the Siddh Gosti, a composition of Guru Nanak to understand the interface of Guru Nanak’s philosophy with prevailing philosophical traditions of his time. The study views the composition as an effort on the part of the Guru to engage with and demolish the philosophical hegemony of an established belief system that held sway in Northwest India in order to make way for the establishment of his own philosophy. Guru Nanak does this by providing new interpretations of constructs which the Siddhs and Naths concerned themselves with. These new interpretations were more practicable, socially relevant and humane as compared to the ways of the Siddh and Nath Yogi traditions thus making Sikhism a more acceptable religion.
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Notes
The Puratan Janam Sakhi mentions Gorakh Hattari, a Nath centre in Peshawar, present-day Pakistan (Bhai Sahib Bhai Veer Singh, 1982), as the venue of debate, Miharban's Janam Sakhi concludes that this debate was held at ‘Achal Vatala’ and the Naths involved are Pawan Nath and Bhangar Nath (Singh, 1969). This view is echoed by Prof. Sahib Singh. Bhai Gurdas in his First Vaar has also mentioned the same place and occasion to be Shivratri but he only mentioned the name of Bhangar Nath. However here one finds a contradiction between the Janam Sakhis and the Siddh Gosti composed by Guru Nanak. While it is expected that Guru Nanak would encounter Naths at the Shivratri fair, in Siddh Gosti Guru Nanak is shown to be in conversation with two Siddhs namely Charpat and Lohirapa. Neither of the two find mention in the Janam Sakhis (Singh, 1990). Another discrepancy is that Charapat lived around the eleventh to twelfth century and Loharipa lived during the eighth century or the beginning of the ninth (Dowman, 1985) much before Guru Nanak’s time.
The text itself does not provide any clue as to the time and place of its composition, though it is generally placed in the last years of Guru Nanak’s life when he had finally settled down at Kartarpur (The Sikh Encyclopedia). Historian Kirpal Singh also comments that the Siddh Gosti does not belong to any particular place, but is the answer to the questions of the Siddhs of all places (Singh, 1990).
Abbreviations
- GGS:
-
Guru Granth Sahib. Amritsar: Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).
- GB:
-
Gorakh Bani. (1963). Barathwal, Pitamber (Edt). Patiala: Bhasa Vibhag Punjab.
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Acknowledgements
We are thankful to Kulbir Singh Thind, MD and Sant Singh Khalsa, MD for giving us permission to use Phonetic transliteration and translation of Guru Granth Sahib text. The anonymous reviewers for the journal and the editor-in-chief are to be thanked for their helpful comments towards revising the paper and with editing the same.
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Note: Guru Granth Sabhib (GGS) Amritsar: Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) is referred to as GGS and Gorakh Bani. (1963). Barathwal, Pitamber (Edt). Patiala: Bhasa Vibhag Punjab is (Transcription & Published) referred to as GB and Page number as p. The present work follows The Encyclopedia of Sikhism (https://www.thesikhencyclopedia.com), for spellings of transliterations of terms originally in Gurmukhi viz. “Gosti, Braham, Sunn, Jivan, Janam”.
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Singh, H., Kahlon, S. Guru Nanak’s Siddh Gosti: a Dialogue Between Established and Emerging Discourse. SOPHIA (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-021-00890-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-021-00890-0