Deol, Jeevan

English

SOAS Research Online

Text and Lineage in Early Sikh History: Issues in the Study of the Adi Granth

This paper is concerned 
with the textual study of the Sikh scripture, the Adi Granth. 
Beginning with a survey of previous approaches to the text of 
the Adi Granth, it argues that the traditional framework that 
has previously governed such studies is unable to deal with 
the complexity of the extant manuscript traditions of the bānī 
(the corpus of compositions in the Granth). In the earliest 
period, a number of concurrent oral repertoires of the bānī 
were in existence; over time, the written Adi Granth evolved 
into a number of relatively standardized recensions. Future 
textual studies on the Adi Granth must also begin to take into 
account the ways in which the text was received and read in 
the pre-modern period. Finally, the field must take cognizance 
of the contexts within which texts were produced and read, particularly 
those arising from merchant literacy.</jats:p

JEEVAN SINGH DEOL

Crossref

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies