Artifact
Anandpur manuscript
also Anandpur Birh, Anandpuri Bir, Anandpur Hazuri Bir
An undated manuscript from the Anandpur period, described by Mann as the earliest surviving source for what became the Dasam Granth.[Mann][Mann][Web][EoS]
- Date
- 1690s (undated); 1696 in some accounts
- Held by
- A private collection, not named
- Location
- Not stated
- Provenance
- Attributed
- Status: Private collection
- Gurinder Singh Mann (2008) captions photographs of it as 'Private Collection' without naming who holds it. It first came to notice in Amritsar in the 1890s. A modern reference guide says Panjab Digital Library digitised it from a Sodhi family collection. That site could not be reached, so this is unconfirmed.
Mann calls it the earliest extant source of the writings of the period of Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji and says it records scribes' names in its margins. He publishes pages of the Jap, Saviyye, Chaupai, Shabad Hazare and Zafarnama from it.
Its folios of the Zafarnama are unnumbered, and one dated hukamnama is pasted into the volume. Two paintings of Guru Ji are pasted on the opening folios, one enthroned and one hunting.
What is disputed
- Date
Mann calls it undated but compiled in the 1690s. Wikipedia gives 1696.[Mann][Web]
- Court product or later?
Mann and Kamalroop Singh treat it as made at the Anandpur court. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism instead says Bhai Mani Singh compiled the Dasam Granth about two decades after Guru Ji passed away. Authorship of parts of the Dasam Granth remains contested.[Mann][EoS][Web]
- The pasted portraits
Mann reads them as work of artists at Anandpur. No portrait from a Guru's lifetime is established, so they are not presented here as a likeness.[Mann]
See it online
The opening of the Jap in the Anandpur manuscript. Commons gives 1695-1696 or 1698, while Mann says it is undated but from the 1690s.
Unknown scribes (Commons credits Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji), 1690s, undated. Private collection (per Mann, 2008). Public domain. Source
One of two paintings pasted into the Anandpur manuscript, showing Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji enthroned with an attendant, dated to the 1690s or early 1700s. Mann thinks artists at Anandpur made it. That it is a true likeness is not established.
Unknown painter, 1690s or early 1700s, disputed. Private collection (per Mann, 2008). Public domain. Source
_of_the_Dasam_Granth.jpg)
