Artifact
Damdama recension of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji
also Damdama Bir, Damdami Bir, Damdama Vali Bir
The version of the scripture that added the hymns of Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, said to have been prepared at Damdama Sahib under Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji.[EoS][EoS][Mann]
- Date
- c. 1706, as dated by tradition
- Held by
- Not known. No volume is securely identified as the original
- Location
- Prepared at Talwandi Sabo (Damdama Sahib), by tradition
- Provenance
- By tradition
- Status: Whereabouts unknown
- The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism (published 1992-98) records the preparation but names no surviving original. Later copies exist, including one at Damdama. Stories that the original was lost in 1762, and a Kuthala gurdwara's claim to hold a master copy, appear only in forum posts and search summaries, so they are not repeated here as fact.
The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji asked Bhai Mani Singh to write a new copy during a stay there of some nine months in 1706, and that the spot is still shown to pilgrims.
Mann (2008) also dates the canonising of the text to 1705 at Damdama. Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji as used today descends from this form.
For an old copy kept at Damdama, see the entry on the manuscript attributed to Baba Deep Singh.
What is disputed
- Fate of the original
No scholarly account of what happened to it was found. The loss story has not been confirmed against print sources.
Bhai Mani Singh writing a manuscript, a detail from a painting which Commons places at Takht Damdama Sahib. An artist's imagining, with an uncertain date.
Unknown, 18th or 19th century, uncertain. Takht Damdama Sahib (as stated on Commons). Public domain. Source
