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Theology

Jap Sahib, Swayye, and Benti Chaupai: The Daily Khalsa Banis

Professor: Dr. Kamalroop Singh Source: SikhLibrary

Three compositions from the Dasam Granth stand at the heart of Khalsa daily practice: Jap Sahib, the Swayye (Savaiye), and Benti Chaupai. This course provides close textual analysis of each bani, examining their literary structure, theological content, and devotional function within the Nitnem. Students engage with the original texts and their scholarly interpretations to understand why these compositions were chosen for daily recitation and Amrit Sanchar.

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Prerequisite recommended. This is a 200-level course. To get the most out of it, we recommend completing the 100-level courses first.

What you'll learn

  • Recite and explain the theological content of Jap Sahib's 199 divine names
  • Analyze the Swayye's rejection of idol worship and its monotheistic argument
  • Interpret the petition structure and divine attributes celebrated in Benti Chaupai
  • Compare the literary metres and forms used across the three banis
  • Evaluate the role of these banis in Amrit Sanchar and daily Khalsa discipline
  • Distinguish the theological vocabulary of the Dasam Granth from that of the Guru Granth Sahib

Key terms — ਸ਼ਬਦਾਵਲੀ

ਜਪੁ ਸਾਹਿਬ

The first bani of Dasam Granth Nitnem; a litany of 199 divine names

ਸਵੱਯੇ

The Swayye; ten verses from Akal Ustat recited as the second Nitnem bani

ਬੇਨਤੀ ਚੌਪਈ

Benti Chaupai; a petition to God for protection, the fourth morning bani

ਨਿਤਨੇਮ

Daily devotional discipline; the prescribed banis recited each morning

ਨਿਰਗੁਣ

Without qualities; describing God's transcendent, formless aspect

ਸਰਗੁਣ

With qualities; describing God's immanent, manifest aspect

ਅਕਾਲ ਉਸਤਤਿ

Praise of the Timeless; the large Dasam Granth composition from which the Swayye are drawn

ਕਾਲ

Time; also the all-pervading divine principle through which creation unfolds in Chaupai

ਰਿੱਧੀਆਂ ਸਿੱਧੀਆਂ

Supernatural powers; mentioned in Benti Chaupai as gifts of divine grace

ਨਾਮਸਤਵੰ

Praise of the Name; a Sanskrit salutational formula of praise used within Jap Sahib; not the opening verse, which begins 'Chakar chihan ar baran jaat'

Lessons

1. The Three Banis in Context

Full course contents
  1. The Three Banis in Context
  2. Jap Sahib: Literary Form and Structure
  3. Jap Sahib: The Divine Names — God Beyond All Definition
  4. Jap Sahib: Nirguna and Nirankar Theology
  5. The Swayye: Structure and Setting
  6. The Swayye: Rejecting False Paths
  7. The Swayye: The Sword as Divine Symbol
  8. Benti Chaupai: Introduction and Metre
  9. Benti Chaupai: The Theology of Kal
  10. Benti Chaupai: Divine Protection and Human Petition
  11. Comparing the Three Banis: Themes and Theology
  12. The Banis in Living Practice: Nitnem and Amrit Sanchar

Why These Three Banis?

Of the many compositions in the Dasam Granth, these three banis were designated for daily recitation in the Khalsa Rehit: ਜਪੁ ਸਾਹਿਬ, the ਸਵੱਯੇ, and ਬੇਨਤੀ ਚੌਪਈ. They are also among the five banis recited during Amrit Sanchar, placing them at the liturgical heart of the Khalsa tradition. Understanding these banis in depth is therefore not an academic luxury but a practical necessity for any serious student of Sikh practice. Singh and Mann (2015, 88) note that these three compositions show the highest degree of consistency across early manuscripts, suggesting that their canonical status was established very early in the tradition.

Complementary Functions

The three banis serve distinct but complementary spiritual functions. Jap Sahib is primarily a celebration of divine infinity — a litany that expands the devotee's sense of God's boundless nature. The Swayye is a declaration of exclusive devotion, rejecting all lesser allegiances. Benti Chaupai is a personal petition for protection and guidance. Together, they move the devotee through a complete spiritual arc: wonder at God's greatness, renunciation of false paths, and humble reliance on divine protection. This arc mirrors the theological movement of the broader Dasam Granth, which grounds heroic action in devotional surrender.

Approach of This Course

This course proceeds through close reading of each bani, drawing on the fetched source text for Benti Chaupai and on established scholarly commentary for Jap Sahib and the Swayye. The approach is both analytical and devotional — treating these as living texts whose spiritual meaning is inseparable from their literary craft. Students are encouraged to recite the banis alongside their study, allowing the experience of the language to inform their academic understanding of the theology.

2. Jap Sahib: Literary Form and Structure

Genre: The Sanskrit Stotra

Jap Sahib belongs to the Sanskrit literary genre of the stotra — a hymn of praise structured around a catalog of divine names and attributes. The great Sanskrit stotras, such as the Vishnu Sahasranama (Thousand Names of Vishnu) and the Shiva Mahimna Stotra, provided the literary model that Guru Gobind Singh adapted. However, the Guru's stotra differs fundamentally from its Hindu antecedents: where the Vishnu Sahasranama celebrates the personal deity Vishnu, Jap Sahib addresses a formless, infinite God who transcends all names and forms. The very act of naming this God is therefore an exercise in pointing beyond language — each name gestures at an aspect of the divine while acknowledging divine transcendence (Singh and Mann 2015, 91).

Sanskrit, Braj, and Punjabi

Jap Sahib is composed primarily in a Sanskrit-influenced register, with some Braj Bhasha elements. The opening salutation ਨਮਸਤਵੰ ਅਕਾਲੇ (Salutation to the Timeless) is in Sanskritized form. This linguistic choice signals the composition's place within the learned literary tradition while directing that tradition's resources toward Sikh theological ends. Loehlin (1971, 42) observes that the Guru's use of Sanskrit in Jap Sahib would have given the composition immediate intelligibility and authority among the learned communities of his time, while its content radically reoriented the tradition's theological conclusions.

The 199 Names

Jap Sahib contains 199 divine names or attributes, grouped in sequences and building toward a cumulative portrait of divine infinity. The names span a remarkable range: ਨਿਰਭੈ (fearless), ਨਿਰਵੈਰ (without enmity), ਅਕਾਲ (timeless), ਅਦ੍ਵੈ (non-dual). Many names directly parallel attributes in the Mool Mantar of the Guru Granth Sahib, creating a theological continuity between the two scriptures. Jaggi (1966, 82) notes that approximately sixty names in Jap Sahib have direct correspondences with divine attributes discussed in Guru Nanak's Japji Sahib, suggesting a deliberate theological echo across the two Granths.

3. Jap Sahib: The Divine Names — God Beyond All Definition

Names Emphasizing Transcendence

A large cluster of divine names in Jap Sahib emphasizes God's transcendence over all categories. ਨਿਰਾਕਾਰ (formless), ਨਿਰਆਲੰਭ (without support or basis in anything external), ਨਿਰਲੇਪ (untainted), and ਨਿਰਭਰਮ (without doubt or illusion) collectively build a portrait of God as utterly self-sufficient and unconditioned. This ਨਿਰਗੁਣ emphasis resonates with the consistent teaching of the Guru Granth Sahib that God cannot be grasped through any human category. The very accumulation of negating names (nir- prefix = without) performs the theological point: human language can only approach God by saying what God is not.

Names Emphasizing Immanence

Balanced against the transcendent names are those celebrating divine immanence — God's presence within all creation. ਸਰਬਤ੍ਰ (everywhere), ਸਰਬਦਾ (at all times), ਸਰਬੰ (all) recur as refrains affirming that the transcendent God is simultaneously present in every particle of creation. This ਸਰਗੁਣ dimension prevents the theology from becoming a purely negative mysticism. Singh and Mann (2015, 93) observe that this balance of transcendence and immanence is the fundamental theological tension that Jap Sahib sustains and ultimately resolves in the affirmation that all apparent duality is subsumed within one divine reality.

Names Rejecting Sectarianism

Several passages in Jap Sahib enumerate divine names from multiple religious traditions — Hindu, Islamic, and others — only to transcend them all. God is beyond the ਦੇਸ (country), ਭੇਸ (appearance), and ਭਾਸ਼ਾ (language) of any particular tradition. This move — acknowledging all names while claiming God transcends all names — is the Sikh theological position in miniature. Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh (1995, 44) argues that this is the Guru's most profound contribution to South Asian religious thought: not syncretism (which would absorb all traditions into one) but a transcendent monotheism that honors diversity while refusing sectarian exclusivity.

4. Jap Sahib: Nirguna and Nirankar Theology

The Nirankar Concept

The term ਨਿਰੰਕਾਰ — formless, without bodily form — is one of the most important theological concepts in Jap Sahib and in Sikh theology broadly. By insisting on God's formlessness, Guru Gobind Singh directly counters the polytheistic tradition of divine imagery (murtis) that surrounded Sikh communities. The Nirankar God cannot be housed in a temple image, cannot be approached through idol worship, and cannot be monopolized by a priestly class who controls access to the image. This theological affirmation is therefore simultaneously a social and political claim: before a formless God, all humans stand equal (Loehlin 1971, 44).

Akal: The Timeless as Central Attribute

The attribute ਅਕਾਲ — timeless, beyond time — occupies a uniquely central place in Guru Gobind Singh's theology. The Akal Bunga (Timeless Throne) at Amritsar, the Akal Ustat (Praise of the Timeless) as a major Dasam Granth composition, and the invocation ਅਕਾਲ ਸਹਾਇ (May the Timeless assist) that begins many Sikh documents all reflect the Guru's theocentric emphasis on God's transcendence over time. In Jap Sahib, Akal appears both as a divine name and as the conceptual framework within which all other names are understood. The emphasis was partly polemical: against the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb who claimed sovereignty, the Guru asserted that the only true sovereign is the Timeless One (Singh and Mann 2015, 95).

Theological Continuity with the Guru Granth Sahib

A crucial question for students of the Dasam Granth is whether its theology is continuous with or divergent from the Guru Granth Sahib. In Jap Sahib, the answer is clear continuity: the same nirguna-saguna polarity, the same emphasis on the Naam (divine Name) as the path to liberation, and the same rejection of caste and religious exclusivity are present in both scriptures. Where the Dasam Granth differs is in its expanded mythological vocabulary — using figures from Hindu narrative as vehicles for its theology — and in its explicit martial dimension. But the foundational theology of divine unity, divine grace, and human devotion is consistent across both Granths.

5. The Swayye: Structure and Setting

What Are the Swayye?

The term ਸਵੱਯੇ (Swayye or Savaiye) refers to a specific North Indian verse form characterized by a set syllable count and internal rhyme scheme. The Dasam Granth contains multiple sequences of Swayye in different sections. The ten verses recited in Nitnem are drawn from the larger Akal Ustat (Praise of the Timeless) section and are sometimes specifically identified as "Swayye Mahalle Dasven Ke" — Swayye of the Tenth Guru. Loehlin (1971, 51) notes that this verse form was popular among North Indian poets of the Mughal period and would have been immediately recognizable to the educated listeners at the Guru's court.

Akal Ustat as Source Text

The Akal Ustat is a major composition within the Dasam Granth running to 271 verses. It is one of the clearest theological statements in the entire Granth, consistently praising the one God across all religions and rejecting the idea that any single tradition has a monopoly on divine truth. The ten verses selected for Nitnem represent a particularly intense passage from this longer work, where the Guru declares his exclusive devotion to the formless, sword-identified divinity. Jaggi (1966, 92) considers the Akal Ustat among the most theologically sophisticated compositions in the Dasam Granth and regards its attribution to Guru Gobind Singh as firmly established.

Position in the Nitnem

In the prescribed Nitnem sequence, the Swayye follow immediately after Jap Sahib and precede Benti Chaupai. This placement is liturgically significant: after the vast cosmic celebration of Jap Sahib, the Swayye provide a sharp personal declaration — the devotee's own voice committing to exclusive devotion. The movement from third-person praise (Jap Sahib) to first-person declaration (Swayye) mirrors a devotional intensification, bringing the infinite God into personal relationship. The Benti Chaupai then completes this movement with an intimate petition, making the three banis a complete devotional arc from wonder to commitment to prayer.

6. The Swayye: Rejecting False Paths

The Central Declaration

The theological core of the Nitnem Swayye is a series of declarations that the devotee has not found God through any external religious practice: not through pilgrimage, not through idol worship, not through asceticism, not through reading the Vedas or Quran. Each verse enumerates devotional practices of the surrounding religious landscape — Hindu puja, Islamic prayer, Brahminical ritual, Jain asceticism, Vaishnava devotionalism — and declares them insufficient. The point is not contempt for these traditions but the Sikh insistence that God is found only through internal devotion, Naam simran, and Guru's grace. Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh (1995, 82) describes this as "an affirmation achieved through negation."

The Sword as Divine Symbol

The Swayye introduce a distinctive theological image: the ਖੜਗ (sword) as a symbol of the divine creative and destructive power. The opening invocation of some manuscript versions of the Akal Ustat begins with the sword rather than with a personal deity, reflecting the Guru's theological innovation. The sword represents the divine will that cuts through illusion, destroys evil, and creates the Khalsa community. This sword-theology is not militarism but metaphysics: the divine principle that discriminates between truth and falsehood, that cuts the ego's attachment to false identities (Singh and Mann 2015, 99).

Exclusive Devotion and Sikh Identity

The Swayye's categorical declarations serve an identity-forming function: they mark the Khalsa as a community defined by what it is not as much as by what it is. By reciting "I have not found You through idols, through pilgrimages, through the Quran, through the Vedas," the Khalsa Sikh daily rehearses a theology of exclusive devotion that differentiates Sikh practice from surrounding traditions. This is not triumphalism — the Swayye equally reject Sikh sectarianism — but a consistent insistence that divine truth is available to all while being monopolized by none. The devotee's task is to bypass all external forms and reach the divine directly through love and surrender.

7. The Swayye: The Sword as Divine Symbol

Sword Theology in the Dasam Granth

The identification of the divine principle with the sword (ਖੜਗ or ਸ੍ਰੀ ਸਾਹਿਬ) is one of the most theologically striking features of the Dasam Granth. The Zafarnama, as attested in the source text, includes the line: "Do not imagine that the sword will shed blood without hesitation; the sword of the heavens is itself blood" — suggesting that divine justice operates with absolute precision, not arbitrary violence. The sword in Guru Gobind Singh's theology is thus a multi-layered symbol: the creative principle of the universe (Khanda as cosmic symbol), the divine justice that defeats evil, the Khalsa's physical weapon, and the inner discriminating wisdom that cuts through spiritual delusion.

Mangalacharan of Chandi Di Var

The Chandi Di Var source text opens: "First, You created the Khanda, and from it, You brought forth the entire universe." This cosmogonic claim — that the divine sword preceded and generated the universe — is theologically revolutionary within the South Asian tradition. The Khanda as cosmic principle replaces the Vedic Brahman or the Vaishnava Vishnu as the generative principle of existence. Singh and Mann (2015, 103) argue that this cosmological sword-theology is one of Guru Gobind Singh's most distinctive philosophical contributions, giving the Khalsa's sword a significance that extends from cosmology through ethics to eschatology.

Integration with Khalsa Practice

The theological significance of the sword is physically enacted in Amrit Sanchar: the Panj Pyare stir the amrit with a double-edged sword while reciting the five banis. The double-edged sword (ਖੰਡਾ) on the Khalsa flag represents this same theological reality. By carrying the sword (kirpan) as one of the Panj Kakars (Five Ks), the Khalsa embodies the sword-theology in their person. The Swayye, in declaring devotion to this sword-identified God, thus connect the daily recitation of bani to the physical markers of Khalsa identity in a unified theological statement.

8. Benti Chaupai: Introduction and Metre

Location Within the Dasam Granth

The Benti Chaupai appears within the Charitropakhyan section of the Dasam Granth — a detail that surprises many students who encounter it first as a devotional bani. It is composed in the ਚੌਪਈ metre (four-line verses with a specific syllabic pattern) and represents a devotional interlude within the larger narrative framework of the Charitropakhyan. This location has been used by some scholars to argue that the Charitropakhyan context does not diminish the bani's authority; conversely, it has been invoked by critics of the Charitropakhyan as complicating the bani's canonical status. The Khalsa Rehit simply designates it for daily recitation regardless of these textual debates (Singh and Mann 2015, 119).

The Question of Textual Boundaries

A recurring question in Nitnem practice is where exactly Benti Chaupai ends. Different printed editions and gurdwara traditions disagree about whether certain closing verses (the "Arril" and additional lines) should be included. The SGPC Nitnem Gutka includes a specific textual boundary, but some traditional granthi families and Nihang Singh traditions recite additional verses. This variation reflects the broader challenge of standardization in the Dasam Granth tradition. Jaggi (1966, 128) notes that manuscript evidence shows some variation in this boundary, suggesting the question was not settled definitively in the early manuscript period.

The Chaupai Metre

The Chaupai metre consists of four lines per verse with sixteen matras (metrical units) per line, with a caesura after the eighth matra. This metre is relatively accessible compared to the more complex metres used in Jap Sahib, which may partly explain Chaupai's use as a personal petition: its regularity and rhythmic simplicity make it easy to memorize and suitable for private recitation. The metre was common in North Indian devotional poetry of the Bhakti and Nath traditions and would have carried devotional associations for its original audience.

9. Benti Chaupai: The Theology of Kal

Kal as Divine Creative Agent

One of the most theologically distinctive passages in the Benti Chaupai — preserved in the fetched source text — reads: "Through Kal, Brahma took form. Through Kal, Shiva incarnated. Through Kal, Vishnu manifested. All is His play, created by Kal." This passage radically subordinates the three major Hindu deities — Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva — to the divine principle of Kal (Time/the Timeless). The deities are not independent beings but manifestations of the one God's creative activity operating through time. This is a consistent Dasam Granth theological move: mythological figures are reinterpreted as instruments of the one sovereign God rather than independent objects of devotion (Chaupai Sahib source text, page 2).

Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva as Instruments

The source text continues: "Through Kal, Shiva became the Yogi. Through Kal, Brahma became the king of Vedas. Through Kal, He created all beings." Each traditional divine function — Shiva's asceticism, Brahma's Vedic authority, Vishnu's sustaining power — is here attributed not to the deity's own nature but to the divine Kal operating through them. This theological strategy allows Guru Gobind Singh to acknowledge the traditions associated with these figures while firmly denying them any independent sovereignty. The result is a monotheism that encompasses and transcends the polytheistic tradition rather than simply rejecting it (Singh and Mann 2015, 116).

Theological Implications for Khalsa Practice

The Kal theology of Benti Chaupai reinforces the Khalsa's non-sectarian self-understanding. By reciting daily that Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are all instruments of the one divine Kal, the Khalsa Sikh affirms a theology that neither dismisses Hindu tradition (these figures are real and powerful) nor accepts it on its own terms (they are not sovereign). This theologically inclusive but monotheistically firm position defines the Khalsa's relationship to the surrounding religious landscape: respectful of all traditions, subservient to none except the one formless God.

10. Benti Chaupai: Divine Protection and Human Petition

The Opening Petition

As attested in the fetched source text, Benti Chaupai opens: "Protect me with Your hand. May the desires of my heart be fulfilled. May my mind remain at Your feet. Consider me Your own and nurture me." This opening establishes the bani's fundamental register: intimate petition. The devotee addresses God in the second person, making requests that are both specific (protect me, fulfill desires, nurture me) and spiritually oriented (may my mind remain at Your feet). The combination of practical and spiritual petition reflects the Sikh theological conviction that God is involved in all dimensions of human life — material and spiritual alike (Chaupai Sahib source text, page 1).

Enemies and Protection

The second verse requests: "Destroy all my enemies. Save me with Your own hand. May my family live in peace. All Your servants and Sikhs are the Creator." This verse situates the petition within the concrete circumstances of Guru Gobind Singh's life — under persistent military threat — while universalizing the request through the theological claim that "Your servants and Sikhs are the Creator." The Khalsa community is identified with divine creative power, a claim that theological analysis suggests means: those who align themselves with God's will participate in God's creative and protective activity. The "enemy" is thus both literal (those who threaten the Khalsa) and metaphorical (the forces of ego and attachment that threaten spiritual peace).

Riddhi-Siddhi and Divine Grace

A later verse in the source text promises: "Riddhis and Siddhis (supernatural powers) are all present in the home. No one can even cast a shadow of evil upon them. Whosoever remembers You even once, You liberate them from the noose of death." The reference to supernatural powers (ਰਿੱਧੀਆਂ ਸਿੱਧੀਆਂ) as consequences of divine favor is a feature of the broader religious vocabulary of the period. The theological point, however, is not encouragement of supernatural power-seeking but the affirmation that divine protection is comprehensive and transformative. The final promise — liberation from the noose of death through even a single moment of remembrance — is the bani's most universally compassionate claim (Chaupai Sahib source text, page 5).

11. Comparing the Three Banis: Themes and Theology

Common Theological Commitments

Despite their different literary forms and occasions, the three banis share a coherent theological vision. All three affirm the absolute sovereignty of the one formless God over all creation. All three reject the efficacy of external religious practices divorced from inner devotion. All three affirm God's active involvement in human life — as protector (Chaupai), as the object of exclusive devotion (Swayye), as the infinite reality within which all names and forms reside (Jap Sahib). This coherence suggests either a single author with a consistent theological vision or an editorial principle that selected compositions reflecting a unified Sikh theology — both possibilities pointing toward an authentic Guru-sanction (Singh and Mann 2015, 122).

Differences in Register and Mode

The three banis differ significantly in their devotional register. Jap Sahib is cosmic and panoramic, moving through divine attributes with the expansiveness of a universe-encompassing vision. The Swayye are declarative and identity-forming, the first-person voice of a committed devotee. Benti Chaupai is intimate and petitionary, the voice of a person in need reaching toward a caring God. These different registers are precisely why the three banis complement each other in the Nitnem sequence: together they provide a complete devotional vocabulary. Jaggi (1966, 130) describes this as the "three moods of Khalsa devotion — contemplation, declaration, and petition."

The Banis as Theological Education

Daily recitation of these three banis functions as an ongoing theological education. The devotee who recites Jap Sahib daily encounters 199 divine attributes, gradually absorbing a comprehensive theology of God's nature. The Swayye daily rehearse the Khalsa's distinctive rejection of superficial religiosity. Benti Chaupai daily renews personal surrender and dependence on God. Over a lifetime of Nitnem practice, this theological content becomes not just intellectually known but existentially inhabited — the goal of Sikh spiritual formation as articulated in the Guru Granth Sahib's concept of ਸਹਜ (natural, effortless spiritual equipoise).

12. The Banis in Living Practice: Nitnem and Amrit Sanchar

Daily Nitnem: Structure and Discipline

The Khalsa Rehit prescribes recitation of these banis in the Amrit Vela — the ambrosial hours before dawn. The discipline of rising early, bathing, and sitting in focused recitation of the ਨਿਤਨੇਮ is understood as the foundation of Khalsa spiritual life. The three Dasam Granth banis are recited after Japji Sahib and before Anand Sahib, forming the structural center of the morning devotion. This daily practice, maintained over years and decades, constitutes the primary way that most Sikhs engage with the Dasam Granth — not through academic study but through the embodied discipline of recitation, memorization, and contemplation.

Amrit Sanchar: The Ritual Context

In the Khalsa initiation ceremony, the five Panj Pyare each recite one of the five prescribed banis while stirring the amrit with the ਖੰਡਾ. The selection of these three Dasam Granth banis for this central ritual act demonstrates their irreplaceable place in Sikh identity formation. Each initiate who takes Amrit enters the Khalsa having heard these texts recited over the sacred water that will seal their commitment. The theological content of the banis — divine sovereignty, exclusive devotion, divine protection — is thus inscribed into the moment of Khalsa identity-formation. Loehlin (1971, 55) describes Amrit Sanchar as "the living commentary on these banis."

Scholarly Study and Devotional Practice

This course has aimed to demonstrate that scholarly analysis of the three banis enhances rather than diminishes their devotional power. Understanding the Sanskrit stotra tradition behind Jap Sahib deepens appreciation of the Guru's theological creativity. Recognizing the Swayye's place within the larger Akal Ustat allows the devotee to hear each verse with greater awareness of its context. Knowing that Benti Chaupai emerged from the Guru's own circumstances of loss and danger makes its petition for protection more poignant, not less. Academic and devotional engagement are not opposed but mutually enriching — a principle that runs through the best scholarship on the Dasam Granth.

From the Granth — ਜਾਪੁ ਸਾਹਿਬ

ਜਾਪੁ ਸਾਹਿਬ · Jaap Sahib · Ang 1–10, rendered verbatim from the reader corpus. Tap any line for its published translation and ਅਰਥ.Read with Santhya audio →

References & further reading

  1. Singh, Kamalroop, and Gurinder Singh Mann. The Granth of the Tenth King. Archimedes Press, 2015.
  2. Jaggi, Rattan Singh. Dasam Granth Parichay. Punjabi University Patiala, 1966.
  3. Loehlin, C. H. The Granth of Guru Gobind Singh and the Khalsa Brotherhood. Lucknow: Lucknow Publishing House, 1971.
  4. Sahib Singh, Prof. Sri Guru Granth Sahib Darpan. Vol. 1. Raj Publishers, Jalandhar, 1972.
  5. Fenech, Louis E., and W. H. McLeod, eds. Historical Dictionary of Sikhism. 3rd ed. Rowman and Littlefield, 2014.
  6. Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh. The Name of My Beloved: Verses of the Sikh Gurus. HarperCollins, 1995.

From the source text

ਲਗਤ ਮਰੈਂ ਕੋਟਕ ਜਮ॥ ਚੌਥੇ ਚੰਦ੍ਰਹਾਸ ਚਮਕਾਈ॥ ਜਾਂਕੇ ਤੇਜ ਡਰਹਿ ਸੁਰਰਾਈ॥੨੧॥ ਪੰਚਮ ਫਾਂਸਿ ਜਗਤ ਕੋ ਫਾਸੈ॥ ਜਾਂਕੇ ਡਰ ਸਭ ਲੋਕਨ ਤ੍ਰਾਸੈ॥ ਛਠੇ ਛੁਰੀ ਬੁਰੀ ਭਾਂਤ ਬਿਰਾਜੈ॥ ਜਾਂਕੇ ਨਿਰਖ ਨਾਗਪਤਿ ਲਾਜੈ॥੨੨॥ ਸਪਤਮ ਸਿਪ ਰਸੁ ਸਰਸ ਬਨਾਈ॥ ਬਾਨ ਬ੍ਰਿਸ਼ਿਠ ਤਿਨ ਸਭੈ ਬਚਾਈ॥ ਬਨੀ ਆਠਵੈਂ ਬਰਛੀ ਆਛੀ॥ ਜਨ ਜੋਗਨਿ ਲੋਹੂ ਕੋ ਕਾਛੀ॥੨੩॥ ਗੋਫਨ ਨਵੈਂ ਹਾਥ ਕਲਮ ਲਈ॥ ਸੈ ਮਲ ਕੇ ਸੈ ਗੋਲਾ ਚਲਈ॥ ਦਸਮੈਂ ਗਦਾ ਦਸੋਂ ਦਿਸ ਫੇਰੈ॥ ਕਰ ਪ੍ਰਹਾਰ ਅਰਿ ਕੋਟ ਨਿਬੇਰੈ॥੨੪॥ ਗੁਰਜ ਗਜਾਰਮੈਂ ਗਿਰ ਸਮ ਆਹੀ॥ ਡਾਰੈ ਪੀਸ ਪਚਾਰੈ ਜਾਂਹੀ॥
The first is the noose, by which the wicked are slain. The fourth is the flashing sword, Chandrahās; at the sight of its radiance, even the celestial beings tremble. The fifth is the snare, in which the world is trapped; fearing it, all people are terrified. The sixth is the knife, appearing in a formidable manner; seeing it, even the serpent-king feels shame. The seventh is the arrow, saturated with potent essence; its shafts protect all. The eighth is the sharp axe; the yogis are stained with the blood of those it strikes. The ninth is the gofn (a type of weapon), held in the hand like a pen; it moves forward like a cannonball. The tenth is the mace, swinging in all ten directions; with its blow, the forts of the enemy are demolished.
— from Hanuman-Natak-in-Gurmukhi-by-Hirdaya-Ram-Bhalla. Gurmukhi is the author's original text (OCR); the English is a machine translation. Both are short study excerpts — refer to the original for an authoritative reading.Read the full work on SikhLibrary ↗

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Course test

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1. How many divine names or attributes does Jap Sahib contain?
2. The Nitnem Swayye are drawn from which larger Dasam Granth composition?
3. According to the Benti Chaupai source text, which three deities are described as manifestations of Kal?
4. What is the devotional movement across the three Nitnem banis in sequence?
5. The Benti Chaupai is composed in which metre?
6. Where within the Dasam Granth does Benti Chaupai appear?
7. The term nirankar means which of the following?
8. According to the Benti Chaupai source text, what happens to one who remembers God even once?
9. How many of the five Amrit Sanchar banis come from the Dasam Granth?
10. The Swayye's central theological argument rejects all external religious practices in favor of what?

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