Reading the Dasam Granth: The Textual Scholarship of Dr. Kamalroop Singh

Welcome to this course on the academic study of the Dasam Granth (ਦਸਮ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ). The phrase means "the tenth book" and refers to a body of compositions traditionally associated with the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh.

The Dasam Granth is distinct from the Guru Granth Sahib (ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ), which holds the central place of the eternal Guru in Sikh worship. The Dasam Granth is a separate collection. Some of its short compositions, such as Jaap Sahib (ਜਾਪੁ ਸਾਹਿਬ), are part of daily Sikh devotional practice and the Amrit ceremony, while other longer sections are mainly read and studied by scholars.

This course follows the scholarship of Dr. Kamalroop Singh, a contemporary researcher whose published academic work focuses on the writings attributed to Guru Gobind Singh and on Sikh manuscripts (Mann and Singh 2015). Throughout, we treat the text respectfully and present debated questions neutrally.

Dr. Kamalroop Singh is a contemporary scholar of Sikh studies whose academic work centers on the writings attributed to Guru Gobind Singh and on the study of Sikh scriptural manuscripts. His best-known academic publication is the volume he co-authored with Gurinder Singh Mann, The Granth of Guru Gobind Singh: Essays, Lectures, and Translations, published by Oxford University Press (Mann and Singh 2015).

That book combines several kinds of scholarly material: essays that situate the text historically, lectures that explain its contents, and translations that make selected compositions accessible to readers. This mix reflects a careful method that moves from primary sources outward to interpretation, rather than starting from conclusions.

His approach belongs to the broader field mapped in The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies (Singh and Fenech 2014), which surveys how scholars study Sikh scripture, history, and practice. A central principle of this scholarship is that claims about a text should be grounded in the manuscripts themselves.

Note on accuracy. This course does not invent biographical details. Where the literature is silent, we say so, and we focus on the published works that can be cited directly.

A core part of Dr. Singh's field is the study of manuscripts, called ਬੀੜ (birh) in Punjabi. Before printing, scribes copied scripture by hand, and different copies could vary in their contents and arrangement. A particular arrangement preserved in a manuscript tradition is called a recension.

Scholars use philology — the careful study of language, script, and textual variation — to compare manuscripts, estimate their dates, and trace how a collection took shape over time. This kind of comparison is the foundation of the essays and translations in Mann and Singh (2015), and it is also surveyed in McLeod's collection of textual sources (McLeod 1990).

The goal of these methods is descriptive: to understand the text as it has actually been transmitted, while leaving questions of devotion to the community.

The Dasam Granth contains several distinct compositions. Among the most widely known are Jaap Sahib (ਜਾਪੁ ਸਾਹਿਬ), a devotional praise of the qualities of the Divine; Akal Ustat (ਅਕਾਲ ਉਸਤਤਿ), praise of the Timeless One; and Bachittar Natak (ਬਚਿਤ੍ਰ ਨਾਟਕ), a narrative often read as containing autobiographical material (Mann and Singh 2015).

The collection also includes longer narrative and poetic sections that scholars analyze for their language, sources, and literary form. Rinehart's study describes the range of these contents and the questions they raise for readers (Rinehart 2011). Out of respect for the tradition, this course summarizes themes rather than reproducing or paraphrasing verses, and it does not cite specific page or Ang numbers.

One of the most discussed topics in this field is the question of authorship and arrangement. The Dasam Granth has been the subject of long debate among scholars and within the Sikh community, and this lesson presents the main positions neutrally without endorsing any of them.

Robin Rinehart's Debating the Dasam Granth lays out the principal views and their reasoning (Rinehart 2011). In broad terms, discussions concern which compositions are attributed to Guru Gobind Singh, how the collection was assembled, and how different manuscript recensions arrange the material. Scholars draw on the manuscript evidence discussed in earlier lessons to argue their positions.

The work of Mann and Singh (2015) contributes to this conversation by presenting essays and translations grounded in source material. The general scholarly context is summarized in Mandair's guide (Mandair 2013). The aim of this course is to help students understand the debate, not to resolve it.

This final lesson focuses on how to use this scholarship responsibly. First, citation: academic work should be cited so that readers can check the sources. For example, an in-text reference to the co-authored volume appears as (Mann and Singh 2015), with a full entry in the reference list following Chicago style.

Second, ethics: the Dasam Granth is a sacred text for many Sikhs, and questions about it can be sensitive. Good scholarship describes the manuscript evidence, presents debates neutrally, and avoids overstating what the sources show. It also avoids inventing details, quotations, or page references that are not in the sources.

Review. Across this course we have learned what the Dasam Granth is (ਦਸਮ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ), how scholars study its manuscripts and recensions, what its major compositions address, and why authorship and arrangement are debated. We have also placed Dr. Kamalroop Singh's published work within the wider field surveyed in the Oxford Handbook (Singh and Fenech 2014).