Issue 53 Vol III, December 15, 2007

F E A T U R E S

Re-asserting the Tradition: Santokh Singh's SurajPrakash-1
Gurtej Singh

BHAI Santokh Singh lived from 1788 to 1843, a period which saw the rise of Sikhs to political eminence in the Punjab. He was connected with some of the old Sikh families which played a prominent role in the politics of the times. He spent many years in the company of and at the court of Bhai Udai Singh and Bhai Lai Singh, the chiefs of Kaithal, who were descendants of Bhai Bhagtu, a Sikh of the fifth Guru. Dial Singh and his son Gurbakhsh Singh, who later founded the "Kaithal state, had been in attendance at the court of Guru Gobind Singh.

The rulers of Kaithal, known as Bhais, were traditionally entrusted with the duty of administering amrit to the descendants of the Rajas of Patiala, Nabha and Jind. Santokh Singh had access to all the information that was required to codify the amrit administration ceremony and the code of conduct connected therewith. His mentor Giani Sant Singh had written a treatise on the concept and tradition of the administration of amrit.

Bhai Santokh Singh was an initiated Khalsa, and his father Deva Singh was also a duly initiated Khalsa. He sometimes presided over the amrit administration ceremony.1 As a Khalsa, he took his code of conduct, comprising the initiation vows, seriously. While at Buria he married Ram Kaur of Jagadhari in defiance of the caste notions concerning marriage. She belonged to a subcaste which, traditionally, would not have allowed her to be married into the subcaste of Bhai Santokh Singh. According to Bhai Vir Singh, the last remains of Bhai Santokh Singh and his wife were not sent to 'Hardwar, in contradiction to the widely prevalent Hindu custom. At Kaithal, Bhai Santokh Singh took strong exception to the conversion of a minor Sikh boy to Hinduism by a powerful sadhu against the wishes of the boy's parents. He threatened migration to get the boy restored to his parents, and to his faith. His account of the amrit ceremony, the code of conduct and the connected vows were no empty rhetoric. He appears to have lived by them.

Bhai Santokh Singh wrote an exegesis of the Japuji, under the title of Garabganjani, on the request of Bhai Lai Singh. This work reveals his religious views and his strong commitment to them. The main purpose of this work was to refute the preposterous assumptions of Anandghan who had written an exegesis of the Japuji in 1795, and had imposed a long list of six Hindu gurus on Guru Nanak. On account of such an approach, contemporary Sikh scholars had unanimously rejected Anandghan's work as highly distasteful. The Garabganjani was completed in 1829.

Bhai Santokh Singh had the great advantage of knowing and meeting some of the people who were familiar with the events and personalities of the most notable period of Sikh history. There were hundreds who could relate what eyewitnesses had told them about events and persons. Vivid memories of the times of Guru Gobind Singh and Banda Bahadur were available.2 His intellectual lineage is equally impressive. His mentor, the warrior saint Giani Sant Singh, was the son of Bhai Surat Singh who was taught by Gurbakhsh Singh whose mentor was Bhai Mani Singh.3 Along with his five sons, Bhai Mani Singh was among the first twenty-two Sikhs who received amrit at the first ceremony presided over by the Tenth Guru. As noted earlier, Giani Sant Singh had produced a treatise on amrit,A which makes Santokh Singh's views on the Khalsa and the administration of amrit peculiarly important.

Santokh Singh was a linguist,5 a scholar, a theologian, a poet and a good prose writer—an awesome combination for any age. He was well versed in Indian and Semitic religious traditions. He had access to all the known works and had the means, because of political patronage, to obtain information. He appears to have opportunity that came his way. The sheer volume of his writings would place him amongst the most formidable scholars of any period.

Very little is known about the early life of Bhai Santokh Singh. Bhai Vir Singh has traced his birth to the year 1788. He was born at Nur-di-Saran, a historic village near Tarn Taran. Bhai Bota Singh, the well known martyr, also belonged to this village, The name of Bhai Santokh Singh's mother is known.6 He received his education at Amritsar under Giani Sant Singh.7 The next piece of information on him relates to his sojourn in a small Sikh state at Buria where he lived from 1813 to 1823, and was largely engaged in writing. His first book Namkosh, alternately titled Amarkosh, is a Hindi translation of Amar Sinha's Amarkosh, the oldest and the most celebrated vocabulary of the Sanskrit language. The finishing touches to this work, according to the prevalent custom, were formally given at Amritsar in 1821. Bhai Santokh Singh was already collecting material for his Sri Guru Nanak Prakash which, too, was completed at Buria on 15 October 1823. He appears to have started the tradition of reciting and expounding it in the afternoon gatherings at the Buria Gurdwara. This mode of transmission of information remained prominently in vogue for a century, and continues to be practised at places. For a whole century, his works remained the most influential compositions for the practising Sikhs, seekers, scholars, lay persons as well as writers on the Sikhs and Sikhism.8

For two years or so Bhai Santokh Singh lived in Patiala at the court of Maharaja Karam Singh who ruled from 1813 to 1845. The period of his stay provides an insight into the situation of the Sikh rulers of the time, and the relations between Hindus and Sikhs, Bhai Santokh Singh was not well looked after primarily due to the hostile brahmanical influence on {.he Maharaja. He resented that a status~commensurate with his intellectual attainments was denied to him. Consequently, he left Patiala for the comparatively insignificant state of Kaithal which was ruled by Bhai Lai Singh, a connoisseur of art and literature. It was at Kaithal that he completed his translation of Balmiki's Ramayana in 1834. He largely adheres to the text and renders it faithfully into the popular language of the day from the original Sanskrit.9 He also takes the liberty to add certain verses in praise of the Gurus to signify that Sri Rama is not the object of his veneration.

His desire appears to be to introduce Sikhism and the Sikh Gurus to the Hindus and to make them realize the deep debt of gratitude they owed to the Sikh Gurus: 'He is a base ungrateful wretch and the epitome of ingratitude who is born a Hindu and does not acknowledge the great debt he owes to the Guru.'10 He also' utilized the opportunity to include a history of the rulers of Kaithal in the translation. In 1834, Bhai Santokh Singh completed his translation of the Atam Puran from Sanskrit. It is a treatise connected with Vedanta. Unfortunately, the translation is no longer available. It was in simple sadhubhasha narrative, as is apparent from a surviving extract.

Bhai Santokh Singh composed his magnum opus, the Gurpartap Suryoudai Granth, also known as the Suraj Prakash Granth, in which he merged his earlier work, the Guru Nanak Prakash. He probably began work on it in 1834, though there is evidence to suggest that he had composed several parts of it earlier. It is clear from internal evidence that he continued the practice of reciting his composition to the audience in the Gurdwara at the time of the evening congregation even during the period of its compilation.12 In those days Kaithal was known as the 'second Kashi' and over a thousand households of learned brahmans flourished there. According to the evidence of Gopal Singh Sadhu, who was a student of Bhai Santokh Singh,13 he was distrusted and derided by the Hindu popujation of Kaithal when he was composing the SurajPrakash. It is apparent that he composed this work in atmosphere of extreme hostility. There is internal evidence as well that he was under tremendous stress while working on the Suraj Prakash14 due to the strong influence exerted upon him by the hostile forces. Bhai Santokh Singh repeatedly alludes to this in his work. His prayers to ward off the evil influence become increasingly fervent as he approaches the life of Guru Gobind Singh and the creation of the Khalsa.15 His brahmanically inclined son, Ajay Singh, is believed to_ have compelled him at the point of the sword to include the_Durga episode jn the SurajPrakash. On its completion in 1843, he undertook a thanksgiving visit to Sri Darbar Sahib at Amritsar. It is reported that he was honoured at the Akal Takht for his work. At Amritsar, he also presented a copy of the work to Giani Sant Singh shortly before he was murdered at the behest of Hira Singh Dogra.

[Courtesy special permission from professor J.S.Grewal, editor of “The Khalsa, Sikh and Non Sikh Perspective" which is published by Manohar, 2004. This well researched article is by a known scholar and former IAS officer, Gurtej Singh who lives in Chandigarh].Continues.]

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