The language of the Dasam Granth
By Prem Singh

THE language use in the Dasam Granth can not be separated from the language use in Guru Granth Sahib. The language of Guru Granth Sahib represents the language used by the new thinkers of medieval India. These thinkers, Gurus, bhagats and saints discarded the use of Sanskrit as it was perceived as a language of oppressive Brahmnical elites. These neo-elites composed their works in a language which was understood by the ordinary people, and preached the ideas and religion which was near the people. Thus the Guru Granth Sahib represents a totally new ideology and breaks away with the received ideology. Nevertheless, it must be emphasised that these elites, in a very creative manner, were reinterpreting the non-vedic ideology of the Buddhists, the Jainas and the Caravakas. This new ideology needed a new language, new idiom of expression, a new lingua franca to combat the established lingua-franca — called Sanskrit. Kabir calls Sanskrit Koop-jala ‘water of a well’, while he calls bhakha, contemporary spoken language, as fresh flowing water and hence the need to use the language spoken by the people. This expression of Kabir is reminiscent of Buddha’s and Mahavira Jaina’s attitude towards the language of the people.

The above discussion is an essential background for our understanding of the language use in the Dasam Granth. The languages used in the Dasam Granth are: Braj, Some sort of the mixed Bhojpuri, Persian and Sahaskriti. Punjabi is used extremely rarely and does not need any discussion. The model for the language use in Dasam Granth is Shri Guru Granth Sahib.

Let us take Persian first. The only portion in Persian is the Zafar-namah and Hikayat. These works are written in Persian of that era and this Persian is comparable to the letters and documents of Mugal government. These are sometimes Punjabi words attested in these documents as akaal in va ma ra panah sazda akaal unto me is the refuge of God’. Notice akaal is not a Persian or Arabic word. The Persian and Arabic words are extremely rare in the Dasam Granth. It may be due to political and social conditions that triggered anti-Persian-Arabic sentiments in the Tenth Guru. It is also natural to shun the use of language of the ruling elite as the ruling Junta, was feudalistic and imperialistic in design and attitude.

There is another reason for not very common use of the Perso-Arabic vocabulary and it is the theme of the Dasam Granth, thematically, the Dasam Granth is radically different from anything available in the religious literature. Guru Granth Sahib is devotional poetry of Nirguna variety. In the Dasam Granth, on the other hand it is narrative poetry and these narratives are based on classical and puranic legends.

Let us look at the contents of the Dasam Granth. This great opus begins with Jaapu Sahib! This work is in Sahaskrity — like the language of the Sahaskriti Shlokas of Guru Granth Sahib, it is followed by Akaal ustati and this work is in Braj mixed with Bhojpuri or generalised Bihari Hindi. Then comes Bachitra Natak and is followed by Raghu Vansh. Then we read a short "autobiography" of Guru Gobind Singh. Durga ki war and Chandi ki war follow it. The narrative on Chaubis Awtar occurs after Chandi ki war and this text continues almost to the end of the Dasam Granth and finally we get Asphotak Kabit. These Kabits are not part of any narrative.

It should become clear now that the Dasam Granth is primarily and predominantly a narrative and, the narrational and the structural needs of narrative are different. A narrative is a part of traditional culture and history. A narrative structure should primarily be understood in terms of semiotic codification and decodification of the received cultural and historical elements. This kind of discourse is expressed in a language understood by the vast majority of the people. The major language of such discourse in medieval India (in the north) was Braj Bhasha quite often mixed with the local language. The Dasam Granth is in Brij with some elements of Bhojpuri. These languages have the following characteristic features also attested in the Dasam Granth.

1. Gender is a grammatical category. Gender is a grammatical category in Punjabi Marathi, Gujrati, Konkani, Sindhi and Kashmiri.

Most importantly, in the context of the Dasam Granth, it needs to be mentioned that the first language of Guru Gobind Singh was some kind of Bihari or Bhojpuri: It is also worth mentioning that Guru Tegh Bahadur, the Ninth Guru and father of Guru Gobind Singh, did not compose a single pada in Punjabi and there is no trace of Punjabi in the language of the Ninth Guru. Hence it can be argued without contradiction that the first language ofGuruGobind Singh was not Punjabi and hence non-use of Punjabi in the opus of Guru Gobind Singh.

Guru Gobind Singh’s opus is in Braj, a language widely used by religious leaders of Medieval India. Guru Gobind Singh adopted this medium and before him all the Gurus expressed their thoughts in Braj. This use of Braj was well motivated — to unite the people of India for fight for Hindustan, against imperialism and tyranny. This anti-imperialism was a unique feature of the Sikh movement.