Classes on Persian sources of Sikh literature begin

Amritsar, January 14

Naad Pargas, a cultural organisation that works in the field of promoting Punjabi literature, has taken an initiative to start classes on Persian sources of Sikh literature. These classes are being run by Prof Jagdish Singh, who is the director of Naad Pargas and chief coordinator for the current programme.

Starting from learning alphabets, the three-month course is designed to teach Persian vocabulary, understanding grammar, and finally reading directly from the Persian sources of Sikh texts. Harjot Kaur, one of the members of Prof Jagdish’s team and an instructor for these classes, informed, “The goal shall be to make students capable enough to read, understand, and learn parts of ‘Zafarnamah’ (penned by Guru Gobind Singh) that was originally written in Persian and writings of Bhai Nand Lal Goya, a 17th century Sikh poet in Guru Gobind Singh’s court.”

Explaining the importance of Persian sources and its relationship in Sikhi, Prof Jagdish Singh, Director, Naad Pargas, said learning Persian allows for an open conceptual dialogue with Abrahamic traditions of World. “ These classes are open for all age groups,” he said. These classes were begun in offline mode but are now being conducted in online mode due to Covid-19. —