Compilation of Sri Guru Granth Sahib

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Arjan Dev, which appear at the end of each Rag in Sri Guru Granth Sahib. There is the one school of thought that the Saints had come down from Heaven in their subtle bodies, and were themselves dictating their Compositions, and Bhai Gurdas had also the vision of them to remove any possibility of scepticism. Some other people believe that the Guru selected those portions of the Saints’ Compositions from their respective books, which he thought fit and thus got them included in Sri Guru Granth Sahib. This possibility is confirmed from the two books, which the Guru had brought from Baba Mohan, and which contained the Compositions of the Saints also.

Out of the above mentioned two schools of thought, which Gian Singh has mentioned, he has not given his opinion as to which type of thought he would support. He has also not stated from which books the Guru selected the particular Compositions of the Saints, which he dictated to Bhai Gurdas.

Opinion of Max Arthur Macauliffe

Opinion of Max Arthur Macauliffe, in this respect, as given in his book, “The Sikh Religion”, Vol III, page 61, is given below- –
The followers of the principal Indian saints, Hindu and Muhammadan, since the days of Jaidev, were invited by the Guru to attend and suggest suitable hymns for insertion in the secred volume. They repeated hymns of their respective sects; and such as conformed to spirit of reform then in vogue, or were not wholly inconsistent with the Gurus’ teachings, were adopted and incorporated in the Granth. It may be here conceded that those hymns received some alterations in the process of transmission from the saints to their followers who were contemporaries of Guru Arjan; and this will explain why so many Punjabi words are found in the Bhagat’s writings, and why they differ from their compositions preserved in other parts of India.

We can derive the following conclusions from the above mentioned writings of Giani Gian Singh and M.A. Macauliffe -

1. The Compositions of Bhagats were collected by Guru Arjan Dev. These Compositions were obtained from the followers of the respective Bhagats, who were living in Punjab during the time of the Guru.

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