Sikh Historical Sources

[Khojidas]

Gurfateh all,

I hope someone, somewhere can assist me. I am trying locate 'Sardar Khalsa' by Giani Gian Singh. 

From what I've gathered so far, 'Twarikh Guru Khalsa' was split into 5 sections. Gian Singh signed the rights of this text over to the Khalsa Tract Society. In time the society published 4 of the 5 sections of the granth. 

My question is does anyone know what happened to the Khalsa Tract Society? 

 

Does anyone if the Sardar Khalsa part of Twarikh Guru Khalsa ever published? If so where can I procure this?

[Soulfinder]

I have googled it and found this on the khalsat tract society

http://www.panjabdigilib.org/webuser/searches/mainpage.jsp?CategoryID=1&Publisher=311

 

[Khojidas]

@Soulfinder thank you for responding. So apologies my opening post wasn't the clear. Sardar Khalsa appears to be the 4th part of Twarikh Guru Khalsa. The text was split into 5 part, 123 and 5 was published. The 4th part ie Sardar Khalsa never seems to have been published. Subsequently Twarikh Guru Khalsa was published in many forms and parts. It seems the 4th part lies unpublished. 

The link you have very kindly searched and posted doesn't have that particular work. I wonder if anyone has any ideas or suggestions how to procure Sardar Khalsa? 

[chatanga1]

I think maybe you should try and find out what happened to Khalsa Tract Society.  Or get in touch with someone at Khalsa College, they might be able to able you.

 

Any idea why it wasn't published?

[amardeep]

In generel I find it very difficult to find the works of Giani Gian Singh apart from Panth Prakash. He wrote some 15 books in total but I only think 4 have been published. I'd really love to read his book on Lahore. His books on Nirmale and Amritsar can be found on PDL

[chatanga1]

Its a little unusual for such a prolific writer like Gyani Gyan Singh not to have many works published.

[Khojidas]

Hi All,

 

Thanks once again for responding. The issue I have found is the Khalsa Tract Society seems to evaporate through the sands of time. I figured I'd join this forum in the hope that someone somewhere will have pointers to direct me to the right location.

 

Gian Gian Singh stated some pretty controversial things from what I gather and this earned him scourn from many vidhwaans. Nontheless I'd like to access Sardar Khalsa part of Twarikh Guru Khalsa for myself.

[amardeep]

I have the Twarikh Guru Khalsa in 3 volumes, but i've never thought about any volumes missing. What does this missing volume cover? Is it some specific decades of the 18th century?

[Khojidas]

Please see the below excep; 

"The first edition of the Twarikh comprising the first three parts was printed in 1891 at Guru Gobind Singh Press, Sialkot, with the help of Mahant Prem Singli, Bhai Hari Singh of Sialkot and Bata Singh of Rawalpindi. Gian Singh made over the rights of publication of his Twarikh to the Khalsa Tract Society, Amri.tsar. Besides all the copies of the published first three parts of the Twarikh, the manuscripts of the remaining two unpublished parts were also handed over to the Society. The Panth Khals5 (the fifth part) was published in Urdu as late as 1919 and the Sardar Khalsa (the fourth part) was never published.

The first three parts severally and collectively of this monumental work ran into several editions in Urdu as well as in Punjabi. They were last published in two volumes in Punjabi by the Languages Department, Punjab, Patiala, in 1970." Sikhiwiki

 

Sardar Khalsa deals with other Sikh principalities.

 

[amardeep]

As in the smaller Sikh kingdoms of the Malwa region? Interesting.

[amardeep]

Is there any difference between Twarikh Guru Khalsa and Panth Prakash - except for first being prose and the second being in verse?

[Khojidas]

I think it does talk about Malwa kingdoms in further depth. I'd imagine there's more stuff as he was in service of Patiala raja. I recall once the Panth Khalsa was removed from Panjab, the bastion of Sikhi was Patiala. As for Panth Prakash and Twarikh Guru Khalsa being different I am not in a suitable position as I haven't read Twarikh Guru Khalsa in depth. Do you know what happened with Khalsa Tract Society ?

[amardeep]

No I have no idea.

[Khojidas]

@amardeep tried to pm you. Came across on of your old posts regarding misl literature, and in the midst of that I saw somethinh regarding Sant Singh Chibbar and Janam sakhi Sri Gur Nanak Shah ki? You know where I may be able to obtain this ?

[amardeep]

On 16/12/2017 at 10:25 PM, Khojidas said:

@amardeep tried to pm you. Came across on of your old posts regarding misl literature, and in the midst of that I saw somethinh regarding Sant Singh Chibbar and Janam sakhi Sri Gur Nanak Shah ki? You know where I may be able to obtain this ?

I dont think it has been published

[Khojidas]

@amardeep is there any way to access it ?

[amardeep]

Probably through the archives in Punjab. I'm not sure which library it is located at though.

[Khojidas]

@amardeep can you pm me please?

[dalsingh101]

I've just been trying to find this missing volume of Giani Gian Singh's work myself. It would be a very important document because it would cover Khalsa raj up until annexation, something Giani Gian Singh was witness too. 

It says a lot that the Khalsa Tract society didn't publish this one. 

[Khojidas]

@dalsingh101 I couldn't locate it there after, did you have any luck ?

 

[dalsingh101]

On 12/1/2019 at 9:25 PM, Khojidas said:

@dalsingh101 I couldn't locate it there after, did you have any luck ?

 

No I didn't have any luck but I found a manuscript of another sections on PDL. Maybe if you contact the owner of these in Chandigarh (if I recall rightly?) he might be able to help? Where are you based?

[Khojidas]

I am based in the UK, you?

[dalsingh101]

On 12/6/2019 at 6:00 AM, Khojidas said:

I am based in the UK, you?

Same here. I think we need people back home to locate manuscripts myself. 

[Khojidas]

The thing I can think is actually going there. But unless you know a khass banda. I can see that being a massive headache, they would take full advantage and hustle the 'valeti'

[dalsingh101]

On 12/3/2017 at 6:13 PM, chatanga1 said:

I think maybe you should try and find out what happened to Khalsa Tract Society.  Or get in touch with someone at Khalsa College, they might be able to able you.

 

Any idea why it wasn't published?

 

On 12/4/2017 at 7:08 PM, Khojidas said:

Hi All,

 

Thanks once again for responding. The issue I have found is the Khalsa Tract Society seems to evaporate through the sands of time. I figured I'd join this forum in the hope that someone somewhere will have pointers to direct me to the right location.

 

Gian Gian Singh stated some pretty controversial things from what I gather and this earned him scourn from many vidhwaans. Nontheless I'd like to access Sardar Khalsa part of Twarikh Guru Khalsa for myself.

I think Bhai Vir Singh was a head of the Khalsa Tract society (KTS). If Giani Gian SIngh handed over his manuscripts to the Singh Sabha lehar, and his accounts of the events around and during the Sikh-Anglo wars wasn't inline with the line the colonising firenghees were pushing, it would explain why BVS, in an act of political expediency (remember the SS lehar was essentially patronised by the colonisers in both sense of the words), hid that text. 

Where would it be now? 

Where did BVS leave his manuscript collection? People commonly seemed to have donated their collections to libraries back then, did BVS leave his collection in this way? If so, is the manuscript there?  

 

Might be this place?

http://www.bvsss.org/museum.html

 

Contact details are here:

https://www.bvsss.org/contact-us.html

 

Do let us know if you have any luck. If so, we can maybe start transcribing and translating the text.