Guru Granth Sahib

Sri Guru Granth Sahib
Illuminated Guru Granth Sahib folio with nisan (Mul Mantar) of Guru Gobind Singh.
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Religion	Sikhism

Guru Granth Sahib (Punjabi (Gurmukhi): ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਜੀ (Gurū Gra°th Sāhib Jī), Punjabi pronunciation: [ɡʊɾu ɡɾəntʰ sɑhɪb], /ˈɡʊəruː ɡrɑːnθ səˈhɪb/) is the central religious scripture of Sikhism, regarded by Sikhs as the final, sovereign and eternal living Guru following the lineage of the ten human Gurus of the religion. The Adi Granth, the first rendition, was compiled by the fifth Sikh Guru, Guru Arjan (1563–1606). Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, did not add any of his own hymns; however, he added all 115 hymns of Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru, to the Adi Granth and affirmed the text as his successor. This second rendition became known as Guru Granth Sahib. After Guru Gobind Singh died, Baba Deep Singh and Bhai Mani Singh prepared many copies of the work for distribution.

The text consists of 1430 Angs (pages) and 6,000 śabads (line compositions), which are poetically rendered and set to a rhythmic ancient north Indian classical form of music. The bulk of the scripture is classified into thirty-one rāgas, with each Granth rāga subdivided according to length and author. The hymns in the scripture are arranged primarily by the rāgas in which they are read. The Guru Granth Sahib is written in the Gurmukhī script, in various dialects, including Lahnda (Western Punjabi), Braj Bhasha, Khariboli, Sanskrit, Sindhi, and Persian – often coalesced under the generic title of Sant Bhasha.