Giani Gian Singh

Not to be confused with Gian Singh Nihang.

Giani Gian Singh (15 April 1822 – 24 September 1921) was a 19th-century Sikh historian, literati, hagiographer, martial artist, theologian, and scholar.^[1][2] He wrote the works Naveen Panth Prakash^{[note 1]} and Twarikh Guru Khalsa.^[3]

Giani Gian Singh
Photograph of Giani Gian Singh
Born	15 April 1822
Died	24 September 1921
Known for	Sikh literati
Notable work	Panth Prakash Twarikh Guru Khalsa

Biography

Opening folio of an early edition of Giani Gian Singh's 'Panth Prakash'. It contains an illustrated depiction of the author.

He was born into a Jat family.^[1] He was sponsored by Maharaja Narinder Singh and assisted Pundit Tara Singh Narotam for his work in writing the Sri Guru Tirath Sangreh.^[4] His work, Twarikh Guru Khalsa, was meant to be a simplification of the Suraj Parkash by Kavi Santokh Singh, which had been written in Braj verse that was difficult to decode.^[4] He reintroduced novel understandings about the compilation of the primary Sikh scriptural canon, the Guru Granth Sahib, by suggesting it was compiled through the collecting of various works by the previous gurus held by various, distant Sikh congregations, a process that took years.^[5]

Bibliography

• Tawarikh Sri Amritsar - account on the history of the holy city of Sikhism, including the construction of the Golden Temple^[6]
• Twarikh Guru Khalsa^[3]
• Naveen Panth Prakash^[3]
• Raj Khalsa^[7]

See also

• Ratan Singh Bhangu
• Pundit Tara Singh Narotam
• Kavi Santokh Singh

Notes

1. The original title of the work was 'Panth Prakash', it is not to be confused with an earlier work with the same name by Ratan Singh Bhangu, in-which it is differentiated from it by the addition of the word 'Naveen' meaning "new" before the title.

References

1. The encyclopaedia of Sikhism. Vol. 2. Harbans Singh. Patiala: Punjabi University. 1992–1998. pp. 82–83. ISBN 0-8364-2883-8. OCLC 29703420.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
2. Singh, Sukhdial (1996). Historical Analysis of Giani Gian Singh's Writings. UICS. pp. 18–27.
3. Singh, Roopinder (6 August 2017). "A valuable compendium". The Tribune.
4. Nayar, Kamala Elizabeth (2020). The Sikh View on Happiness : Guru Arjan's Sukhmani. Jaswinder Singh Sandhu. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. p. 213. ISBN 978-1-350-13988-6. OCLC 1140790571.
5. Mann, Gurinder Singh (2001). The making of Sikh scripture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-19-802987-8. OCLC 64638592.
6. Kang, Kanwarjit Singh (1988). "13. Art and Architecture of the Golden Temple". Punjab Art and Culture. Atma Ram & Sons. pp. 56–62. ISBN 9788170430964.
7. Singh, Inderjeet. “Revisiting Zorawar Singh Campaign in Tibet During 1841.” The Tibet Journal, vol. 43, no. 1, 2018, pp. 17–33. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26634903. Accessed 8 June 2024.