INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

and the history is therefore segmented into episodes to display the Gurus’ actions.
The people who encounters with the Guru (patients) are presented only in relation to
him and transform as they interact with the Guru.
Focusing only on the two main stories which relate the visits of Guru Nanak
and Guru Tegh Bahadur at Varanasi, the emic history has apparently drawn much of
the semantic content and structure from local legends transmitted orally, combined
with fabrics from the varying oral and textual janam-sakhi traditions of the broader
Sikh community. Similar to many janam-sakhis narratives the local history is presented
in the form of anecdotes or short stories of events that claim to recount true
incidents of the past. In an analysis of secular stories Baumann (1988) instructs that
anecdotes tend to focus on a single episode ‒ a segment of narrated events ‒ and are
characterized by a dialogic construction that strives towards a final climactic point,
often of a moral tenor. Anecdotes are end-oriented stories that usually incorporate
instances of quoted speech or reported utterances at the end to underline the message
of a final punch line. 209 Correspondingly the narrative plot configuration of the emic
history is composed of two episodes on Guru Nanak and Guru Tegh Bahadur, which
consist of anecdotes about selected events that are made relevant and sequenced in a
cohesive way to add up to the final punch line. Each episode is framed by an opening
orienting section, which serves to set the spatial and temporal framework, and ends
with a concluding coda to bridge the narrated past events with the contemporary
Sikh community and buildings. 210 The orienting section informs about the reasons
why the Gurus visited the eastern regions ‒ Guru Nanak appeared in the degenerated
time of kaliyug and set out on travels to give salvation and Tegh Bahadur traveled out
of Punjab at the request of his disciples ‒ and then locates the subsequent narrated
events in time and space by stating the years and the ways by which the Gurus arrived
at Varanasi. The ending coda identifies the Gurus’ sites in the local geography
of Varanasi and declares how they have been protected by contemporary devout
Sikhs. The concluding addendum of the story on Guru Tegh Bahadur’s visit in Nichibagh
provides information on preserved relics and letters of the Guru, which the
gurdwara displays for veneration. Through this meta-narratively framing the written
history may serve as a handbook for pilgrims, instructing them on which historical
sacred sites to attend and the material objects to honor on their visit in Varanasi.
Like the typical style of the janam-sakhi literature, the local narrative interpolates
several shorter and longer quotations from Guru Granth Sahib held to be uttered
or sung by Guru Nanak as a divine revelation transmitted through his voice.
Anecdotes on Guru Nanak do not only serve to demonstrate the superiority of the
Guru’s identity and deeds, but embroider the narrative settings of time, place and
causality under which hymns are claimed to be produced. In the local narrative, conversations
and acts eventually culminate in a final punch line that imparts the point
209
Bauman 1988: 55. See also McLeod’s (1980a) discussion on form and function of the janamsakhis.
210
See Bauman 1988: 91.
90
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008