INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

ejected in the Sikh community. Similar to Islamic traditions, the Sikhs developed
calligraphies of verses from their scripture from the sixteenth century, and during the
centuries to follow paintings of the Sikh Gurus became a popular way of portraying
their lives and deeds in visual forms. 235 In the course of time the religious art of the
Sikhs ranged from courtly portraits of the Sikh Gurus to numismatics, weapons,
books and other objects, upon which scriptural syllables or longer hymns sometimes
were inscribed. 236 In modern times, new technologies of media have greatly fostered
the innovation and development of popular Sikh art. 237 Reproductions of religious
signs, inscriptions of God’s name or verses from Guru Granth Sahib, and bazaar
posters depicting the Gurus, sacred sites, memorable events, and so on, are today
ubiquitously manifested in the religious lives of Sikhs. According to the conventional
iconographic rule it is permitted to visually represent the Sikh Gurus as historical
persons. The representations should be restricted to the two dimensional medium of
pictures and paintings. Unlike worship in the Hindu traditions, the Gurus should not
be portrayed in three dimensional images (like temple icons and statues) nor do human
actors have authority to symbolically represent their personhood, lives, and
deeds in religious dramas or moving images. 238 The Gurus are therefore solely depicted
through standardized portraits that have gained public approval and which
can be utilized as didactic vehicles to communicate stories about the Gurus’ teaching
and deeds.
Major Sikh shrines and pilgrimage centers often accommodate separate wards
which go by the English name of “museum” and exhibit framed paintings and posters
that depict episodes from the lives of the Gurus, historical martyrs, and sometimes
photographs of war heroes and saintly persons in modern times. 239 In these
galleries visitors are taken on a sequenced didactical tour through visualized anecdotes
of the lives of the Gurus and other events held memorable. Minor gurdwara,
which cannot facilitate “museums”, sometimes create smaller galleries of popular
calendar art in the dining hall or at some other place in the temple complex. In addition
to portraits of the ten Sikh Gurus, these systematically arranged reproductions
235
Artistic calligraphies in Gurmukhi are to be found in some of the earliest manuscripts of Guru
Granth Sahib in the sixteenth century. The seventeenth century Janam-sakhi literature added
miniature paintings to depict different events in Guru Nanak’s life, and some early manuscripts
of Guru Granth Sahib from the same time period opened with portraits of the Gurus.
236
See e.g. Aijazuddin 1979, Arshi 1986, Brown 1999, Stronge 1999.
237
For the development of Sikh art and modern bazaar prints, consult McLeod 1991.
238
In 2001 the Akal Takht and the SGPC opened a debate on this matter when it was reported that
more than fifty statues of the Sikh Gurus and Sikh warriors had been installed in Punjab and
other states and the trend seemed to be on the rise. In 2004 the SGPC formally announced that
statues of the Gurus are prohibited in Sikhism (See The Tribune, 2001-07-18, 2001-08-01, 2004-01-
22). During festivals and the Khalsa initiation ceremony (Khande di pahul), for example, a group of
five senior men will dress up and play the part of panj pyare, “the five beloved”, who were the
first to undergo the first ceremony in 1699. The five men stand for the most esteemed and loyal
disciples of Guru Gobind Singh and represent the collective of Sikhs.
239
For an overview of Sikh art history, see Brown 1999.
104
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008