INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

on Sikh conceptualizations and interactions with the Guru Granth Sahib and other
religious texts accredited gurbani status, that is, words being uttered by the human
Gurus. A primary aim is to examine the implications of perceiving the Guru Granth
Sahib as a scripture which enfolds words of an ontologically divine nature and mediates
the revelatory experiences and teaching of historical human Gurus. Simultaneously
the sacred text is considered to be the living Guru with authority and agency to
provide spiritual guidance and establish human-divine connections. By which means
do local Sikhs interact with the sacred words of their scripture? How do they perceive,
confirm, and establish agency of a living Guru in their daily worship? The
scholarly study of Sikhism has long neglected the religious worship acts that Sikhs
practice in public and private spheres to instead favour historical, theological, and
political aspects of the Sikh tradition. Those plain acts which to most Sikhs appear
self-evident and yet are so important to their religious life have been given considerably
little attention, unless they have been able to generate profound symbolic
meanings to link up with sociological and historical theories. The Sikh scripture has
primarily been approached from a textual viewpoint, as a canonized collection of the
human Gurus’ written compositions, while little light has been shed on oral traditions
and living practices to render the sacred words. Starting from a theoretical perspective
based on performance and ritual theory, the present study will investigate a wide
spectrum of common religious practices that are directed towards the scriptural body
of the Guru Granth Sahib and intend to make devotees engage in and benefit from
the words and teaching of the Guru dwelling within the scripture. The focus will be
on contemporary religious uses and stances towards the Sikh scripture and other
gurbani hymns, and the scripture’s interaction with devotees in multiple contexts of
performances. It is these performances of the canonized scripture and the recorded
utterances of the Gurus that bring the sacred texts to life. Major sections of the study
will be descriptive in character since ethnographies providing empirical data on lived
practices among the Sikhs must necessarily precede more sophisticated theoretical
elaborations.
The study has been organized into five chapters, which successively describe
and analyse the discursive and ritual means by which local Sikhs impart presence
and agency of the historical human gurus, the Guru Granth Sahib, and the eternal
words of the scripture. The first chapter will depict the history and social constitution
of the local Sikh community at Varanasi and examine the emic historiography, in
other words, the construction of a collective and meaningful history. Instead of submitting
to the master narrative of Varanasi, as the center of Hindu pilgrimage and
learning, the Sikhs have created their own interpretation of the past which counters
the dominant Hindu paradigm and confirms the spiritual superiority of the Sikh
Gurus. The retelling of this history and the ritual veneration of the Gurus’ seats, their
personal belongings, and letters to the congregation at Varanasi continue to manifest
the human Gurus’ enduring power in the city.
The second chapter is devoted to different religious conceptions and attitudes
towards the Guru Granth Sahib among the Sikhs at Varanasi. How do local devotees
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008