INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

The granthi is expected to know and perform gurbani in accordance with these formal
rules. Comprised in the notion of “pure” recitation is also the granthi’s inner devotional
and moral stance in the moment he takes gurbani words in his mouth. To make
recitations “pure” he should not have any ulterior motives or desires more than being
fully engaged in Guru’s words. “Shuddh recitations is to do recitation accurately
without looking at people”, one woman said when she explained the required devotional
disposition.
In addition to skill in enunciation, my interlocutors observed the importance of
understanding the semantic content of hymns to explicate meanings to community
members. In the daily programs the granthi may, for instance, give shorter expositions
of the Hukam taken from Guru Granth Sahib, either for the whole congregation or in
response to individual requests. Even if devotees do not generally anticipate more
comprehensive exegetical elaborations on Guru Granth Sahib from the granthi, but
credit this undertaking to ragi jathas and kathakar, they do presume and consider his
knowledge of subtler meanings of the text crucial for quite another reason: the granthi
possesses knowledge to select gurbani hymns which are considered appropriate and
favorable to recite in particular ceremonies and situations, often to seek divine support
and protection. As I will describe more in the chapters to follow, the granthi
inserts individual verses drawn from Guru Granth Sahib when he performs the Sikh
supplication Ardas. The content of the individual verse selected often displays a semantic
relationship to the situation or the desired end for which the verse is recited.
Community members frequently ask the granthi to guide them on gurbani verses
suitable for a particular life situation because he has pursued the required knowledge
of relating sacred texts with social contexts. This ability to make gurbani verses perpetually
relevant to changing human conditions leads us to another aspect of the
expected skill of the performers working inside the gurdwara – the possession of
liturgical knowledge.
Whether the granthi is operating inside the gurdwara, out in public spaces, or at
private houses he is expected to know how to perform all the different Sikh worship
acts in accordance with conventional liturgical orders and be able to adjust the acts to
changing situations. His expertise is both the semantic and syntactic aspects of ceremonies.
He can execute the seperate worship acts with considerations to time and
space and knows how the acts are to be embedded in ritual structures. A nearly
unanimous opinion among my interlocutors considered the granthi responsible for
accurate and timely performances of the daily liturgies in the gurdwara, compared by
some to the pujari in Hindu temples or the Muslim mula. When explaining what they
considered to be the duties and qualifications of a granthi some would provide summarizing
accounts on the separate acts of the daily Sikh liturgies. A middle-aged
woman said:
He gets up early in the morning at 3 or 3.30 and does Prakash of Guru
Granth Sahib ji and takes the divine order [Hukam]. To begin with the
Granthi does recitation of five hymns and Sukhmani Sahib in the morn-
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008