INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

initial decision of 1430 pages was the result of typographical uniformity in one early
twentieth century edition (by Charan Singh Shahid) set in type, the format of which
gained public acceptance and later was sanctioned by the SGPC. 397 This interpretation
proposes that the standard pagination was not impelled by any numerical symbolism
or religious motives, but emerged from the process of typesetting the written subject
matter to make up page images. Standardizing the Guru Granth Sahib to 1430 pages,
however, had an effect on the religious Sikh life since it was now possible to make
page citation and systemize recitations of the whole text after the new pagination.
These three steps ‒ to fix and sanction the content, break up the lines of words,
and paginate the whole text ‒ are just a few examples of the religious measures which
Sikh institutions have taken in order to create a flawless and authoritative printed
version of Guru Granth Sahib with acceptance in the wider community. Print technology
brought about the possibility to prescribe the manner of presenting the Gurus
teaching in a physical object and made the sacred words accessible to the literate
masses irrespective of time and space. Not only custodians of handwritten manuscripts
or specialist reciters could access to the Gurus’ teaching in written words but
all Sikhs with sufficient knowledge in the Gurmukhi script and the means to procure
and install printed versions of the scripture in a proper manner could immerse themselves
in the teaching. Wherever the Sikhs would settle in the world they shared a
scripture with a fixed content and physical form. The adoption of print technology
thus contributed to a homogenization of the sacred text in the Sikh community and
simultaneously democratized and popularized Sikh worship centered on a printed
text.
MAKING THE GURU VISIBLE
The printing process marks the birth of any written text. The paper, ink, and cover
will make up the physical body of a book and the typographical procedure of imprinting
signs on paper in a syntactical order creates and encloses a content that can
be read and interpreted. In the case of a sacred text, believed to possess a significant
interior, the printing process actualizes even stronger relations between the outer and
inner dimensions of the text. When I asked an elderly Sikh man in Varanasi about the
moment at which the Sikh scripture is accredited the supreme status of a Guru, he
answered: “When Guru Granth Sahib ji is printed in press the book gets the power of
Guru Maharaj ji.” As this man continued his argument, one should distinguish between
the physical form (rup/sarup) of the book and the interior Guru of gurbani
which is embodied in material imprints on the paper pages within the text. The arrangement
of the Gurus’ words in Gurmukhi script over 1430 pages in one single
volume is the process by which the invisible agency of the Guru is made present by
being set in visible signs of language. It is the moment when the agentive Guru and
the object-book come into play and the physical text assumes the identity and status
of Guru Granth Sahib. Already at the final stage in the printing process the Sikh scrip-
397
Pashaura Singh 2000: 232 ‒ 233.
210
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008