INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

Sangat cleaning the road
Panj Pyare
3
1 2 3 4 5
GGS
GGS
4 5
Figure 11.
Granthi
Sevadar
Figure 12.
1
2
The way in which the five men position themselves in relation to the Guru
Granth Sahib depends upon the nature of the event. On occasions which attract a
large number of devotees, such as parades on festival days, they are expected to walk
ahead of the scripture as the Guru’s armed guard (See Figure 11), while the ordinary
attendents of the gurdwara are responsible for the scriptural carriage. In case the five
men alone are responsible for the transportation they divide their duties among
themselves: in the centre one man will carry the scripture, while another purifies the
road with water and a third man waves a whisk over the text. The two remaining
members of the group will walk on the left and the right side of the text to watch the
cortege (See Figure 12). In either case the panj pyare represents an elite unit of saintsoldiers
who are responsible for escorting and protecting the sovereign Guru.
Whenever the Guru Granth Sahib is to be moved from one location to another,
devotees will read the standardized Ardas text before and after the journey. To Sikhs
the prayer is a communicative instrument for asking the Guru permission to carry out
acts in the future and confirm action already completed, and hence works as a speech
act to frame and sanctify all religious action. In addition to the standardized prayer,
the reciter will insert a few sentences in which he verbalizes information about the
destination, the conditions of the travel, and at the end expresses regrets if the travel
is inconvenient to the Guru and servants have made unintentional mistakes. The
Guru must accordingly be informed and apologized to for the travel procedures
whenever the scriptural corpus is moved.
The above-mentioned means of conveyance have been actualized in the Sikh
community for centuries. In response to transportation developments in the twentieth
century and a growing demand for printed editions, Sikh authorities have re-
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008