INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

Whichever of these ragas they selected, the twenty-four quatrains and stanzas were
always performed in the same musical mode, while other tunes and melodies were
used for the other interspersed gurbani hymns in order to capture the attention of the
audience.
THE STRUCTURE OF ASA DI VAR PERFORMANCES
Set 1: a) quatrain 1, stanza 1, quatrain 2, stanza 2, quatrain 3, stanza 3, quatrain 4, stanza 4
b) Freely chosen hymn from Guru Granth Sahib
Set 2: a) q. 5, s. 5, q. 6, s. 6, q. 7, s. 7, q. 8, s. 8
b) Freely chosen hymn from Guru Granth Sahib
Set 3: a) q. 9, s. 9, q. 10, s. 10, q. 11, s. 11, q. 12, s. 12
b) Freely chosen hymn from Guru Granth Sahib
Set 4: a) q. 13, s. 13, q. 14, s. 14, q. 15, s. 15, q. 16, s. 16
b) Freely chosen hymn from Guru Granth Sahib
Set 5: a) q. 17, s. 17, q. 18, s. 18, q. 19, s. 19, q. 20, s. 20
b) Freely chosen hymn from Guru Granth Sahib
Set 6: a) q. 21, s. 21, q. 22, s. 22, q. 23, s. 23, q. 24, s. 24
b) Freely chosen hymn from Guru Granth Sahib Figure 19.
Arti chaunki, or the kirtan session in which the ragi perform a compilation of
hymns called Arti, begins close to 7 pm in the gurdwara. In Hindu and Jain worship
the term Arti signifies the ritual act of circulating an oil-lamp in a clockwise direction
before an icon or picture of a deity. The lamp is held with both hands and moved to
create a circle in the air at the same time as another person rings a bell. Businessmen
in Varanasi city normally end the day by doing a more small-scaled variation of Arti
ceremony with a fire outside the shop to procure divine protection over the night.
Perhaps the most spectacular enactment of the ceremony in the city is the daily Arti to
river Ganga (Ganga Arti) which is staged at the Dashashwamedh Ghat and Assi Ghat
after sunset and usually attracts a large crowd of devotees and spectators.
Considering that idol-worship is rejected in Sikhism, the ceremony is not to be
conducted within the gurdwara. The present Sikh code of conduct and Sikh reformists
strongly prohibit Arti on the motive that it is principally a Hindu practice that
crept into Sikh worship due to Brahminical influences. Hindu mahants who were in
charge of Sikh gurdwaras before the Gurdwara Reform Movement in the 1920s
would perform Arti before the installed Guru Granth Sahib as a part of the evening
ceremony. Modern Sikh interpretations would argue that gurbani discard the formal
ritual to stress the importance of true devotion. Guru Nanak, for instance, would let
ritual elements of the Hindu practice of Arti ‒ the plate, lamp, incense, and bells ‒
stand as metaphors for the whole divine creation and human adoration thereof.
When Sikhs are speaking of Arti today they generally refer to a set of hymns culled
from the writing of Ravidas, Sain, Kabir, Dhanna, complemented with verses from
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008