Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/456

 4 1 4 Reviews.

The Sikh Religion. Its Gurus, Sacred Writings and Authors. By Max Arthur Macauliffe. 6 vols. Oxford : The Clarendon Press, igog. 22 + 13 mm.; Ixxxviii + 383, 351, 444, 421, 351, and 453. 111.

Much has been written on the history of the Sikhs and their religious beliefs, but the literature of the sect was practically unknown to the scholars of Europe until 1877, when Dr. Ernest Trumpp published The Holy Scriptures of the Sikhs. This edition was in many ways unsatisfactory, partly on account of the author's lack of familiarity with obscure local dialects used by the Gurus, and partly owing to his unsympathetical attitude to the views of the Gyanis or native interpreters. The task of finally editing the Sikh Scriptures was left to a Panjab civilian, Mr. Macauliffe, who, assisted by the co-operation of the leading scholars of the sect, has produced the present version, which may be regarded as authoritative. This edition, however, due to a reaction against the interpretation ot Dr. Trumpp, is not free from a danger peculiar to itself. The songs of the Gurus are often exceedingly obscure, and the reader will often have occasion to doubt how far the mystical interpretations now adopted were present to the minds of the original singers, and how far they may have been suggested by later scholiasts. The editor, again, has not utilised the stores of new material on the monotheistical developments of later Hinduism which have been collected by Dr. Grierson. Hence there is still room for an examination of Sikh theology and morals from a wider point of view. When this is undertaken, it must be based upon the unselfish life-work of the present editor. Nanak, the founder of the Sikh sect, was born at Talwandi in the modern Lahore district in a.d. 1469. His teaching involved a protest against the popular Hinduism of his day, and he called his followers Sikhs or "disciples," he being the first of their ten Gurus or spiritual teachers. The Adi Granth, or standard collec- tion of the Scriptures, known to his followers by the dignified title of the Granth Sahib, " Master Book," was compiled by the fifth Guru, Arjan (a.d. i 563-1606). His successor, Har Govind, adopted that militant policy which soon brought them into con- flict with the Mughal dynasty, and resulted in savage persecution.