Page:The Sikh Religion, its gurus, sacred writings and authors Vol 1.djvu/32

xxvi Parallel ideas and expressions to those of the Gurus and the Bhagats may be found in ancient and modern literature, sacred and profane, and could be largely quoted. Only a few such comparisons, which occurred to the author at the time of writing, have been given in the notes to this work. They are intended to show the catholicity of the Gurus' teachings, and they may also occasionally relieve the tedium of perusal.

The writers of the Janamsakhis had no maps to guide them, and accordingly in some cases assigned to the Gurus, notably Guru Nanak, impossible itineraries. Accordingly efforts have been made in this work to revise the Gurus' travels and render them consistent with scientific Indian geography. Should learned Sikhs, after full consideration at a general council, prepare maps of the Gurus travels, they will be inserted in any future edition of this work. So also should learned Sikhs consider their own accounts of the Gurus, their own order of the Gurus' hymns, or their own versions of words or phrases in the Gurus' compositions superior to the gyanis' and mine, we shall be pleased to receive their suggestions.

H.H. Sir Hira Singh, Malvendar Bahadur, the Raja of Nabha, has at considerable expense caused the thirty-one Indian rāgs, or musical measures, to which the hymns of the Gurus were composed, to be written out in European musical notation by a professional musician whom he employed for the purpose. The rāgs were merging into oblivion, and have been collected with much difficulty by Mahant Gaja Singh, the greatest minstrel of the Sikhs. They will be found at the end of the