Page:The Sikh Religion, its gurus, sacred writings and authors Vol 1.djvu/83

Rh and this task he completed during the rainy season of 1843 under the name of 'Gur Partap Suraj', popularly known as the 'Suraj Parkash', in six ponderous volumes. The lives of the Gurus, from the second to the ninth, inclusive, are divided into twelve ras or sections, corresponding to the signs of the Zodiac. The life of the tenth Guru is presented in six ruts, or seasons, corresponding to the six Indian seasons, and into two ains, the ascending and descending nodes. The whole work is written in metre, and in difficult Hindi, with a large admixture of pure Sanskrit words. Santokh Singh's other works are a paraphrase of the Japji of Guru Nanak and of the Sanskrit works Atam Puran and Valmik's Ramayan.

Bhai Ram Kanwar, a lineal descendant of Bhai Budha, was specially favoured by receiving the pahul, or baptism by the dagger, from Guru Gobind Singh himself; and on that occasion the name of Bhai Gurbakhsh Singh was bestowed on him. Bhai Gurbakhsh Singh survived by twenty-five years the tenth and last Guru, and dictated his history to Bhai Sahib Singh. To the writings of the latter, which are now no longer extant, Bhai Santokh Singh is said to have been indebted. It is, however, doubtful whether Bhai Santokh Singh had access to any trustworthy authority. From his early education and environment he was largely tinctured with Hinduism. He was unquestionably a poet, and his imagination was largely stimulated by copious draughts of bhang and other intoxicants in which he freely indulged. The consequence was that he invented several stories discreditable to the Gurus and their religion. Some of his inventions are due to his exaggerated ideas of prowess and force in a bad as well as in a good cause—a reflex of the spirit of the marauding age in which he lived. His statements accordingly cannot often be accepted as even an approach to history.