Contents
The Dasam Granth runs to some 1,400 pages and is heterogeneous. It contains the Jaap Sahib and the Akal Ustat, devotional works in praise of the timeless one, which are used liturgically and recited in the Khalsa initiation; the Bachitar Natak, an autobiographical narrative; the Zafarnama, a letter in Persian verse addressed to Aurangzeb; and the Chandi compositions, retellings of the goddess's battles.
It also contains the Charitropakhyan, a long collection of narrative tales concerning deceit, much of it erotic, whose presence in a scripture attributed to a Guru is the principal source of controversy.
The dispute
The question is whether Guru Gobind Singh wrote all of it, some of it, or compiled work by poets at his court. Sikh opinion divides: some hold the whole to be the Guru's; some accept the devotional and autobiographical works and attribute the Charitropakhyan and similar material to court poets; some reject the collection's authority entirely.
The dispute is old, sharpened in the colonial period when reform movements sought to define Sikh orthodoxy, and it remains live. Committees have reported on it more than once without settling it.
Status
Whatever its authorship, several of its compositions are fixed in Sikh practice. The Jaap Sahib and passages of the Akal Ustat and Chaupai are recited daily and used in the amrit ceremony, and no Sikh order disputes their use. The Dasam Granth is not, however, accorded the status of the Guru Granth Sahib, and is not installed as Guru.
Further reading
- Fenech, Louis E. The Sikh Zafar-namah of Guru Gobind Singh. Oxford University Press, 2013
- Grewal, J. S. The Sikhs of the Punjab. Cambridge University Press, 1998
- Grewal, J. S. Guru Nanak in History. Panjab University, 1969
- Singh, Khushwant. A History of the Sikhs. Oxford University Press, 2004
- Singh, Pashaura. The Guru Granth Sahib: Canon, Meaning and Authority. Oxford University Press, 2000
See also
This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.