HAQĪQAT RĀH MUQĀM RĀJE SHIVNĀBH KĪ (account or description of way, i.e. journey to the abode of Rājā Shivnābh) is an anonymous and undated short piece in Punjabi prose, found appended to some manuscript copies of the Gurū Granth Sāhib, particularly to copies of the Bhāī Banno recension. The author of this account is supposed to be Bhāī Paiṛā, a learned Sikh who was deputed by Gurū Arjan to go to Siṅghlādīp (Saṅglādīp of the Janam Sākhīs), present-day Sri Lanka, to fetch a copy of a manuscript called the Prāṇ Saṅglī (Chain of the Vital Breath), an interpretation of Haṭha Yoga, which was said to have been recited by Gurū Nānak to the Rājā of Sanglādīp, Shivnābh. The manuscript of the Prāṇ Saṅglī was brought to Gurū Arjan, who rejected it as an apocryphal writing. The piece is not a travelogue, nor does the author claim to have himself visited the place of Shivnābh. It purports to be a sort of guide to travel, by ship to Saṅglādīp, from the mainland of the Indian subcontinent and to locate the place of the Rājā in that land. It is a short piece of simple prose about 200 words in length. The language is a mixture of Sādh Bhākhā and Punjabi. The author mentions some place-names with their distance from each other in some cases. Some of these names can be identified, while one or two places can only be conjectured. It is also mentioned that there existed a number of Sikh saṅgats in those days in South India and Sri Lanka.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  1. McLeod, W.H., Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion. Oxford, 1968
  2. Santokh Siṅgh, Bhāī, Srī Gur Pratāp Sūraj Granth. Amritsar, 1927-33

Tāran Siṅgh