MAHIMĀ PRAKĀSH, by Sarūp Dās Bhallā, is a versified account, in Gurmukhī script, of the lives of the ten Gurūs, completed according to inner evidence, in 1833 Bk/AD 1776. Three copies of the manuscript. are still extant : one (No. 176) in the Languages Department, Punjab, Paṭiālā, the second (No. 792/M) in the Punjab State Archives, Paṭiālā, and third (No. 3200) in the Khālsā College Library, Amritsar. A fourth copy of the manuscript existed in the Sikh Reference Library, Amritsar, until it perished in 1984. The work has since been published (1970) in two volumes by the Languages Department, Punjab, Paṭiālā. The first volume (pp. 348) contains sixty-five sākhīs relating to the life of Gurū Nānak, whereas the second volume (pp. 900) comprises another 172 sākhīs of which sixteen deal with the life of Gurū Aṅgad, thirty-two are about Gurū Amar Dās, eight about Gurū Rām Dās, twenty-two each about Gurū Arjan and Gurū Hargobind, twenty-two about Gurū Har Rāi, four about Gurū Har Krishan, nineteen about Gurū Tegh Bahādur and twenty-seven about Gurū Gobind Siṅgh. At the end of these there is one more sākhī about Bandā Siṅgh Bahādur (1670-1716). The main sources utilized by the author, according to his own testimony, were Purātan Janam Sākhī and Ādi Sākhīāṅ, and information received from the descendants of the Gurūs and some other prominent Sikhs. This is the first work of its kind giving a connected account of the lives of all the Gurūs. However, it is not plain history, nor is it free from inaccuracies of fact.

M. S. Āhlūwālīā