SADHĀRAN PĀṬH is the reading of the Gurū Granth Sāhib from beginning to end, with no time-limit for completion. Even where the limit is fixed and it exceeds a week, it will be called a sadhāran pāṭh, two other terms synonymously used being khullā pāṭh (Khullā = unrestricted, not fixed) and sahaj pāṭh (slow reading). A sadhāran pāṭh may be undertaken by any individual Sikh, man or woman, or jointly with other members of the family as part of personal piety or in observance of a special occasion or family, event. A pāṭhī or reader could be engaged from outside as well. One may read any number of pages on a single day and the next few pages the next day or even at a longer interval. Before the commencement and, after the conclusion, of such a pāṭh, a simple service of holy music, ardās (prayer) and distribution of kaṛāh prasād (communion food) will ordinarily be observed. The custom of performing sadhāran pāṭh by reading a few successive pages of the Holy Book daily as a religious duty must have grown after copies of the Holy Volume compiled in 1604 had become available. That was, perhaps, the only type of pāṭh current until the Granth was pronounced Gurū by Gurū Gobind Siṅgh before he passed away in 1708.