Notes I keep as I learn my way around the puratan granths. One orientation first: Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji alone is the Guru. The granths below are the literature of the Guru’s darbar and the Panth, the Tenth Master’s bani, history, rahit, and prophecy around the throne of Gurbani. The map, then short notes on each:

A map of the puratan Sikh granths

Sri Dasam Granth Sahib

  • What: the bani of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, Braj, Punjabi and Persian in Gurmukhi; 1,428 angs in the standard sarup. Enthroned beside Guru Granth Sahib Ji at Takht Hazur Sahib, Takht Patna Sahib and in the Nihang dals.
  • Inside: Jaap Sahib · Akal Ustat · Bachittar Natak (the Guru’s own autobiography) · Chandi Charitras & Chandi di Var (the first pauri of Ardas) · Gyan Prabodh · Chaubis Avtar · Shabad Hazare · 33 Savaiye · Khalsa Mahima · Zafarnama.
  • You already recite it: Jaap Sahib, Tav-Prasad Savaiye and Chaupai Sahib of nitnem, the amrit sanchar banis, and the opening of Ardas are all Dasam bani.
  • Start: Jaap Sahib with a translation; then Bachittar Natak and the Zafarnama.

Sri Sarabloh Granth

  • What: the Granth of All-Steel (also called Manglacharan Puran), Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s granth from the darbar at Nanded; kept by the Buddha Dal and Takht Hazur Sahib. Five chapters; Chapter 1 alone is 753 verses.
  • Inside: the war of the devas against the demon Bhimnad, framing Akal Purakh as sarab-loh, the deathless power behind all forms; shastar as a saroop of the Divine. Home of the Khalsa Mahima: ਖ਼ਾਲਸਾ ਮੇਰੋ ਰੂਪ ਹੈ ਖ਼ਾਸ ॥
  • Why it matters: the theological heart of the Khalsa’s warrior identity and of sarbloh bibek; the Buddha Dal includes it with Guru Granth Sahib and Dasam Granth in its akhand paths.
  • Start: the Khalsa Mahima, then Chapter 1 with a satik.

Sri Gur Partap Suraj Granth (Suraj Prakash)

  • What: the lives of all ten Gurus and Baba Banda Singh Bahadur in ~51,800 verses, Kavi Santokh Singh, completed 1843. Structured as a poetic cosmos: 12 rasis, 6 ruts, 2 ayans; every chapter an ansu (sun-ray).
  • Why it matters: the text of daily katha in gurdwaras worldwide, including Sri Harmandir Sahib. Nearly every sakhi we grew up hearing was routed through it.
  • Start: don’t read it, listen. Daily Suraj Prakash katha is on every platform; the Bhai Vir Singh 14-volume steek for readers.

Prem Sumarag Granth

  • What: “The True Path of Love”, the most complete rahitnama; 10 chapters of Punjabi prose, from personal rahit to statecraft.
  • Inside: initiation, daily discipline, birth, naming, anand karaj, death; then economy, justice, and the model of a Khalsa state under Akal Purakh’s sovereignty. Women receive pahul, girls are educated, widows remarry with honour.
  • Start: the life-cycle chapters, readable in an afternoon, and they explain why Sikh rites of passage look the way they do.

Sau Sakhi (Guru Ratan Mal)

  • What: one hundred sakhis of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, his words narrated by Bhai Ram Kuar Ji of the house of Baba Buddha Ji (later Bhai Gurbakhsh Singh), recorded by Bhai Sahib Singh.
  • Inside: episodes, rahit teachings, and the prophecies of the Khalsa’s coming sovereignty, raj karega khalsa.
  • Why it matters: hope in manuscript form through the darkest persecution; it fired the Namdhari movement under Baba Ram Singh, and the British monitored its prophecies.
  • Start: after the others, the prophecies land with more force once you know the history.

The gupt banis of the dals

Rare compositions preserved in the puratan sarups and the gutkas of the dals:

  • ਉਗ੍ਰਦੰਤੀ Ugardanti, six chhands from the Patna Sahib sarup (compilation tradition of Baba Deep Singh, 1698); given by the Guru so the weak find strength against tyranny; in Nihang and Namdhari nitnem.
  • ਸ੍ਰੀ ਭਗੌਤੀ ਅਸਤੋਤ੍ਰ Sri Bhagauti Astotra (Sri Sahib ji ki Ustati), praise of the Divine-Sword, in the Buddha Dal’s puratan Khalsa Nitnem gutkas.
  • ਬ੍ਰਹਮ ਕਵਚ Brahm Kavach, the protective bani of the Sarbloh tradition, recited by Nihang Singhs before battle and in the dals’ nitnem to this day.
  • ਆਰਤੀ ਆਰਤਾ Arati-Arata, the full puratan evening prayer with Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s verses, sung nightly at Hazur Sahib and in the dals.

A path in

  1. Listen, sakhis and Suraj Prakash katha; the tradition is oral first.
  2. Read short + translated, Kavi Kankan’s Das Gur Katha: all ten Gurus by a court poet, 120 pages.
  3. The Guru’s voice, Dasam Granth: Jaap Sahib, Bachittar Natak, Zafarnama.
  4. Live the code, Prem Sumarag’s life-cycle chapters.
  5. Go deep, Sarabloh with a satik; the gupt banis.
  6. Destiny, Sau Sakhi.

ਧੁਰ ਕੀ ਬਾਣੀ ਆਈ ॥ ਤਿਨਿ ਸਗਲੀ ਚਿੰਤ ਮਿਟਾਈ ॥

Sources: Kavi Kankan, Das Gur Katha (tr. Kamalroop Singh, 2024) and the Sarbloh Granth Satik, Ch. 1 · Sarbloh Granth Sahib, Dasam Granth Sahib and Papers at kamalroop.com · Suraj Prakash, SearchGurbani · Prem Sumarag, SikhiWiki · Sau Sakhi, SikhiWiki · Ugardanti, SikhiWiki