Literature

The books, and reading them in English

Two Punjabi defences of Raagmala, embedded in full and free to download, plus an English article series that reads them together and reading notes on each book.

Cover of Gur Gira: Raagmala Mandan Prabodh Granth

ਗੁਰ ਗਿਰਾ ਰਾਗਮਾਲਾ ਮੰਡਨ ਪ੍ਰਬੋਧ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ

Gur Gira: Raagmala Mandan Prabodh Granth

Sant Tehal Singh. Published 1908, Sri Gurbaksh Press, Lahore. 54-page scan (Punjabi) via GurmatVeechar.com. 18 MB.

A defence of Raagmala written in the middle of the early twentieth-century dispute. Sant Tehal Singh answers twelve objections one by one (the missing 'Mahalla' heading, the absence of the name 'Nanak', Mundaavani, the order of the Raags, the poet Alam) and closes with a survey of twenty-five handwritten Birs in which he reports Raagmala in the text and in the indexes. The opening pages preserve endorsements from Takht Sri Kesgarh Sahib, Damdama Sahib, Muktsar and many named Gursikhs of 1908 and 1909.

6 reading notes in English: see the list

Cover of Ragmala Da Swal

ਰਾਗਮਾਲਾ ਦਾ ਸਵਾਲ

Ragmala Da Swal

Dr Balbir Singh. Bhai Vir Singh Sahit Sadan, New Delhi. First published as articles in Khalsa Samachar (1945 to 1946) and Khalsa Advocate (1946 to 1947); book form 1969; fourth edition August 2006. 210-page scan (Punjabi). 5 MB.

Written during the 1945 controversy, when the SGPC stopped Raagmala recitation in gurdwaras under its management. Dr Balbir Singh reproduces the three 1945 inspections of the Kartarpur Bir (10 September, 7 October and his own visit on 23 December) which report Raagmala at page 974 in the same hand, ink and paper as the rest of the Bir, with a matching index entry. He then takes apart the claim that Raagmala was borrowed from the poet Alam's Madhavanal Kamakandala, working through dates, manuscripts, variant spellings and the puzzle of Deepak's eight sons.

5 reading notes in English: see the list

Article series

Raagmala: Reading Two Defences Together

Five articles that read Sant Tehal Singh's Gur Gira (1908) and Dr Balbir Singh's Ragmala Da Swal (1945 to 1969) side by side: the musical structure of Raagmala, the tests people use to judge it, the Alam borrowing claim, the manuscript evidence, and how the two defences strengthen each other. Every footnote cites a printed page and links to that page of the scanned book.

All eighteen articles

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