an episode in the Markandeya Puran, in praise of Durga, the goddess of war. Then follow the Gyan Parbodh or awakening of knowledge, accounts of twenty-four incarnations of the deity, selected because of their warlike character; the Hazare de Shabd; the Shastar Nam Mala, which is a list of offensive and defensive weapons used in the guru’s time, with special reference to the attributes of the Creator; the Tria Charitar or tales illustrating the qualities, but principally the deceit of women; the Kabit, compositions of a miscellaneous character; the Zafarnama containing the tenth guru’s epistle to the emperor Aurangzeb, and several metrical tales in the Persian language. This Granth is only partially the composition of the tenth guru. The greater portion of it was written by bards in his employ.
The two volumes are written in several different languages and dialects. The Adi Granth is largely in old Punjabi and Hindi, but Prakrit, Persian, Mahratti and Gujrati are also represented. The Granth of the Tenth Guru is written in the old and very difficult Hindi affected by literary men in the Patna district in the 16th century. In Form of the Granth.neither of these sacred volumes is there any separation of words. As there is no separation of words in Sanskrit, the gyanis or interpreters of the guru’s hymns prefer to follow the ancient practice of junction of words. This makes the reading of the Sikh scriptures very difficult, and is one of the causes of the decline of the Sikh religion.
The hymns in the Adi Granth are arranged not according to the gurus or bhagats who compose them, but according to rags or musical measures. There are thirty-one such measures in the Adi Granth, and the hymns are arranged according to the measures to which they are composed. The gurus who composed hymns, namely the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and ninth gurus, all used the name Nanak as their nom-de-plume. Their compositions are distinguished by mahallas or wards. Thus the compositions of Guru Nanak are styled mahalla one, the compositions of Guru Angad are styled mahalla two, and so on. After the hymns of the gurus are found the hymns of the bhagats under their several musical measures. The Sikhs generally dislike any arrangement of the Adi Granth by which the compositions of each guru or bhagat should be separately shown.
All the doctrines of the Sikhs are found set forth in the two Granths and in compositions called Rahit Namas and Tanakhwah Namas, which are believed to have been the utterances of the tenth guru. The cardinal principle of the sacred books is the unity of God, and starting from this premiss the rejection of idolatry and superstition.The Sikh doctrines. Thus Guru Govind Singh writes:
| “ | Some worshipping stones, put them on their heads; |
| Some suspend lingams from their necks; | |
| Some see the God in the South; some bow their heads to the West. | |
| Some fools worship idols, others busy themselves with worshipping the dead. | |
| The whole world entangled in false ceremonies hath not found God's secret.” |
Next to the unity of God comes the equality of all men in His sight, and so the abolition of caste distinctions. Guru Nanak says:
| “ | Caste hath no power in the next world; there is a new order of beings, |
| Those whose accounts are honoured are the good.” |
The concremation of widows, though practised in later times by Hinduized Sikhs, is forbidden in the Granth. Guru Arjan writes:
| “ | She who considereth her beloved as her God, |
| Is the blessed sati who shall be acceptable in God's Court.” |
It is a common belief that the Sikhs are allowed to drink wine and other intoxicants. This is not the case. Guru Nanak wrote:
“By drinking wine man committeth many sins.”
Guru Arjan wrote:
“The fool who drinketh evil wine is involved in sin.”
And in the Rahit Nama of Bhai Desa Singh there is the following:
“Let a Sikh take no intoxicant; it maketh the body lazy; it diverteth men from their temporal and spiritual duties, and inciteth them to evil deeds.”
It is also generally believed that the Sikhs are bound to abstain from the flesh of kine. This, too, is a mistake, arising from the Sikh adoption of Hindu usages. The two Granths of the Sikhs and all their canonical works are absolutely silent on the subject. The Sikhs are not bound to abstain from any flesh, except that which is obviously unfit for human food, or what is killed in the Mahommedan fashion by jagging an animal's throat with a knife. This flesh-eating practice is one of the main sources of their physical strength. Smoking is strictly prohibited by the Sikh religion. Guru Teg Bahadur preached to his host as follows:
“Save the people from the vile drug, and employ thyself in the service of Sikhs and holy men. When the people abandon the degrading smoke and cultivate their lands, their wealth and prosperity shall increase, and they shall want for nothing . . . but when they smoke the vile vegetable, they shall grow poor and lose their wealth.”
Guru Govind Singh also said:
“Wine is bad, bhang destroyeth one generation, but tobacco destroyeth all generations.”
In addition to these prohibitions Sikhism inculcates most of the positive virtues of Christianity, and specially loyalty to rulers, a quality which has made the Sikhs valuable servants of the British crown.
The Granth was translated by Dr Trumpp, a German missionary, on behalf Of the Punjab government in 1877, but his rendering is in many respects incorrect, owing to insufficient knowledge of the Punjabi dialects. The Sikh Religion, &c., in 6 vols. (London, 1909) is an authoritative version prepared by M. Macauliffe, in concert with the modern leaders of the Sikh sect. (M. M.)
GRANTHAM, THOMAS ROBINSON, 1st Baron (c. 1695–1770), English diplomatist and politician, was a younger son of Sir William Robinson, Bart. (1655–1736) of Newby, Yorkshire, who was member of parliament for York from 1697 to 1722. Having been a scholar and minor fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, Thomas Robinson gained his earliest diplomatic experience in Paris and then went to Vienna, where he was English ambassador from 1730 to 1748. During 1741 he sought to make peace between the empress Maria Theresa and Frederick the Great, but in vain, and in 1748 he represented his country at the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. Returning to England he sat in parliament for Christchurch from 1749 to 1761. In 1754 Robinson was appointed a secretary of state and leader of the House of Commons by the prime minister, the duke of Newcastle, and it was on this occasion that Pitt made the famous remark to Fox, “the duke might as well have sent us his jackboot to lead us.” In November 1755 he resigned, and in April 1761 he was created Baron Grantham. He was master of the wardrobe from 1749 to 1754 and again from 1755 to 1760, and was joint postmaster-general in 1765 and 1766. He died in London on the 30th of September 1770.
Grantham’s elder son, Thomas Robinson (1738–1786), who became the 2nd baron, was born at Vienna on the 30th of November 1738. Educated at Westminster School and at Christ’s College, Cambridge, he entered parliament as member for Christchurch in 1761, and succeeded to the peerage in 1770. In 1771 he was sent as ambassador to Madrid and retained this post until war broke out between England and Spain in 1779. From 1780 to 1782 Grantham was first commissioner of the board of trade and foreign plantations, and from July 1782 to April 1783 secretary for the foreign department under Lord Shelburne. He died on the 20th of July 1786, leaving two sons, Thomas Philip, who became the 3rd baron, and Frederick John afterwards 1st earl of Ripon.
Thomas Philip Robinson, 3rd Baron Grantham (1781–1859). in 1803 took the name of Weddell instead of that of Robinson. In May 1833 he became Earl de Grey of Wrest on the death of his maternal aunt, Amabell Hume-Campbell, Countess de Grey (1751–1833), and he now took the name of de Grey. He was first lord of the admiralty under Sir Robert Peel in 1834–1835
