October

Within walking distance of Kings Cross and St. Pancras Stations, the British Library is one of the greatest repositories of printed material in the world. It houses the entire archives of British India from the founding of the East India Company, to the annexation of Punjab, and Independence in 1947. The Library is home to the greatest collection of Sikh and Punjabi manuscripts outside India.

Amongst these manuscripts are early handwritten examples of Sikh scriptures and the prayer book of the remarkable Maharani Jind Kaur, Maharajah Duleep Singh’s mother, who died in London in 1863. This image is taken from the prayer book. Originally published and produced in Lahore, 1828-1830, the image depicts Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, in debate with Hindu holymen.

This manuscript consists of three compositions from the Adi Granth, one by Guru Nanak, and the other two by Guru Arjan.

“It was reserved for Nanak to perceive the true principles of reform, and to lay those broad foundations which enabled his successor Gobind to fire the minds of his countrymen with a new nationality, and give practical effect to the doctrine that the lowest is equal with the highest, in race as in creed, in political rights as in religious hopes.”

J D Cunningham, History of the Sikhs, 1849