1,430 angs, six Gurus and fifteen bhagats, arranged by raag: the volume that became the Guru itself in 1708 and has held the office since.
The Guru Granth Sahib is the Sikh scripture and, since 1708, the Sikh Guru. Guru Gobind Singh ended the line of human Gurus at Nanded by conferring the Guruship on the volume, and Sikhs have followed no living Guru since. It runs to 1,430 angs, carries compositions by six of the ten Gurus alongside fifteen bhagats from outside the Sikh line, and is organised by raag rather than by author or chronology.
| Literally | The Guru that is the Granth, a granth being a volume or book |
|---|---|
| Origin | Compiled in Gurmukhi script, in Punjabi, Braj, Sanskrit, Persian and other languages of the period |
| Established by | Compiled by Guru Arjan in 1604; made the eternal Guru by Guru Gobind Singh at Nanded in 1708 |
| Where it appears | 1,430 angs, arranged by raag after the opening compositions |
| Where you meet it | Installed in every gurdwara, where its presence is what makes the room a gurdwara at all |
The volume was compiled by Guru Arjan in 1604 as the Adi Granth, written out by Bhai Gurdas and installed in the Harmandir Sahib with Baba Buddha as its first granthi. Guru Gobind Singh prepared the final recension at Damdama Sahib in 1706, adding his father Guru Tegh Bahadur's hymns and, pointedly, none of his own. Two years later at Nanded, dying of an assassin's wounds, he conferred the Guruship on the book.
What that succession means in practice is unusual. The Guru Granth Sahib is not treated as a text about the Guru but as the Guru, and the treatment follows: it rests on a raised platform under a canopy, is fanned with a chaur, is put to rest at night and brought out in the morning, and a gurdwara is defined as any room where it is installed. A decision taken before it carries the weight a decision before a living Guru would.
The contents are more open than the word scripture suggests. Six Gurus contributed, and alongside them stand fifteen bhagats who were never Sikh at all: Kabir the weaver, Ravidas the leather-worker whose caste made him untouchable, Namdev, and the Muslim Sufi Farid among them. Guru Arjan put a low-caste tanner and a Muslim divine inside the same volume as the Gurus, which is a statement about where truth may be found rather than an act of anthologising.
The arrangement is musical. After the opening compositions the volume is ordered by raag, thirty-one of them, and within each raag by author in order of succession. That is why most of it is sung as kirtan rather than read aloud, and why Japji Sahib, which carries no raag heading, sits outside the scheme at the front and is recited instead.
Six of the ten Gurus contributed. Three of the others composed nothing, and Guru Gobind Singh kept his own work out deliberately.
| Contributor | Hymns | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Guru Arjan | 2,218 | The largest contribution, and the compiler of the 1604 volume |
| Guru Nanak | 974 | Includes Japji Sahib, placed first |
| Guru Amar Das | 907 | Includes Anand Sahib in Raag Ramkali |
| Guru Ram Das | 679 | Includes the Lavan sung at every Anand Karaj |
| Guru Tegh Bahadur | 115 | Added by Guru Gobind Singh at Damdama Sahib in 1706 |
| Guru Angad | 62 | Saloks; his larger contribution was standardising Gurmukhi |
| Fifteen bhagats | Varies | Kabir, Ravidas, Namdev and the Sufi Farid among them, none of whom were Sikh |
The consequences of a book holding the office of Guru.
| Practice | What it is |
|---|---|
| Palki and canopy | Rests on a raised platform beneath a canopy, never on the floor and never below the sangat |
| Chaur | A whisk waved over it, the attendance owed to a sovereign |
| Sukhasan and Prakash | Put to rest at night and brought out ceremonially in the morning |
| Hukamnama | Opened at random and read, taken as the Guru's order for that moment |
| Defining a gurdwara | Any room where it is installed is a gurdwara; without it, a building is not one |
The count of hymns attributed to each Guru varies between sources and counting conventions, which is why the figures here are given as the most widely cited rather than as settled: Guru Nanak appears as 974 or 976, Guru Arjan as 2,218 or 2,216, Guru Tegh Bahadur as 115 or 118. The number of bhagats is usually given as fifteen, though some enumerations differ depending on whether certain contributors are counted separately. None of this affects the volume itself, whose text has been fixed since 1706; it affects only how the contents are tallied.
Sevahey publishes no text from the Guru Granth Sahib: no Gurmukhi, no transliteration, no translation and no recording. These pages explain the volume and never reproduce it, and for the words themselves a devotee should read the volume or use a gurudwara's own resource. Sevahey also does not arrange an Akhand Path or a Sehaj Path, both of which run through a gurudwara directly, and does not sell or supply copies of the volume.
An ardas is spoken standing before the Guru Granth Sahib, and a hukamnama is taken from it immediately afterward, the volume opened at random and read as the Guru's answer for that moment. That hukamnama is part of what a verified Sevak sends you: the granthi speaks your name, your gotra and your request aloud, and you receive the reading along with same-day proof.
The Guru Granth Sahib is the Sikh scripture and, since 1708, the Sikh Guru itself. Guru Gobind Singh ended the line of human Gurus by conferring the Guruship on the volume at Nanded. It runs to 1,430 angs and carries compositions by six of the ten Gurus alongside fifteen bhagats from outside the Sikh tradition.
Because Guru Gobind Singh conferred the office on it in 1708 rather than on another person, and Sikhs have followed no living Guru since. The treatment follows from the status: the volume rests on a raised platform under a canopy, is attended with a chaur, is put to rest at night, and any room where it is installed is by definition a gurdwara.
1,430, called angs rather than pages, and the pagination is identical in every printed copy so a reference points to the same place worldwide. Japji Sahib occupies angs 1 to 8, Anand Sahib angs 917 to 922, and Sukhmani Sahib angs 262 to 296.
Six of the ten: Guru Nanak, Guru Angad, Guru Amar Das, Guru Ram Das, Guru Arjan and Guru Tegh Bahadur. Guru Hargobind, Guru Har Rai and Guru Har Krishan composed nothing, and Guru Gobind Singh deliberately kept his own compositions out when he prepared the final recension in 1706.
Yes. Fifteen bhagats appear alongside the Gurus, including Kabir the weaver, Ravidas the leather-worker whose caste made him untouchable, Namdev, and the Muslim Sufi Farid. Guru Arjan placed their compositions in the volume deliberately, as a statement that truth is not confined to one community.
By raag, the musical measure, rather than by author or chronology. After the opening compositions the volume runs through thirty-one raags, and within each raag the Gurus appear in order of succession. That is why most of it is sung as kirtan, and why Japji Sahib, which carries no raag heading, sits outside the scheme and is recited instead.
A hukamnama is a reading taken by opening the Guru Granth Sahib at random and reading the composition found there, treated as the Guru's order for that moment. It follows the ardas in a gurdwara service, and it is part of the proof a verified Sevak sends when an ardas is requested in your name.
No. Sevahey does not sell or supply copies of the volume, and publishes no text from it in any form, including transliteration and translation. What a verified Sevak can arrange is an ardas spoken before it at a gurudwara, with the hukamnama read afterward sent to you along with same-day proof.
Choose the gurudwara, name your sankalp, receive the proof.
* These pages explain Sikh terms and do not reproduce scripture. A full seva is ₹899; sevas start from ₹251. Sevahey is a service platform and does not promise a spiritual, medical, financial, legal, or personal outcome from any prayer or ritual.