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This appreciation gets problematic when one goes through the translation, which is more in the nature of explication. Of the 183 episodes of unequal length, this volume comprises 83. The first 30 episodes relate to the Sikh Gurus. In a way, they establish the sovereignty of Gurmat as inscribed in Guru Granth Sahib. In its enunciation, Bhangoo kept its subtleties at bay. He was clear about its past significance and present meaning. So many factors of affiliation might have been there, which impelled him to project the sovereignty of the Panth in the first and last instance. Much is not told by Sikh historians, including the translator, about his orientation, except that he was the grandson of Mahtab Singh, the legendary Sikh hero and martyr of the era when the struggle for establishing the sovereignty of the Panth went on. On his mother’s side, he was related to Sham Singh of Karoresinghia. This is the bare outline beyond which no effort has been made to know about Bhangoo. The same is the case about Sainapat of a century earlier, the author of Gur Sobha, of which Bhangoo was not aware. To hold that in his mind, the passion for the sovereignty of the Panth overshadowed everything else may be an exaggeration, but it is of the vital truth. His masterpiece ended up as a kaleidoscope of heroic actions, adventures and sacrifices. His gaze got so focused upon the actualities of this struggle that except when oral history did not come to his help, he had recourse to references and analogies. He could not forego to mention the discomfiture Mata Gujri was constrained to feel in face of the innovative strategies Guru Gobind Singh adopted to forge the Khalsa. Similarly, he read no metaphysical meaning in the Guru’s departure from Anandpur Sahib. To all intents and purposes, it was, in his view, a great defeat the Guru had to face at the onset of his epistemic career. Likewise, the disappointment in store for him when the valiant Majha disciples left, and the hurdles Malwa followers posed during days when the Guru was in wilderness, are mentioned. This composition, encompassing broad chronology but without formal coherence, charms the translator. He goes to the extent of calling it an epic of the sublime order. This eulogy is a result more of subjective enthusiasm than objective appreciation. Basic to the epic in general is the homogeneity of personages and events, which communicate wisdom as the correlative of truth. In Bhangoo’s masterpiece, heterogeneity is the major factor seeking to present actuality as truth. This gets clearer from episodes relating to Banda Bahadur. Bhangoo wrote a historical
chronicle with his passion for the sovereignty of the Panth ensconced
both in his head and heart. Rather than reveal the actuality of the
predicament the Panth was faced with, the translator’s argument
conceals it with a gloss. So does his whole endeavour of translating
this masterpiece through explicatory measures. No wonder, utterances in
the original couched in four or five words expand into double the number
of words in translation. Diwana, a simple but poignant word of
the original becomes "careless romantic" in translation. How
one wishes it to have been translation capable of awarding afterlife in
English to the life of this masterpiece in Punjabi!
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This is the English
version of Rattan Singh Bhangoo’s Sri Guru Granth Prakash,
which is about the origin and development of Sikh history. Bhangoo
composed it in hybrid language, the script being Gurmukhi. Largely Braj,
it carried elements of colloquial Punjabi, Sanskrit and Persian. In
spite of this, its reading is arduous. By bringing out this English
version, Kulwant Singh has extended its reading range. Its bilingual
publication, accompanied with the original text’s transcription in the
Roman script, equips these readers with a local habitation and name.