1 238 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 day of the light half of Bhadon, Sambat1 1661 (a.d. 1604). The
3 Guru called all his Sikhs to see the precious compilation, which was,
4 by the advice of Bhai Gur Das, deposited in the Har Mandar.
5 Amongst those who came to see the Oranth was Bhai Banno, who
6 \ resided at Mangat. He came with a large following and begged
7 that he might have the loan of the book to show it to his flock.
8 The Guru was most unwilling to part with it, but was finally pre-
9 vailed on to do so. According to his order Bhai Banno might read
10 it to his Sikhs on his way home, but he was not to retain it in his
11 village for more than a single night. Bhai Banno accordingly took
12 the Oranth, and made his journey to Mangat so slowly that he was
13 able to take a copy of the whole volume before returning it. There
14 is another story — namely, that the Oranth Sahib was entrusted to
15 Bhai Banno to have it bound in Lahore, and that in taking it there
16 he had an unauthorized copy prepared. Bhai Banno inserted in his
17 edition selections from his own compositions.
18 Prior to the days of Guru Angad the compositions of the saints
19 and reformers were for the most part written in the Sanskrit char-
20 acter. On the death of Baba Nanak, Guru Angad, deeming that
21 the compositions of his master were worthy of a special character
22 of their own, adopted and modified a Punjabi alphabet, thencefor-
23 ward called Gurumukhi, to give expression to what had fallen from
24 the Guru's lips. The Gurumukhi character was well calculated to
25 make its readers part with Hindu compositions written in Sanskrit.
26 The Gurumukhi 8 is the Sanskrit M, the Gurumukhi M is the
27 Sanskrit Bh, the Gurumukhi W is the Sanskrit D, the Gurumukhi
28 Dh is the Sanskrit P, and the Gurumukhi B is nearly the Sanskrit
29 Oh. When, therefore, one has become accustomed to the use of
30 the Gurumukhi letters, a special and separate effort is required
31 to read Sanskrit, however much one may have been previously
32 acquainted with it. The result has been that in most cases
33 Gurumukhi scholars have parted company with Sanskrit and the
34 multitudinous works in that recondite language.
35 1 The era commonly used by the Hindus of the northern half of India is that
36 called Sambat (Sanskrit, samvat, "year"), which dates from the month Katik of
37 the year 57 B.C., when King Vikramaditya is said to have ascended the throne of
38 Ujjain.