The compilation of the Adi Granth: collection, organisation and interpretation

The collection associated with 1604

The Adi Granth’s compilation is associated with Guru Arjan and the year 1604. Taran Singh’s reference account identifies Bhai Gurdas as the scribe. The collection brought together compositions of the first five Gurus and other devotional authors, including figures from different religious backgrounds. Gurmukhi was the script of transcription. This original compilation should be distinguished from the later development of the Guru Granth Sahib’s present form and status. Treating every stage as one event obscures the history of both the text and its reception.[1]

Earlier pothis and manuscript research

The work drew on a history of collecting hymns before 1604. In his available manuscript-survey abstract, Pashaura Singh proposes that writing may have begun during Guru Nanak’s lifetime, and that the compilation continued through Guru Arjan’s period of leadership. He identifies the Goindval pothis associated with Guru Amar Das as important earlier collections, including writings of the first three Gurus and devotional poets. These are the scholar’s arguments about textual development. His cautious proposals about beginnings should not become an exact, universally agreed starting date.[2]

Ordering verse and reading the sources

The encyclopaedia describes an arrangement by musical measure, followed by authorship and poetic forms in a defined sequence. It also draws detailed narrative material from later works such as Gurbilas Chhevin Patshahi and Mahima Prakash. Those accounts belong to the history of remembering the compilation, rather than direct observation by this site.[1]

Pashaura Singh’s editorial chapter instead asks how content, poetic structure and theological concerns shaped the collection. Its abstract presents coherence and editorial choice as central to Guru Arjan’s work. Reading the two approaches together distinguishes a narrative of compilation from scholarly analysis of the scripture’s organisation. The editorial abstract identifies inclusion, a balanced life and a distinctive Sikh identity among the principles it analyses.[3]