Gurinder Singh Mann: Sikh manuscripts and scripture

A scholar of Sikh studies

Gurinder Singh Mann is a scholar whose work includes Sikh manuscripts, scripture and history. The University of California, Santa Barbara identifies him as a retired Kundan Kaur Kapany Professor of Sikh Studies and gives his period in the chair as 1999–2015. A university announcement from 1998 identified him as the first recipient of that endowed chair. The announcement anticipated a joint appointment in global studies and religious studies at Santa Barbara. These sources describe institutional roles at different dates, which should not be assumed to represent an unchanged current appointment.[1][5]

Researching early Sikh scripture

In The Making of Sikh Scripture, Mann examines early manuscripts and Sikh sources in Punjab to reconstruct the making of the Adi Granth.[2]

His curriculum vitae lists the book’s publication by Oxford University Press in 2001 and several later editions. It also records teaching and public presentations on Sikh history and texts. A publication record identifies the work and its versions; readers need the actual text to examine the evidence for a particular interpretation. Mann’s work places manuscript history in dialogue with the development of Sikh communities and the ways their traditions have been studied.[4]

The Indiana University Libraries catalogue describes his earlier study of the Goindval pothis as early Sikh canonical material. Its catalogue record helps readers locate an edition of the book and identify its subject, while the book itself is needed to assess the manuscript evidence and the arguments Mann draws from it.[3]

The Goindval Pothis and other work

Mann’s earlier book The Goindval Pothis appeared in the Harvard Oriental Series in 1996. An Indiana University library catalogue identifies its subject as early material related to the Sikh canon and records its publication by Harvard’s Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies. Mann’s professional biography also lists writing on Sikhism and work on the Journal of Punjab Studies. Library records are useful for checking a title, author and edition; the scholarly work itself supplies the evidence behind an argument. Readers can compare manuscript studies and historical interpretations to understand where scholars agree or differ.[3]