I am Daarji

For years, I have been contemplating on the fusion of lore and history of the Janam-Sakhis . Janam-Sakhis are the earliest narrative on the life of Guru Nanak and his travels, they weave history, mythology and imaginative fiction so skillfully and intricately that many a child is totally enthralled, and a thinking adult like me are almost equally baffled by the mystique. …..Literally taken a ‘Janam-Sakhis’ means… life story made up of parables on the Guru's life, each consisting of a series of separate incidents or chapters normally in chronological order, entitled sakhis or gosts. The script for the Janam-Sakhis is Gurmukhi, but the language was a composite dialect called ‘Sant Bhasa’ akin to Punjabi. Jail where Babur imprisoned  Guru Nanak The earliest known Janam-Sakhi was written in 1658; 120 years after the death of Guru Nanak Dev…. Hence facts concerning Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s life are diverse and mixed…..with each chronicler adding and altering to the conveni...

Our Collective Heritage Cultures have concealed secrets and hidden them away under veneers of centuries, by and by they gently get exposed as stories… through myth, through history, and through art, and as much as through science. These stories inform, entertain and in many cases, enlighten us. Look…..look carefully and you will notice, that all life is a fabric of myriad interwoven stories…..but then isn't life all but a big storyboard of an animation series! Stories recreate basis of culture, art and history; they form the adhesive that holds us together and gives us a sense of identity and roots; Historian and researchers   tend to be dismissive about this complex mixture of fact and fiction, but these lores have an impact more vibrant and   greater lasting than either fact or fiction alone. These stories are our collective heritage.