Question from a satsanggi:
Vaars are made up of a number of pauris. Asa Ki Vaar is special as it incorporates Sloks as well.
The rahau has come in the Slok. Would Vaars (without Sloks) have rahau in them?
Bhai Manjeet Singh Ji’s reply:
It is not true that there is never a rahau in Sloks. Take Asa Ki Vaar for example, at Ang 469, the Slok
“dukh daru sukh rogh bhaeyaa..’
ਦੁਖੁ ਦਾਰੂ ਸੁਖੁ ਰੋਗੁ ਭਇਆ ਜਾ ਸੁਖੁ ਤਾਮਿ ਨ ਹੋਈ ॥
has a rahao.
What is even more remarkable is, it appears in a Vaar. The Vaars are unique in the SGGS Ji.
The Vaar is actually a ballad sung by minstrels in praise of a great warrior. Throughout history, odes or ballads were sung about great Kings or some great general or warrior who had shown exceptional valour. Odes exist till today, which sing of the valour of Charlemaigne and Hannibal.
Odes or ballads used to be sung in India too. The dhuni of Asa Ki Vaar for e.g. is set to “tunda as raja ki dhuni…”
As was a prince in medieval India. He was a historical person as opposed to a mythological one. His aged father took on a young queen. She had dishonourable intentions about As. He was shocked and refused her advances. He was falsely accused by her, and As’s father ordered that As be killed. The executioner knew As was a honourable person and just cut off his hand instead of killing As. In Punjabi a man with an amputated hand is referred to as a “tunda”.
As fate would have it, As became king of the neighbouring kingdom. His father’s kingdom was struck by famine. As supplied food and grain to it. Despite this, one of As’ brothers who was now running As’ father’s kingdom waged war against As. As won the war. He took over the kingdom. He treated his step mother and his vanquished brother with dignity. The common man composed a ballad about As’ greatness and magnanimity.
When Guru Arjun Dev Ji compiled Pothi Sahib in 1604, Guru Ji ordained that Asa Ki Vaar be sung the tune of “Tunde As Raje Ki Dhuni” which was still in vogue in India. You will note that the last line of each pauri in Asa Ki Vaar is very short. The pauris of the Vaar of As Raja also has a final line which is short. Thus, when you listen to a ragi doing kirtan in Tunde As Raje Ki Dhuni you will note that to balance the length of the lines, they always says twice “Sri Vaheguru, Vaheguru..”. Or the balance would be created by reading the same pangti twice like “Kar asan ditho chaoo, kar asan ditho chaoo” as in the first pauri. That is just a sample of the many aspects of that dhuni.
The CD by Bhai Surjan Singh Ji, the blind ragi ji in the 60’s, is sung in this dhuni and it can be found on the net.
Nine (9) of the Vaars have dhunies set by Guru Sahib. The rest of the Vaars are meant to be sung in the particular raag they have been set in for e.g. Bihagre Ki Vaar has no dhuni prescribed and would be sung in Raag Bihagra.
I wrote to that to give a brief background of Vaars in general.
Prefacing your query, you state that a Vaar “is made up of a number of paurian. The Asa ki Vaar is special as it incorporates Sloks as well…”.
There are 22 Vaars In SGGS Ji. The “main body” of all the Vaars are indeed the pauris. However, of these 22 Vaars only 2 of them do not have Sloks i.e the vast majority of Vaars have Sloks juxtaposed between the pauris. Most Sikh scholars accept that Guru Arjun Dev Ji saw the Vaars in their original form of only pauris. Guru Ji then put in selected Sloks before each pauri to highlight the message in the pauris. Take Asa Ki Vaar for example. It contains Sloks of Guru Angad Dev Ji masterfully crafted into the Vaar. These Sloks by Guru Angad Ji would not have been put in by Guru Nanak Dev Ji who was before Guru Angad Dev Ji.
From here, let’s look at the structure of a Vaar. It is a ballad of a hero. In Gurbani the hero or “surma” is always Naam, God, Guru Ji, Satsangat, the Gurmukh. In a ballad, the content is about a war of great victory the surma has won. It is always about the triumph of someone. In the Vaars the Gurus have masterfully spoken of the triumph of good over evil with Naam. In a ballad there is much spoken about the ferocity of the battle. There is thrust and parry. There is the clashing of warriors, there is injury, then there is repair, there is gloom, at times there is joy.
The Gurus have used the Vaars to devastating effect. There is talk of the great power of maya, the damage caused by the armies of kaam, krodh, lobh, moh and ahankaar represented by manmukhs, karam kandees, superstitious and all sort of persons who are not in His Razaa. The Gurus have used Naam as the main weapon. The whole campaign has to be won by taking sharan of the Satguru who completely follows the Will of the Lord ensuring certain victory. By juxtaposing the Shabads between the pauris, Guru Arjun Ji created an unmatchable Perfect Masterpiece. We now find the clash between Godly Values and evil ones engaged in a pitched battle. The victory is always of Naam, God, The Guru, good, the Gurmukh over evil. What a mind-blowing setting and structure!
Your next query is “would Vaars (without Sloks) still have rahao in them?” There are only 2 Vaars without Sloks. One is only 3 paras long – Basant Ki Vaar at Ang 1193. The other Vaar without Sloks is at Ang 966-968 by Bhai Satta and Balwand Ji. The answer is no. These 2 Vaars which have only pauris do not have any rahao in them.
However, Ramkali Ki Vaar by Guru Amardas Ji is special in one aspect. This is from Angs 947 – 956. There, the 1st pauri has a rahao. This is the only Vaar I know of which has a rahao in the pauri (not Slok). With this rahao, the first pauri has 6 lines. All the remaining 20 pauris have 5 lines only which do not rhyme at the end. Thus, the tradition has come up amongst many Sikhs to repeat the rahao of the first pauri with every pauri to make it 6 lines. If you do that, the fifth line of each pauri rhymes with the rahao line which goes
“Vah vah sache patshah tu sache nayee.”
ਵਾਹੁ ਵਾਹੁ ਸਚੇ ਪਾਤਿਸਾਹ ਤੂ ਸਚੀ ਨਾਈ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
What amazing structure!
Ramkali Ki Vaar M 3 is therefore unique, and one is left wondering at the Divine genius who designed and wrote that Bani. This was an aged Guru who became Guru when he was 72 and carried on till 95. It is not really a wonder because it is this same Guru Sahib who said
“Gurmukh budhay kaday nahi..”.
ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਬੁਢੇ ਕਦੇ ਨਾਹੀ ਜਿਨ੍ਹ੍ਹਾ ਅੰਤਰਿ ਸੁਰਤਿ ਗਿਆਨੁ ॥
You will also note this Guru Sahiban wrote an exceptionally large number of Sloks as compared with other Guru Sahibs. One scholar has painstakingly listed the 3rd Guru Ji’s Sloks as 409.
These are my humble views about some aspects of the Baee Vaaran.
Gurfateh
Manjeet Singh
September 19, 2011.
