The Hikayatan (“stories” in Farsi) are proving to be an interesting work which has unfortunately been overlooked by Sikhs for most of our history.

Guru Gobind Singh by Ram Chand, Patiala, Punjab (1830-1840) - Toor Collection.

The largest breakthroughs we have had in analysing the poetry were made by historians @FenechLou and Melikian-Chirvani.

With most pieces of literature, we need to realise the previous compositions which gave rise to such works.

Hikayat 8 proved to me how backward it is to look at the text in isolation, for the Guru makes mention of Siyavash, Key Khusrow (et al from the Shahnameh); Adam and Muhammad (Abrahamic figures), even Alexander the Great (historical figures) and many Mughal emperors.

The first group is key to contextualising the poems the tenth Guru composed. This is because there are not only references to these characters, like those found in Hikayat 8 above, but also because whole Hikayats are based around the figures of the Shahnameh.

Hikayat 7 is based around the birth of Dārāb to Queen Homay (not “Queen Phoenix”, which a previous Punjabi-English translator had come up with), the daughter of the hero Bahman. Ferdowsi, the composer of the Shahnameh, narrates that Dārāb was in fact born to Homay and Bahman.

However, Guru Gobind Singh narrates that Homay “caught sight of a young jeweller and brought him into the palace under the mistiness of nighttime. She then kept him there for two, then three, then four months in all, till her stomach fell heavy with the seed of her courtier.”

One wonders why the Guru had a slightly different tale about Dārāb’s birth to Homay. One theory could be that the story was changed to suit Indic culture, as consanguineous marriages, between father and daughter, were not popular nor sanctioned by the common religions.

This seems quite possible considering the fact that another “young jeweller” has a relationship with another character in a different Hikayat.

Another theory could be that the Guru’s version of the birth of Dārāb comes from other epics concerned with characters from this Hikayat, such as the Dārābnameh or the Homaynameh.

The second group, consisting of Adam and Muhammad (Abrahamic figures), is also key to understanding Dasam bani in general! These tales are not just Farsi stories- we need to understand the background to the Hikayatan’s devotional verses and the multiculturalism of Anandpur.

All of the Hikayats, including the Zafarnameh, begin with a manglacharan, or invocation, separate from the Sikh manglacharan of “ੴ ਸ੍ਰੀ ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ ਜੀ ਕੀ ਫ਼ਤਿਹ” (Ik Oankar Sri Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh), which could have been added by Bhai Mani Singh when he organised Sri Dasam Granth.

These manglacharans (~2 couplets long) blend and intertwine Farsi devotional language with Arabic, or Quranic, language. This is in-line with @jvalaaa ‘s work on Guru Gobind Singh’s blending of Persian and Arabic language to describe or praise God in Sri Jaap.

(On the topic of language, I would also like to draw your attention to Hikayat 2 of Raja Daleep. This tale actually begins with praise of God, reminiscent of the Braj Bhujang Prayaat and Chachri Chhands of Sri Jaap.

This blending of Persian & Arabic language with Braj Bhasha bhakti poetry in the Hikayatan, also shown in Sri Jaap, is testament to the unique brilliance of the Anandpur Darbar.)

Some of these manglacharans are meant to echo prior champions of Farsi literature such as Saadi, as noted by @FenechLou in his brilliant book “The Sikh Zafarnamah of Guru Gobind Singh: A Discursive Blade in the heart of the Mughal Empire”:

کریما ببجشای بر حال ما

که هستیم اسیر کمند هوا

ਕਰੀਮਾ ਬਬਖ਼ਸ਼ਾਇ ਬਰ ਹਾਲ ਮਾ
ਕਿ ਹਸਤੀਮ ਅਸੀਰ ਕਮੰਦ ਹਵਾ

Karima babakhshay bar haal ma
Keh hastim aseere kamande hawa

Merciful Lord, forgive us in our current state,
We, who are prisoners in this snare of vanity.

-Saadi's Karima

کمال کرامات قایم کریم
رضا بخش رازق رهاکن رحیم

ਕਮਾਲੇ ਕਰਾਮਾਤ ਕਾਯਮ ਕਰੀਮ
ਰਜ਼ਾ ਬਖ਼ਸ਼ ਰਾਜ਼ਕ ਰਹਾਕੁਨ ਰਹੀਮ

Kamaale karaamaat qaayam kareem
Razaa bakhsh raazaq rahaakun raheem

O sublime miracle maker, firm and merciful,
O bestower of pleasure, sustainer, liberate me, Merciful one.

The final group of historical figures (Alexander the Great and Sher Shah Suri et al.) plays into Guru Gobind Singh’s message to Aurangzeb. This bait (couplet)of Hikayat 8 talks about the disappearances of the kings of old:

کجا شاهی اسکندر و شیر شاه
که یک هم نماند است زنده به جاه

ਕੁਜਾ ਸ਼ਾਹਿ ਇਸਕੰਦਰ ਓ ਸ਼ੇਰ ਸ਼ਾਹ
ਕਿ ਯਕ ਹਮ ਨਮਾਂਦ ਅਸਤ ਜ਼ਿੰਦਹ ਬਿ ਜਾਹ

Where is King Alexander the Great, and where Sher Shah Suri,
For not one of them is/has been kept alive in proper esteem.

It could be said that this section of Hikayat 8, focussing on the inevitable death/fall of rulers, may be alluding to the inescapable demise of Aurangzeb himself, in a subtle, but high-tone manner.

If you’ve made it to the end of this thread, you may be wondering whether you can read this bani. Yes, you can. The Hikayatan follow on from the Zafarnameh at the end of Sri Dasam Granth, however, the Gurmukhi transliteration isn’t very accurate.

The current “translations” of this bani are also rather shabby, making up the story where the Farsi poetry gets tough. For this reason, I have been working on transliterating & translating this composition for the past year for the community.

In the meantime, I strongly encourage everyone to get hold of a copy of @FenechLou ‘s book on the Zafarnameh, which I mentioned earlier, and to read Melikian-Chirvani’s Journal article “The Shah-Name Echoes in Sikh Poetry and the origins of the Nihangs’ name”.