Thursday 3 January 2013

Relationship between Hikayats and Charitropakhyan Narratives

For general information,
Hikayats in Dasam Granth are also narratives and similar to those stories in Charitropakhyan. In fact, many of these are the Persian translations of the narratives in Charitropakhyan.

For instance,

Hikayat 4 and Charitra 52
Hikayat 5 and Charitra 267
Hikayat 8 and Charitra 118
Hikayat 9 and Charitra 290
Hikayat 11 and Charitra 246

The similarity of narratives in Hikayats and Charitropakhyan serves as an additional proof of single Authorship.

Hikayats have independently been established as Guru Gobind Singh's writings by historical sources such as Gurbilas Patshahi 10 by Koer Singh(1751), gives as follows:

ਜਫ਼ਰਨਾਮ ਹੈ ਸਭ ਜਗ ਜਾਨੈ। ਲਿਖੀ ਹਿਕਾਯਤ ਦਵਾਦਸ ਤਾ ਮੈ। (ਪੰਨਾ 199)

Parchi Sevadas(1741) also mentioned the same in Sakhi no. 13:
ਸਾਖੀ ੧੩ : ਅਗੇ ਸਾਖੀ ਦਸਵੇਂ ਮਹਲ ਕੀ ਤੁਰੀਆਂ:
......... ਓਹ ਖਤ ਮੇ ਕੇਤੇ ਫਰਦ ਲੀਖੇ | ਕੇਤੀਆ ਰੁਬਾਈਆਂ , ਕੇਤੀਆ ਬਾਦਸ਼ਾਹ ਕੀਆਂ ਸਾਖੀਆਂ ਲਿਖੀਆਂ | ਅਰੁ ਕਛੁ ਆਪਣੀ ਹਕੀਕਤ ਭੀ ਲਿਖੀ | .........