Debating the Dasam Granth is an ambitious and innovative undertaking by Robin Rinehart to reframe discussions about the Dasam Granth, a text whose authorship, historical provenance, and “religious” status remain controversial. But Rinehart's work has as much to do with understanding the broader Indic courtly and literary landscape in which the text emerged as it does with getting past the seemingly ubiquitous issue of authorship that has plagued so many earlier studies of the Dasam Granth. Rinehart argues the Dasam Granth is unified by two key, inextricable themes: leadership and the maintenance of dharma. Rinehart's analysis reveals a thematically unified text, one that reflects the poetic form and performative nature of courtly literature in the eighteenth century Indic context.
Following a clear, succinct Introduction, “The Life of Guru Gobind Singh (1666–1708) and the History of the Dasam Granth,” provides a brief sketch of the context and noteworthy events relating to Guru Gobind Singh's life, furnishes the reader with series of brief, but helpful synopses of the various sections of the text, and identifies possible sources for and threads of redaction that have contributed to the modern text known as the Dasam Granth.
The third chapter, “The ‘Wondrous Drama’ of Guru Gobind Singh,” relates the narrative outline of the Bachitra Natak beginning with the ancestry of the Sodhi lineage in which Rinehart highlights the recurring attention given to role of leaders/kings within the framework of the yugas during which dharma steadily erodes, through to Guru Gobind Singh's birth and subsequent battles and negotiations with neighboring kings and courts. Among other things, Rinehart suggests the Bachitra Natak “has far more in common with traditional Indian genres of panegyrics of royal families and spiritual leaders than it does with more recent forms of autobiography” (p. 67)
“Tales of the Goddess” addresses the abundance of material relating to the goddess in the Dasam Granth. Rather than promoting belief in and devotion to the goddess, Rinehart draws a compelling and innovative connection between not only worldly (human) and cosmic (gods and goddess) maintenance of dharma, but suggests that the goddess narratives in the Dasam Granth reflect striking continuity with the theme of leadership evident in the Bachitra Natak.
The fifth chapter deals with the Charitropakhian. Rinehart argues the Tricky Tales are “concerned with the issue of dharma … primarily the personal dharma or duties and obligations of a ruler and also makes connections between the maintenance of proper order in the world of the gods and the world of humans” (p. 114). Rather focusing on the explicit (and often illicit) content of individual charitas, Rinehart posits that these tales as a group “illustrate practical wisdom and shrewdness rather than advocating a particular moral code” (p. 142), and to that extent the Charitropakhian ought to be framed within the broader Indic tradition of storytelling and performance indicative of courtly literature (p. 143).
Rinehart uses the conclusion of “Debating the Dasam Granth” to reflect upon several recurring threads that emerge over the course of her analysis. Rinehart 1) reminds the reader of the historical contingencies of meaning as they relate to key terms and concepts, 2) draws attention to the permeability of leadership types, and 3) identifies the emergence of Sikh specific understandings of these terms, concepts, and categories. For example, Rinehart identifies “leadership” and “dharma under threat” as persistent and unifying themes in the Dasam Granth. But she argues that “dharma” is understood in different ways in different contexts, and that modern reified and “Hinduized” usages of the term do not map well onto the emerging Sikh understanding articulated in the Dasam Granth. Here, Rinehart offers a fine analysis of the kshatriya dharma as it relates to and departs from the role and symbol of the Sikh guru. In doing so, she places Dasam Granth within the larger framework of Indic poetic and literary traditions, demonstrating points of continuity and innovation with those traditions within the Dasam Granth. In a similar vein, Rinehart effectively sheds light on the overlap of roles and symbols (i.e. kings, gurus, and avataras) that have intermingled throughout Indian history.
Robin Rinehart provides an accessible yet nuanced introduction to the Dasam Granth for those who may be less acquainted with the text, while at the same time offers a sophisticated and compelling reframing of this complex, understudied, and controversial work. Debating the Dasam Granth is both summative and formative. Rinehart provides concise summaries of the key sections of the Dasam Granth and of the life of Guru Gobind Singh, in addition to mapping the landscape of Dasam Granth scholarship. This makes Debating the Dasam Granth a valuable reference work. At the same time, Rinehart offers an innovative new model for understanding the text and its context. Rinehart is sensitive to the possible redactions of the text, but she resists being drawn into tangential debates about textual or authorial authenticity. Debating the Dasam Granth is a well written, cogent work that signals a new approach not only for those interested in understanding the Dasam Granth, but for those interested more generally in Indic “religion” and culture.
