Currently, in the panth, there are many different styles of Gurbani ucharan. Within each of these schools of thought, there are also many differences, but the two main major differences are related to whether laga-mantra’s should be pronounced or not. Studying Gurbani viyakaran, it becomes clear that lagan-mantra’s at the end of words are often there for grammatical purpose and don’t need to be pronounced. I’m not sure if it’s been posted on this website before, but I think our internet Gyanee’s should start posting their knowledge about Gurbani viyakaran before it fades out in the panth like it did before. Let’s start with some basic rules that Dass has learned over the past few days. (note: Dass has absolutely no knowledge on the subject and is just repeating information found from various sources, questions should be directed to the more knowledgeable Gursikhs on the forum)
Firstly, let’s look at the use of AunkaR’s in Gurbani.
Rule 1)• Singular Male Noun=AunkaR
• Plural/Female Noun=No aunkaR
An aunkaR is present at the end of a Singular ਪੁਲਿੰਗ (male) noun. For example, ਨਾਨਕੁ, ਕਬੀਰੁ, ਦਖੁ etc would all contain aunkaR’s at the end of word, because they are Singular male form nouns.
If the word is a plural/female noun, then there is no aunkaR on the word. For example, ਭੁਖ, ਸੰਗਤਿ, ਬਾਤ would not contain a aunkaR because they are all female words. Now let’s see how this is used in the light of Gurbani.
Singular Male Noun:ਰੰਗਿ ਰਤਾ
ਮੇਰਾ ਸਾਹਿਬੁ ਰਵਿ ਰਹਿਆ ਭਰਪੂਰਿ
ਆਪੇ ਬਹੁ ਬਿਧਿ ਰੰਗੁਲਾ ਸਖੀਏ
ਮੇਰਾ ਲਾਲੁਤੂੰ
ਮੇਰਾ ਪ੍ਰੀਤਮੁ ਤੁਮ ਸੰਗਿ ਹੀਤੁ
Plural/Female NounNow, let us take an example for plural/female noun. A good example for the plural noun is the 17th pauri of Jap Ji Sahib. Here, Guru refers to everything as asank (countless) thus everything in this pauri is plural. Thus, even if the word is male, the aunkaR will be removed because the word is in plural form.
ਅਸੰਖ ਜਪ ਅਸੰਖ ਭਾਉ ॥
ਅਸੰਖ ਪੂਜਾ ਅਸੰਖ ਤਪ ਤਾਉ ॥
ਅਸੰਖ ਗਰੰਥ ਮੁਖਿ ਵੇਦ ਪਾਠ ॥
ਅਸੰਖ ਜੋਗ ਮਨਿ ਰਹਹਿ ਉਦਾਸ ॥
ਅਸੰਖ ਗਰੰਥ ਮੁਖਿ ਵੇਦ ਪਾਠ ॥
As we see, none of the nouns have aunkaR’s since they are referred to as ਅਸੰਖ (countless), a plural phrase. Otherwise, if ਜਪ, ਗਰੰਥ, ਦਾਤਾਰ were used in the singular tense, then they would have an aunkaR. For instance in this Tukh, ਤੂ ਦਾਤਾ ਦਾਤਾਰੁ ਤੇਰਾ ਦਿਤਾ ਖਾਵਣਾ, since ਦਾਤਾਰੁ is refered to in singular form, there is an aunkaR added to it, whereas when it was mentioned in Jap Ji Sahib in plural form, there was no aunkaR.
Now let us look at the Singular Female noun. Here is an example of a singular female noun where the aunkaR is not present.
ਭੁਖਿਆ ਭੁਖ ਨ ਉਤਰੀ ਜੇ ਬੰਨਾ ਪੁਰੀਆ ਭਾਰ
Since, ਭੁਖ, is a female word, (i.e menu bhukh lagdeee) there is no aunkaR on ਭੁਖ
Other examples:
ਗੁਰਿ ਪੂਰੈ
ਮੇਰੀ ਪੈਜ ਰਖਾਈ
ਮੇਰੀ ਸੰਗਤਿ ਪੋਚ ਸੋਚ ਦਿਨੁ ਰਾਤ
ਤੂੰ
ਮੇਰੀ ਓਟ ਤੂੰਹੈ ਦੀਬਾਣ
The above-mentioned rules have a few conditions, which will be discussed as follows.
Condition 1)
If the word following the noun is a ਸਬੰਧਕੀ ਪਦ (preposition word) then the aunkaR will be removed from the noun.
A preposition word is a word that links nouns or pronouns in a sentence. For example, andar, upar, vich etc
The best way to remember this is that the preposition word acts as a Chor (thief) and steal’s the aunkaR that is in front of it. For example:
ਨਾਨਕੁ= The word ਨਾਨਕੁ By itself is a singular noun and contains an aunkaR
ਨਾਨਕ ਦੀ=However with a preposition after it (ਦੀ) the aunkaR goes away
Let’s look at some Gurbani tukhs to show how this is true.
ਸੂਤੇ ਕਉ
ਜਾਗਤੁ ਕਹੈ
ਜਾਗਤ ਕਉ ਸੂਤਾ
In this Tukh ਕਉ is the preposition. Here we see that ਕਉ is before ਜਾਗਤੁ in the first part, and is after ਜਾਗਤ in the second part. Since the preposition word will take the aunkaR away from the noun that comes before it, and not after it, the first ਜਾਗਤੁ contains an aunkaR and the second ਜਾਗਤ does not.
ਗੁਰ ਕੀ ਮਹਿਮਾ ਕਿਆ ਕਹਾ
ਗੁਰੁ ਬਿਬੇਕ ਸਤ ਸਰ
In this Tukh, ਕੀ =preposition. Therefore, there is No aunkaR at the first ਗੁਰ, however at the second ਗੁਰੁ there is an aunkaR, since there is no preposition that comes after it
ਸਗਲ
ਉਦਮ ਮਹਿ ਉਦਮੁ ਭਲਾ
In this Tukh, ਮਹਿ (vich)=preposition. Because of this, the first ਉਦਮ loses the aunkaR. Since there is no preposition after second ਉਦਮੁ the aunkaR remains.
ਨਾਮ ਸੰਗਿ ਜਿਸ ਕਾ
ਮਨੁ ਮਾਨਿਆ
ਨਾਨਕ ਤਿਨਹਿ
ਨਿਰੰਜਨੁ ਜਾਨਿਆ
Here, the first ਨਾਮ contains a preposition after it, therefore there is no aunkaR on ਨਾਮ. However, ਮਨੁ and ਨਿਰੰਜਨੁ both have no prepositions after them, so the aunkaR remains.
More rules to follow
ਸਤਿਗੁਰਬਚਨਕਮਾਵਣੇਸਚਾਏਹੁਵੀਚਾਰੁ॥
