ADI GRANTH. — «The fundamental book», also simply called Granth «Book» (in the religious sense, by excellence: Bible) or Granth Sahib «The fundamental holy book»: a collection of hymns and discourses composed and recited in public by Nānak (1469–1538), the founder of the Sikh religion (v.), or «disciples», a religious community of northern India, which soon developed into a politico-military Church under three subsequent masters (gurus) who followed him.
Another Granth, entitled «The Granth of the tenth guru», was compiled by the Sikhs in 1734. In addition to the prayers of Govind Singh (1675–1708), the tenth and last guru (to whom is owed the true organization of the Sikhs into the aforementioned politico-military theocracy, but with a markedly democratic character), this second Granth, which does not, however, enjoy the same authority as the first, also includes, among other things, hymns by the ninth guru, Tegh Bahādur.
The Adi Granth constitutes the Bible of the Sikhs, of whom Govind Singh is considered the last master, or guru (he even alludes, in the second Granth, to his divine mission). After him, the only guru or Master was to be considered the Granth Sahib, the true representative of God on earth, the incarnation of the gurus. This sacred book is still preserved in its principal copy, used by those appointed to its daily reading (granthīs), under the dome of the «Golden Temple» (Har Mandir), the Sikh sanctuary, built in 1762 in Amritsar, the holy city of the Sikhs, on the foundations of a destroyed Muslim sanctuary.
The Adi Granth, whose language is the Brajbhākhā dialect (a variety of western Hindi) with notable influences from Punjabi and with admixtures of Prakrit, Persian, Marathi and Gujarati (the Granth of the tenth guru is instead in ancient Hindi), contains, like the second, the fundamental principles of Sikh doctrine. These are: belief in the unity of God, with the consequent rejection of all idolatry; the equality of all men before God, which leads to the abolition of caste; the prohibition of widow-burning; the obligation to abstain from wine and all other alcoholic beverages and from smoking. The use of meat, however, is permitted, which has made the Sikhs a people far stronger than their Indian brethren.
The last census (1941) counted the followers of Sikhism at 4,335,771.