Adaptation and Incorporation in Ritual Practices at the Golden Temple, Amritsar

8/15/2019 Adaptation and Incorporation in Ritual Practices at the Golden Temple, Amritsar

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Adaptation and Incorporation in Ritual Practices t theGolden Temple Amritsar

Navtej K. Purewal and Virinder S. Kalra

Abstract

The Golden Temple Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar is popularly considered to be the central Sikh religious site.This article demonstrates how the evolution of ritual at the Golden Temple embodies a multiplicity which is oftenoverlooked alongside attempts to either incorporate or erase devotional rituals by official and formal interpretations of Sikh tradition. The popular dimensions of contemporary practices which cross the boundarie s of what isdetermined to be 'Sikh', we argue, are represented in devotional rituals which have continued alongside and withinformal Khalsa Sikh tradition highlighting a milieu of heteropraxy of devotional ritual taking place at the site.

Introduction

Harmandir Sahib (transl. temple of Hari/God), or theGolden Temple, in Amritsar occupies an iconic position inthe representation of Sikhs. The complex lies in the centreof the walled city of Amritsar in northwest India, a citywhose foundation is symbiotically linked to the establishment of the sacred site. As Grewal (2008: 1) notes, thestory of Amritsar is the story of its [The Golden Temple's]foundation and survival . This article's focus upon Har-mandir Sahib presents it as a site which embodies multiplicity through its history of evolution through the performance of rituals. It is here that we examine how officialpractice (orthodoxy) became specified and sanctioned

through codification while heteropraxy became malignedas 'non-Sikh' and thus outside of the realm of acceptability.It is this process of institutionalization, incorporation, andadaptat ion tha t this article wishes to explore. The populardimensions of contemporary Sikh practices which cross theboundaries of what is determined to be Sikh , we w ill argue,are represented in devotional rituals which have continuedalongside and within formal Khalsa Sikh tradition highlighting a milieu of heteropraxy of Sikh devotional ritual.

The city of Amritsar amrit sarovar 'sacred bathingpool') was founded in 1577 by'the third Sikh Guru and developed by his next three successors. Whilst it had a tur

bulent subsequent history, the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singhand the patronage of the British colonial state ensured itscentrality as a place of pilgrimage. In postcolonial India itis the focal point for Sikh religious affairs and an intenselyattractive site for worshippers a nd tourists alike.

Whilst the birthplace of Guru Nanak at Nankana Sahib,now in present-day Pakistan, had been another centralplace of locatable Sikh identification prior to 194 7, theGolden Temple acquired this singularly definitive iconic

status after the parti tion, as a place for Sikh pilgrimage innewly formed India. The city of Amritsar is consideredthe epicentre of contemporary Sikh religious identity.However, its identification in previous eras has been moreambiguous. For example, in the colonial era, demo-graphically Amritsar had been a Muslim majority city (Tal-bot 2006). In the period after partition, the lackDf accessto sites such as Nankana Sahib and Panja Sahib has meantincreasing focus on the Golden Temple, such that the complex is now recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritagesite. Indeed, the partition can be considered as one of thekey events in which rituals, especially the performance ofhymn singing kirtan) were greatly impacted upon.

Briefly considering the historical formation of the site,

the shift in its naming from Darbar Sahib (the court ofthe Guru) to Harmandir (God's temple) to the GoldenTemple (referring to its gold adornment provides thecontext for considering the transformations that ritualpractice has undergone since 1947. Sikh reformist movements in the British Colonial era eventually gained control of the site in 1925 and attempted to curb popular heteropraxy by institutionalising the centrality of the AdGranth (the sacred text of the Sikhs). This period is particularly well documen ted in Sikh historical studies andforms a key area of academic debate. Our contention, bylooking at the transformation of devotional practices, is

that rather than a dichotomy developing between reformists and popula r practice (as is suggested by the textual sources), a process of incorporation and accommodation took place. Even in the reconstruction of thecomplex after the Indian Army assault in 1984, sites ofpopular worship were retained. Despite attempts by themanagement of the shrine to bring popular practices intoline with institutional rules of conduct, worshippers continued to find methods of adaptation. However, as we


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Fig.1: Golden Temple, Amritsar (photo by V S Kalra)

will conclude, the persistent exclusion of women from

formal rituals is a poignant reminder of the obstinate nature of institutional authority in maintaining boundedexclusivity which, though textually unjustifiable, reliesheavily upon a masculinist assertion of dominant religious institutional authority.

From Darbar Sahib to Golden Temple

There are multiple narratives as to why the third SikhGuru Amar Das and his son-in-law Guru Ram Das chosethis particular site to establish a new centre for their fol

lowers. The sanctity of the site in particular was related tothe presence of a pool of water and of a large number ofJujube berh) trees. The Buddha is said to have stayed inthe vicinity while there is mythological reference to thePandava brothers of the Mahabharat having been raisedfrom battle-ridden unconsciousness after drinking waterfrom the pool (Kaur 2000). In the Sikh tradition it is a sitevisited by Guru Nanak (the founder) as well as successorGuru Angad, in which way its future centrality to Sikhs isguaranteed in the past (Singh 2000). Even though the present site was established through the construction of a baolior sarovar, a fixed construction for the holding of water,it was under Guru Arjun (1563-1606), the fifth Guru, that

the site became formally constructed in the shape that it

has today. Indeed, in establishing the shrine at the centreof what was initially known as Guru Ka Chak (the placeof the Guru) or Ram Das-pur a thriving community cameto be established (Grewal 1996; Moosvi 2005).

The spiritual centre of this new place was the figure ofthe Guru himself. This was literally a Darbar Sahib (whichis how the temple is also still referred to), a court wherefollowers could come, pay obeisance, and meet the Guruand partake of various rituals and activities. Alongsidemaking the Amrit Sarovar a brick lined pool, the building of the structure in tlie centre of the pool, the specificbuilding called the Harmandir was also constructed by

Guru Arjun.l As Fenech (2008) has described, by the timethe sixth Guru Hargobind built the Aka/ Takht (the seatof authority) in the complex, the town and communityof Sikhs were well established. However, the tensions withthe central Mughal authorities, which resulted in the execution of Guru Arjun and the persecution of subsequentGurus, meant that the site was left in the hands of caretakers by the middle of the seYenteenth century. Indeed,just as previous Gurus had established other centres, subsequent Gurus established towns such as Kiratpur andAnandpur. From the mid-sewnteenth century until theearly nineteenth centur\- \mritsar became a site of turmoil and upheaYal \,-ith the temple being desecrated and


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ransacked three times by Afghan marauders, taking advantage of the disintegration of the Mughal empire.2

With the departure of the Gurus from the site, the central focus of Sikh actiYities was the Harmandir where, according to Singh (2006), the earliest form of the dGranth, compiled by Guru Arjun was housed. Indeed, the

narrative by which the central rituals of the site came tobe focused on the Harmandir and the sacred text is an es-sential compone nt in unde rstanding why this site, ratherthan the others established by the Gurus, became iconic.It is this site where the completed d Granth was firsthoused after the final living Gm=u Gobind Singh passedon the Guruship to 'the book'. Various individuals fromSikh history, such as Baba Budda, Bhai Gurdas and BhaiManni Singh were all associated with the site and, perhaps mos t crucially for our purposes here, a set of ritualpractices, derived from those that are locally embeddedat the Harmandir, was standardised by nineteenth century reformers as universally Sikh This nineteenth-centurycolonial focus on the d Granth was aided by the previous period of Sikh rule under aharaja Ranjit Singh(1780-1839) who clad the dome of the Harmandir in goldleaf, turning it into Swaran Mandir. It was the British,who having annexed Punjab to the empire in 1849, subsequently translated this into English and gave it the nameby which it is most known today in world religions approaches to Sikhism: The Golden Temple.

The cartography of Sikh spiritual spaces in South Asiaspans the subcontinent, and before the twentieth centuryhad been largely constituted by sites associated with theSikh Gurus. Most of these sites had been managed by caretakers who came to be collectively known as the mahants,who either inherited the sites through a bloodline associated with the Gurus, or received their office through stateappointment during Ranjit Singh's and British colonialrule. The mahants, in light of the colonial state's reification of religious boundaries, became juxtaposed againstthe emerging canvas of Sikh community identity. The Gurdwara Reform Movement or the Akali Movement of the1920s was accompanied by the ,creation of the ShiromaniGurdwara Prabandhak Commitree (SGPC) which would

become the Sikh political voice in Punjab thereafter.Murphy (2012) highlights how this period marked a

transition towards a spatial and Sikh imaginary in whichthere was a new sense of the logic of ownership by andfor the community ( 184). Gurdwaras and othe r religioussites which had previously been embedded in Mughal andthen British management of revenue-free land grants, landmanagement and entitlement became coopted into a newly-created twentieth-century Sikh gurdwara managementunder the authority of the SGPC. The struggle for Sikhcontrol over gurdwaras during the 1920s was resisted by

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the mahants, who had previously benefitted from Britishpatronage, culminating in violent encounters such as thatat Nankana Sahib (the birth place of Guru Nanak) in 1921over rights of control and access to the shrine (Singh 1978).Mahant Narain Dass was criticized by an emerging Sikhcritique tha t problematized his personal gain as proprietor

of the shrine estate and taker of all offerings made by worshippers at the shrine. The case became the milestone forthe SGPC and the gurdwara reform movement of the timeand culminated in the Nankana Sahib massacre at whichapproximately fifty people were killed. The British patronage of Mahant Narain Dass became a focal point ofthe movement and highlighted how hereditary entitlementswere out of sync with the movement to liberate gurdwarasfrom individual control.

After years of protest and many deaths the colonial staterelinquished control of 'his tori c' gurdwaras to the SGPC.Unlike Nankana Sahib, which had been run by mahants,the Golden Temple was managed by a committee until theBritish annexation of Punjab in 1849. The British colonial state's patronage of the shrine continued through itsappointment of a committee to manage the administration of the Golden Temple through the rules and regulations set out in the Dastur-ul Amal.3 Adopted as a tool forinfluencing and gaining tacit allegiance to colonial authority, the Golden Temple became the site at which theBritish attempted to exert control over the emerging urbanSikh community. Ultimately, the struggle over the gurdwaras led to the compromise of the 1925 Sikh GurdwarasAct which bestowed control ling authority of 'historic'shrines onto the SGPC and local committees. This markedboth the end of hereditary administra tion at these specified sites as well as a legal definition for the status of historic gurdwaras as formalized Sikh institutions.

As the independence movement against British colonial rule mounted and eventually the part ition of 1947occurred, the fight for Sikh control of gurdwaras shiftedfrom one in which the British colonial state was invokedin order to recognize Sikh religious distinction to a scenario in which religious identity and practices in gurdwaras were represented, managed and mediated by the

religious authority of the SGPC. One of the outcomes ofthis was that ritual practices came under the scrutiny ofthe SGPC and the Sikh Rahit Maryada (Code of Conductand Conventions) in which official practice (orthodoxy)was specified and sanctioned through codification whileheteropraxy was maligned as non-Sikh and thus outsideof the realm of acceptability. t is in this context that thechanges in ritual at the Golden Temple are most usefullyviewed. Crucially, the d Granth s status as the nucleusof formal Sikh practice came to be institutionalised.


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isciplining the arbar

There is a gap in studies of popular practices at Sikh spiritual sites due to two debates which have directed the lensof scholarship towards textual and historical evidence, eclipsing any focus upon popular and contemporary expressionsof devotion. Sikh studies has been primarily consumed withtwo deliberations, in this respect, that both took place inthe 1990s. One was spurred by Harjot Oberoi's ( 1992, 1994seminal but highly debated work on popular saints and hisdeconstructive historical exercise of the Sikh tradition as weknow it today. The other was set off by W.H. McLeod ( 1975,2004) and Pashaura Singh's (2000) attestation of the authenticity of authorship of the Ad Granth. Both of these debates reflect the attention towards the sanctity and sacred

ness of the Sikh tradition in history and text. Each broughtto the fore how far the limits of acceptability could be drawnin terms of applying a historiography of religion and academic critique to sacred texts and hence religious identity.

For our purposes here, we do not intend to tread thepaths of either deconstructing Sikh identity or attestingthe authorship of sacred Sikh texts. What we do intendto explore, however, is the popular dimensions of contemporary Sikh practices which cross the boundaries ofwhat is determined to be 'Sikh' in the formal RahitMaryada. Devotional rituals have continued alongsideand within the Khalsa Sikh tradition which highlights how

Sikh popular rituals, rather than being in opposition toformal, institutionalised practices, are a continuing partof the milieu of Sikh rituaJ.4 However, this article is notan exercise in understanding syncretism, but an examination of the interplay between institutional forms of worship and the rituals of heteropraxy which underlie contempora ry practice.

Within our focus upon heteropraxy, devotional seekers are not bound by religious categorizations of identity in their practice, and pilgrims and visitors to theseshrines are multifarious in motivation and identification. While the openness of the Sikh tradition beyondthe limits of Khalsa identity was identified by Oberoi(1994 ), his deconstruct ive exercise was interpre ted as acritique of formal Sikh identity writ large. Our intention here is not to tread that same deconstructive path,but instead to focus upon the negotiations that exist between heteropraxy and the institutional attempts of regulation through "Sikhisation" (Juergensmeyer 1982).While the Singh Sabha movement played a significantrole in the making of modern Sikh identity in whichSikh identity assertion was mobilized through this educated, urban-based leadership, its institutional formin the SGPC occupies the contemporary voice of thisprocess of"Sikhisation" and indeed was created for that

purpose. t continues in the regulation of contemporary practices of devotion at the Golden Temple andother SGPC managed gurdwaras.s The main documentwhich outlines the disciplining aspect of the SGPC interms of ritual conduct is the Rahit Maryada The SikhCode of Conduct and Conventions . We quote extensivelyhere to illustrate the extent to which certain practicesare considered illegitimate:"

Not believing in [ . . . ) magic, spells, incantation,omens, auspicious times, days and occasions, influence of stars, horoscopic dispositions, Shradh(ritual serving of food to priests for the salvation ofancestor on appointed days as per the lunar calendar), Ancestor worship, khiah (ritual serving offood to pr ies t s -Brahmins-on the lunar anniversaries of death of an ancestor), pind (offeringof funeral barley cakes to the deceased's relatives),patal (ritual donat ing of food in the belief that thatwould satisfy the hunger of a departed soul), diva(the ceremony of keeping an oil lamp lit for 360days after the death, in the belief that that lights thepath of the deceased), ritual funeral acts, hom(lighting of ritual fire and pouring intermittentlyclarified butter, food grains etc. into it for propitiating gods for the fulfilment of a purpose), jag (religious ceremony involving presentation of oblations), [ . . . ] veneration of any graves, ofmonuments erected to honour the memory of a deceased person or of cremation sites, idolatry andsuch like superstitious observances (SGPC 1925).

Even though a distance and tension between rules andpractice is expected to exist within religious discourse,the fact that the SGPC central office is located in theGolden Temple complex shows that the Golden Templerepresents more than symbolic authority. Both the headGranthi (loosely translate


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Fig.2: Bathers at the Golden Temple (Photo by N.K. Purewal)

ralism rather than foster them (Gottschalk 2000). Othershave given contextualised examples in the South Asiancontext of rich 'confluent' histories of coexistence andcommonality which go beyond any notion of primordialreligious distinctions but which have relied upon a notion of syncretism (Assayag 2004, Sikand 2004). Heteropraxy at sacred Sikh sites highlights the limitation of theconcept of syncretism for our purposes, since it implies

the existence of bounded traditions which can then be'mixed' (see Mir 2006). The requirement for discrete categories for the concept of syncretism cannot be met withinSikh sacred sites, unless the construction of those categories are de facto accepted. The symbolic marking of sa-cred spaces such as gurdwaras as being essentially Sikh,or the worship of objects or deities other than the d

ranth as essentially Hindu, or of the worship of livingor eternalised pirs or saints as Muslim, are all part of theprocess that locates that which is within and that whichis outside of the Sikh realm of fqrmal practice and identity. Mandair (2009) argues that these attempts to createclosure and to assert a dominant interpretation of Sikhsacred texts are a means of staking claims to a comprehensive unity and identifiable self-projection in relationto the Hindu and Muslim 'other'. Such closure was notnecessarily so concerned with popular practices (thoughclearly these were often forefronted as problematic) butwas driven by an exercise in 'fulfilling the Sikhs' desirefor theology as a mode of totalizing signification in the

domain of European conceptuality (36). It is at this juncture between what is identified as formally Sikh and whatis not where institutionalizing processes present a disciplining attempt upon heteropraxy.

How then can devotional practices at such iconic yetpopular sites as the Golden Temple be conceptualisedwhen terminologies and categories are subject to scrutinyfor their bounded nature? While the open-ended, un

bounded nature of social formations has been recognizedby Barth (1994) as a problematizing factor to any singularizing depiction of religion, Fitzgerald (2000) movesthis underst anding further by arguing for a modificationof the western-inspired theological project by opening upthe focus to the everyday of spirituality in which we finda possible transition point from 'religion' and 'religions'to the ritual or cultural reproduction of transcendentalrepresentations 18). From this perspective the emphasis is placed on rituals that are, for example, drivenby desires to fulfill wishes associated with life-cycle andkinship relations or that are routinized as part of everyday life. t the Golden Temple local residents incorporate a visit to the site into their daily routine of work andfamily. Their devotional practices could be said to represent the ritualization of everyday life through the spiritual life of its localized context, Amritsar. Positioned atthe centre of the old walled city, the s rov r and then theGolden Temple provide a centripetal focus spatially, socially and spiritually.


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This move towards culture is one means of under-standing the popular devotional practices in northwestSouth Asia. However, it is not adequate on its own if we

wish to understand how religious institutions engage withpopular practices in terms of an interplay and engagement leading to incorporation and accommodationWhen we explore what people do in their devotionalpractice rather than how they are defined, we find thatthere is much that goes on which is not so neatly locatable within the available religious categories, but whichis also not completely disassociated from frameworks established by institutional authority. Indeed, what we identify as rituals of devotion in the iconic Sikh sacred spaceof the Golden Temple contains practices and idioms whichare not exclusively Sikh within the formal sense but whichare certainly Sikh within the popular sense. t is at thejuncture of the formal, i nstitutional and the popular thatritual activities are therefore best explored and explained.

Water and Trees

On entering the Darbar Sahib complex from any oneof its four entrances the most immediate visual impact isof the water and on sunny days the shimmering reflection of the gold plating of the Harmandir. It is indeed theAmrit Sarovar (from which the city derives its name) orthe Ram Das Sarovar (after the third Guru) which wasthe central focus of the settlement when it was formed inthe early 16th century. The importance of the water isalso to be found in the writings of the fifth Guru Arjun,who, in an extremely popular hymn (shabad) from theAd Granth states:

(Sorath, Fifth Mehl, Third House, Du-Padas):One Universal Creator God. By The Grace Of TheTrue Guru:Bathing in the nectar tank of Ram Das,all sins are erased.One becomes immaculately pure, taking this cleansing bath.The Perfect Guru has bestowed this gift.

Indeed, the selection of the site was combined with thepresence of a Jujube tree, which is still extant and isrevered as Dukhbhanjani Berh In local lore, the story ofRajni provides the most significant reference of thesarovar s healing properties. As the story goes, Rajni, ayoung unmarried woman made a dismissive remark toher father about his generosity. She stated that the giftshe had given to her and her sisters were not a sign of his

goodness but that all gifts are from God and that her father was merely the go-between. As a means of teaching

Fig.3. Dukhbhanjani berh (Phot o by N.K. Purewal)

her a lesson, Rajni s father arranged her marriage to leper who she would have to struggle to look after ancart around as they begged. She is said to have parked thecart near a tree next to the sarovar where a black crow wasseen to dive into the water and emerge as a white doveRajni s husband ba thed in the sarovar and emerged ashealed and handsome man, proving the healing powersof the water, while also containing the message of thpower of the spiritual over material pursuits. On hearinthis story Guru Ram Das then went to the spot and decided to build a tank there and named the tree Dukhb

hanjani berh (Kaur 1983: 173 .A version of this story (in English and Punjabi) is a

tually given on the enclosure around the tree inscribedonto a white marble plaque, but with the difference ththe agency for the whole event is with the Gurus. Rajniis not brought up by her father but in her mother s maternal home in Lahore, who are followers of the Guru anthus she is a devotee. The healing powers of the water ara reward for her devotion rather t han intrinsic to the wateritself. Another story relates to Guru Amar Das taking aleaf from the tree to give to Guru Angad to cure a skinillness. In both cases the healing properties of the wate

are material, as could be argued for Guru Arjan s owrepresentation of the water. Yet this aspect is side lined i


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Fig.4: Baba udda Sahib (Photo by N.K. Purewal)

Pashaura Singh s (2006) analysis, for example. He argues,following a reformist perspective that the shabad refers tospiritual cleansing .

A second tree tha t is of significance within the precinctof the complex is the Lee hi Berh, which is specifically associated with Guru Arjun as he is said to have sat and super

vised the construction of the brick lined Amrit Sarovar andalso wrote many of the shabads in the d Granth in theshade of the tree. A third tree, Baba Budda di Berh (the treeunder which Baba Budda sat), is associated with Baba Budda(transl. old man), known as the first head Granthi (priest)of the Golden Temple, who is said to have lived until theage of around 100 during the lifetimes of the first six Sikhgurus. The tree, or berh, which marks the spot at whichBaba udda sat as he supervised the excavation of thesarovar has thus become a site to pay obeisance by visitorsto the shrine. The berh lies within the shrine complex alongthe parkrama (outer walkway) and symbolises Baba Budda sservice to the spiritual and built history of the Golden Temple Just as Dukhbhanjani Berh is known for its healing properties, Baba Budda di Berh attracts devotees for the blessings associated with Baba Budda s wisdom, long life and hisrole as protector and overseer of the Dar bar Sahib.

Alongside trees, water and its curative powers also hasa wider importance outside of the iconic Amrit sarovar,which is demonstrated by the fact that the Gurus builtother water tanks in the vicinity. In fact, over the per iod

where the Gurus were present in Amritsar (up to GuruHargobind), another four pools were constructed. Theseare Santokhsar, Kalusar, Bibeksar and Ramsar, each withits own associated narrative of spiritual power. Indeed,one of these pools, Ramsar, built by Guru Angad, alsofeatures in his writings as a site for bathing and pilgrim

age It is located within the walled city at Chatiwind gate,but is at some distance from the main complex. This wasthe site where Bhai Gurdas and Guru Angad are said tohave compiled the first pot his (books) which would be theprecursors to the d Granth. The sole focus therefore,even on the Amrit Sarovar, is part of the centralisation ofthe site, arguably appropriate for a single site of Sikh authori ty and authenticity. The folklore associated with eachof the trees and sarovar s votive and healing powers present a parallel sense of piety to that of the official Sikh historiographical ownership of the site. The two are however symbiotically related and not necessarily contlictualas the Sikh studies debate with its overly textual approachmight indicate. The institutionalising processes of themanagement of the Golden Temple since 1947 show attempts at negotiating, accommodating and incorporating this mystical power into a narrative centred on the AdGranth.

The formal daily routine of tituals at the Golden Temple, which is carried out and managed by the granthis se-wadars and other SGPC employees, consists of an elabo-


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Fig.S. Worshippers paying respects t Baba Budda Sahib photo by N.K. Purewal)

rate schedule and calendar. Though times vary accordingto season, every morning at approximately three a.m. theAd Granth is carried by a granthi on a cushion on his headin preparation to be placed on an orna te silver and goldgilded paa/ki (palanquin), laden with coverings and cushions made of silk brocade. The processional carrying ofthe Ad Granth starts at the Aka Takht, passes through thedarshani deorhi and then proceeds across the causeway tothe inner chamber of the Golden Temple in the centre ofthe sarovar. Here the Ad Granth is placed onto the paa/kisahib as hymns are sung accompanied by the rhythm ofnagara-s (large drums). Subsequently, devotional hymnsare sung throughout the day by groups of singers and accompanists unti l the late evening where the Ad Granth isre turned to the Aka Takht.

The contempora ry dynamics of devotional ritual at theGolden Temple shows the centralising, magnetic force ofthe Harmandir which houses one of the many installations of the d Granth in the complex. Queues of devotees wait for up to three hours to matha tek, (paying respect by literally kneeling down and touching the foreheadto the ground) and make an offering to the book, the embodiment of the living Guru. While the official daily rou

tine of ritual at the Golden Temple involves multiple rituals involving SGPC officials, local Amritsar businessmen

and the general population of devotees, they are all focused on the Ad Granth.6

Outside of this authorised daily process, however, theGolden Temple complex is also dotted with smallersacralised sites and spaces of obeisance, most notably theBerh trees. In other sites, trees have votives tied to themor divas lit under them as way of marking a desire or wish.Placing garlands of flowers and taking leaves for medicinal purposes are all p rt of the multiple rituals associatedwith trees at sacred sites There is a two-way process ofinstitutionalisation and regulation of rituals that take place

t the trees. The installation of the Ad Granth at theDukhbhanjani Berh and the development of a small Gurdwara at Lechi Berh are two examples of the incorporation of devotional practice into the Sikh Rahit. At BabaBudda s berh there is no presence of the Ad Granth, butit continues as a site of ritual obeisance, and respects arepaid to the site of the tree which was cordoned off in the1990s by a marble encasement and a brass frame, in orderto prevent worshippers from making physical contact withthe tree. Prior to the brass and marble encasement, worshippers would pay respects y touching the berh withtheir hands and foreheads or even kissing the tree. Today,not only is the tree physically inaccessible to devotees, butthis is also regulated by an SGPC-paid sewadar who stands


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at the site to ensure that restrictions on overt obeisanceare observed.- \'isi tors are permit ted to pay respects bytouching the marble with their hands or forehead. However, the marigolds at the base of the tree show the adaptive devotional practice to subvert the institutional imposition of distance between the berh and worshipperswho are able to find an indirect means of physical contact with the berh through the marigolds which are tossedat its base.

OperationBlue

Star, the attack on the Golden Templecomplex by Indian Army forces in 1984, ostensibly to ridthe temple of militants using it as a base, resulted in thedestruction of many sites of ritual worship on the site.Perhaps more significantly is the incorporation and adaptation of many aspects of popular worship which tookplace in the rebuilding of the site. If the intention of theIndian state was to curb fundamentalism then the impactof the destruction was to allow a rebuilding much moreclosely focused on a bounded Sikh identity aligned withthe sole veneration of the d Granth. Ironically, perhaps,it also allowed for the creation of a new object of curios

ity surrounding the events of 1984, if not veneration, inthat the SGPC have encased some of the bullet holes thatwere left in the walls of the complex as a memorialisationof the 1984 events. In April 2013 a memorial plaque wasinstalled at Gurdwara Yaadgar Shaheedaan (Martyrs' Me-morial Gurdwara) near to the Akal Takht with the inscription Memorial in the memory of 14th head ofDamdami Taksal Martyr Saint Giani Jarnail Singh JiKhalsa Bhindrawale and all martyrs of 1984 , highlighting the incorporation of the figure of Bhindranwale whois otherwise viewed as a contested symbol of extremism.The SGPC's recognition has now created a legitimised site

for public obeisance to him close to the temple.

Shabad urbani Kirtan

at armandir Sahib

One of the most significant symbolic tools for enforcing the 'Sikhisation' of devotional practice at theGolden Temple has been kittan. The rules for the performance of kirtan, o v e r i n ~its recitation, rendition,form, and textual specification, were made explicit inChapter 5 of the SGPC's Sikh Rahit Maryada on kirtan.In requiring adherence to the code of conduct with regard to devotional hymn singing, Article 6 states thatonly a Sikh may perform kirtan in a congregation andthat only hymns of the Guru Granth Sahib may be sungwithout improvisation, musical extraneousness or interpretation of the texts being sung. While the Code of

Sikh Conduct and Conventions was published in 1925,Article 6 was not enforced with any rigor until after 1947when the partition of India forced questions around religious authority and representation of Sikh commu-nity identity at the shrine. The rababis, the hereditaryand official pe rformers of kirtan at Harmandir Sahibwho had once been employees of the management committee of the shrine, were, as non-Sikhs, no longer permitted to perform. The post-1947 context forced the

religious question in more stark ways than had previously been done. While some rababi musicians converted to Sikhism, became baptized as Sikhs, and continued to perform kirtan, others migrated to Pakistanwhere their livelihoods became detached from their earlier Sikh patronage.

The search for authenticity in the performance of kirtan became embedded within the religious question, soestranging and ostracising the traditional hereditary rababiperformers of kirtan at Harmandir Sahib. The rababi performers were Muslim in terms of overt religious identi tybut were professionally attached to Sikh religious insti

tutions and patrons through the musical performance ofSikh scripture. This position became tenuous as a resultof the post-1947 environment of politicized religious identities and the wave of migration of Muslims from EastPunjab to newly created Pakistan. The rababis of theGolden Temple were forced either to convert formally toSikhism and adopt a Khalsa identity, so as to maintaintheir livelihood, or to migrate to Pakistan where theirMuslim identity would require them to find other meansof income. Thus, the performance of kirtan at the GoldenTemple saw a transformation when this hereditary group,who were symbolic of a previous heteroreligious space,

were erased from the ritual performance of kirtan at theshrine (Purewal2011; Kalra 2014a).

A more contemporary debate around conventions surrounding the performance of kirtan concerns whetherit should be performed in a classical form, followingrules of raag and taal as specified in the Guru GranthSahib or as popular renditions of shabads for the public sung in pleasant, accessible tunes (Kalra 2014b ). Whilerepresenting the debates over the correct raag form andthe use of stringed instruments rather than the harmonium may be represented as a struggle against the SGPCby revivalists, another group was also attempting tochange the shape of kirtan performance in the Har-mandir within the same time period. In the literaturelamenting the decline in the quality of kirtan and theauthenticity of the sacred, which has gained some prominence in academic discourse in India and in the USA,there is no mention of the struggle by a group of womento gain access to the perforn'lative space of the Har


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84 JOURNAL OF RITUAL STUDIES 30 1) 2016

mandir.s This lack of mention is striking, since the debate about lineage and authenticity relies on gender asan organising principle. As music becomes more sacred

and pure, so women as music makers become more rare.From Dhrupad, to the rababis, to the orthodox Sikh performers, it is genealogies of male peformers that are heldup as the trail carrying the traces of original tunes. t ispoignant that just as rababi Bhai Ghulam MohammedChand is not allowed to perform kirtan in the Harmandirduring visits to Amritsar because he is not a Sikh, he isstill able to assert patriarchal lineage by saying: Ourwomen don t sing .

The prevalence of women-only kirtan groups, IstriSatsang, is hardly documented. t refers to performancesthat are outside of the usual fixed patterns of worship

in a gurdwara. Taking place in exclusively women-onlyspaces, this has been represented in some senses as themusic of the sangat (congregation), and as a commonpractice before the commoditisation and professionalization of kirtan. Most notably in diasporic contexts,such as East Africa, the lack of professionally trainedmusicians meant that women learned and performed inthe Gurdwaras in a much more prominent way than inPunjab (Purewal and Lallie 2013). The continuation ofthese women-only practices have been matched with theemergence of professional women s kirtan groups, yetthese too are barred from performing at HarmandirSahib. It is not that women do not perform kirtan atother gurdwaras but rather that the rituals associatedwith the Harmandir have been controlled and maintained by men. Both the morning and evening ritualsand the performance of kirtan within the Harmandirare central boundary-markers of a masculinist Sikhidentity.

In 2003, two amritdhari (baptised) and turban-wearingwomen attempted to perform the morning ritual at theHarmandir and were restricted by the men present. Mejinderpal Kaur and Lakhbir Kaur then went on to lead acampaign for equal access for women to all the rituals as-sociated with Harmandir Sahib, including the performance of kirtan. Citing that the SGPC of 1940 had alreadypassed an edict that amritdhari women were allowed toperform kirtan at the site but that this had not been instituted, a strange replay of that initial overture took place.In 2005, the first woman head of the SGPC, Bibi JagirKaur, announced that women would be allowed to perform at the Harmandir, but once again this was not implemented in practice. Even though the changes in performance practice of kirtan in terms of classicisation havebeen accepted, the existing male dominated structures

were unmoving when it came to this issue. The transformation of kirtan from an open form with musicians from

all backgrounds being allowed to play to one that solelyallows orthodox amritdharis to perform reaches its limiton the question of gender. Indeed, it is women s practices

that were seen as heteropraxy by Singh Sabha reformersin the early part of the twentieth century (Malhotra 2004)and thus orthodoxy in kirtan is maintained by securingthe boundary between men and women in the twenty firstcentury.

onclusion

This article has examined how the Golden Temple Har-mandir Sahib shows processes of incorporation and adaptation evident in the evolution of ritual practice amidst

institutionalizing processes. In doing so, we have arguedthat the popular dimensions of devotional practices pointto ongoing negotiations and interactions of heteropraxywhich challenge the singularity of orthodoxy with whichsuch iconic sites are most commonly associated. The currency of distinct, often polarized, religious boundarieshas been increasingly questioned by the recognition ofthe multiple nature of practice and identification (King1999). Acts and practices of spirituality which cross formal religious boundaries can be seen across northwestSouth Asia in common idioms and practices at gurdwaras,shrines, mandirs, the tombs of saints and other spiritualsites. Matha tekna (paying respect by literally touchingthe forehead to the ground), darshan (paying a visit tothe spiritual site), and mannat (making a wish or requesting a blessing) are a few examples of common ritual practices of devotion which are not exclusive orbounded by religious categorization. Water and trees inthese sites play an extraordinarily important role in healing and votive practice. These practices have often become the target for reformist groups wishing to assertmodern, singular religious identities. In the Sikh case thisdebate has found its way into academic debate and to alarge extent led to an intellectual stalemate within Sikhstudies. By looking at existing ritual practice at the iconiccentre of Sikhism, the Golden Temple, we have attemptedto indicate a way out of this impasse.

It is clear that the SGPC are engaged in a process ofincorporating rituals at various sites through the installation of the d Granth or a re-narrativisation into aGuru-centred history. These are acts of accommodationand incorporation rather than of conflict. For example,where overt obeisance is present, such as at Dukhbhan-jan i Berhi, flocked to by worshippers for its healing properties, and Baba Budda Berhi, popular amongst devotees

for protection and blessings, a vigilant approach by theGolden Temple management is taken to regulate rituals


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of veneration while also permitting them through institutionalised mediation. These are not examples of conflict but rather of a slow process of institutionalisation ofpopular ritual.

It is also important to note that the SGPC only manages a small proportion of gurdwaras in India. In otherhistoric sites such as Hazoor Sahib in Nanded, Maha

rashtra, specific rituals associated with the site have continued unabated. At Nankana Sahib and Panja Sahib inPakistan, the PGPC (Pakistan Gurdwara PrabandhakCommittee) nominally presides over some of the historicgurdwaras in Pakistan. The trees in these complexes continue to be used by women to make mannats (offeringsin order to fulfill wishes) to become pregnant, not leastto obtain particular blessings for male offspring. PanjaSahib also holds mystical significance for having healingand protection for the folklore associated with GuruNanak s miraculous act of blocking a boulder thrown at

JOURNAL OF RITUAL STUDIES 3 1) 2 16 85

him by a jealous Pir with his hand. The boulder with thehand imprint is on one side of the gurdwara housing the

d Granth. Placing one s own hand on the boulder is considered especially auspicious. This practice still continues but remains outside the domain of the institutionalizing practices of the SGPC due to their lack of access tothese sites.

Ritual practices at Harmandir Sahib, by contrasthave been transformed since the Singh Sabha social reform movement began in the 1920s and then after thepartition of India and Pakistan in 1947 and highlight along-term process of assertion, adaptation and incorporation. Institutional controls of devotional practicesat the Golden Temple have not resulted in an erasureof popular practices but instead show the evolving nature of the management and sustenance of popular ritual practices, even at the most iconic of all Sikh spiritual sites.

cknowledgements

The research for this article was funded by the ESRCAHRC Religion and Society programme on a project entitled Gender Caste and the Practices of Religious Identi-ties. The authors wish to t hank Professor Ursula Sharma

(retired) for her invaluable insights to the overall projectand the conceptualisations of religious practice in the region that have come out of it.

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JOURNAL OF RITUAL STUDIES 3 1l _::,:·;

Biographical Sketches

Navtej K. Purewal is Deputy Director of the South Asia Institute and Senior Lecturer in Sociology and ContemporaryIndian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. She has focused most ofher writing on the region of Punjab (across India and Pakistan) exploring a range of aspects of social change, in

cluding the making and unmaking of religious identities onwhich she has published a number of articles and chapters.She also has a distinct interest in feminism, gender and culture and has published in this area including Son Preference:Sex Selection, Gender and Cul ure in South sia (Berg 2010).

Dr. Virinder S. Kalra teaches in the department c · >:ciology at the University of Manchester, UK. h ~ -~ : ·search interests are in Punjabi popular culture anli -

ligion across the borders of India, Pakistan and t ~ odiaspora. He is the (co author of the book, H y b r i d ~ : ·

and Diaspora and an editor of the collection: A Post

colonial People: South Asians in Britain. His latest book'Sacred and Secular Musics: A Postcolonial Approach·(Bloomsbury, 2014) explores the intersections of musicand religion in Punjab focusing on Qawwali, Kirtan andDharmic Geet.

Notes

1. Guru Arjun is of crucial importance in establishing the history of the Darbar sahib complex and its centrality to contemporary Sikhism. It is his writings along with Bhai Gurdas which pro

vide an insight into the formation of the site and the city as a whole.(see Pashaura Singh 2006 and Hans in Singh et al. 1999)

2. Murphy (2012: 171) clearly illustrates the turmoil of the period: [th e site was controlled by] various parties over the courseof the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Prit hi Chand and hisson Harji controlled the site in the second half of the seventeenthcentury after the time of Guru Hargobind and it remained underthe control of the apostate group, the Minas as they are traditionally called, until the time of Guru Go bind Singh .

3. A Persian docu ment from Ranjit Singh's time which documented the various personnel employed at the Golden temple.

4. See Kamaljit Malhotra (2007) for an examination of the eighteenth century period immediately after the death of the last living Guru Gobind Singh when Sikh rituals and practice became

more clearly specified through the creation of a new bounded identity in the Rahitnama which framed Sikh within a Khalsa identity, pp. 179-182.

5. Gurdwaras in other parts of India, Pakistan and the diaspora do not come under the formal remit of the SGPC, thoughgenerally follow the Sikh Rahit Maryada and the authority of the

Aka Takht (which is under tacit control of the SGPC), but this isoften contested.

6. A detailed analysis of the rituals surrounding the d Granthat the Golden Temple would also reveal a range of shifting customsthat connect to older sh rine practices, such as the blessing of flowers thrown and the singing of eulogies (savaiyyan) about the Gurus.

7. t is ironic that while sevadar literally means one engaged inselfless service, in the context of the institutionalisation process ithas now come to mean a paid employee. In a contemporary interview, one devotee complained that at least with the mahantsonly they and their families ate from the offerings, now with theSGPC there are hundreds of employees stealing from the takings(golak)".

8. See the double issue of Sikh Formations (2011) in which none

of the articles devoted to kirtan mention the on-going exclusion ofwomen and this particular struggle, whilst the issue of correct musical form is tediously discussed.

Documents

Adaptation and Incorporation in Ritual Practices at the Golden Temple, Amritsar