A Pioneer In Sikh Studies

(This article of mine about the life contribution of Mr. Max Arthur Macauliffe was published in The Tribune dated December 12, 1990.)


  Whenever the name of Mr. Max Arthur Macauliffe is uttered or recalled, everybody’s head bows in reverence. A world famous and dedicated Sikh historian, Mr. Macauliffe, was born in Ireland and after entering the I.C.S., he served as the Deputy Commissioner and the Divisional Judge in Joint Punjab.

 Until 1893, Mr. Macauliffe was engaged in judicial work in India, when a representative Sikh society requested him to resign his job for undertaking the translation of Sikh sacred books.


    

Max Arthur Macauliffe
 

 After sacrificing his lucrative job and luxurious life, Mr. Macauliffe acceded to the request and stated translating the sacred book into English. Mr. Macauliffe’s approach towards the renderings was unique and novel. Most translators of his time, when they completed their renderings, proceeded to publish without subjecting their work to native criticism but he resolved that he should make an exception and accordingly submitted every line of his work to the most searching criticism of learned Sikhs. For literary assistance, Mr. Macauliffe requisitioned the services of Bhai Kahan Singh of Nabha, Diwan Lila Ram, Watan Mal(a Subordinate Judge in Sind), Bhai Shankar dayal of Faizabad, Bhai Hazara Singh and Bhai Sardul Singh of Amritsar, Bhai Dit Singh of Lahore, Bhai Bhagwan Singh of Patiala, Bhai Sant Singh of Kapurthala and Prof. Gurmukh Singh, Editor of Khalsa Gazette.

                                    
 How extraordinary tedious and unbelievable colossal task Mr. Macauliffe had to undertake is clear from his observations:

“Judaism had its Old Testament; Islam its Quran; Hinduism its Vedas, Puranas and Shastras; Budhism its Tripitaka; The Parsi religion its Zendavesta; and Confucianism its Analects, its Spring and Autumn, its Ancient Poems and its Book of Changes. The languages in which the holy writings of these religions are enshrined, though all difficult, are for the most part homogeneous, and, after preliminary study with tutors, can generally be mastered with the aid of grammars and dictionaries but not so the medieval Indian dialects in which the sacred writings of the Sikh Gurus and saints were composed. Hymns are found in Persian, Medieval Prakrit, Hindi, Marathi, old Punjabi, Multani and several local dialects. In several hymns the Sanskrit and Arabic vocabularies are freely drawn upon.”

Mr. Macauliffe had to reside at Nabha with Bhai Kahan Singh for minutely studying and then translating the Sikh sacred writings and reaching the consensus about their interpretation, of course, after consulting the gyanis or the professional interpreters who were fairly conversant with the Sikh theology and exegesis.

There were no dictionaries of Sri Guru Granth Sahib at that time and even if some had since been published, each lexicographer had devised a system of his own, making it difficult to find the required word. Moreover, if the word was at last pinpointed, the interpretation was not always satisfactory and up to the mark. The author could scarcely find one Sikh who was capable of making the correct translation of the sacred writings. If a man was good in Sanskrit, he knew very little Arabic or Persian and he who knew both Persian and Arabic, would not appreciate the words of Sanskrit derivation and so on. Mr. Macauliffe found the translation of the Sikh sacred writings difficult as there are some peculiar words and cannot be linked to any known language.

In the preface to his work, the author highlights the main object o writing the book and the five advantages which the Sikhs will derive there from:

“One of the main objects of the present work is to endeavour to make some reparation to the Sikhs for the insults which he offered to their Gurus and their religion. There are, however, many other advantages which I am hoping for, and which will probably be understood by the reader.

All persons of discrimination acquainted with the Sikhs, set a high value on them but it appears that a knowledge throughout the world of the excellence of their religion would enhance even the present regard with which they are entertained, and that thus my work would be at least of political advantage to them. In the second place, there is now a large number of Sikhs who understand the English language, but who have no time for the study of the compositions of the Gurus, and I thought it would be useful to them, if only from a linguistic point of view, to read a translation in the very simple English in which I have endeavored to write it. In the third place, the old gyanis or professional interpreters of the Granth Sahib are dying out, and probably in another generation or two their sacred books will, owing to their enormous difficulty, be practically unintelligible even to otherwise educated Sikhs.

In the fourth place, the vernacular itself is rapidly altering and diverging more and more from the general language of the Granth Sahib. Words which men still in the prime of life were accustomed to use in their boyhood have now become obsolete, and new vocables have taken their place. It appears, therefore, that it would on every account be ell to fix the translation of the many exceedingly difficult passages scattered broadcast through the Sikh sacred writings. In the fifth place, there are local legends now rife which we have been able to gather, but which would otherwise pass into oblivion in a comparatively short period of time.”

The beauty of Mr. Macauliffe’s work is that he had meticulously maintained and preserved the flavor of the original text – a job highly difficult and complex, brain – taxing and time – consuming.

Sir Baba Khem Singh, member of the Legislative Council and a prominent Sikh scholar, complimented Mr. Macauliffe with the following words:

“It is fortunate for the Sikh nation to have such kind of a friend as you, whose ideas are naturally inclined to their benefit, and they should ever bear you thankfulness and gratitude. I am glad to express my appreciation of your work, and the labour and trouble you have taken upon yourself to accomplish such a voluminous task.”

It will, indeed, be of great interest to the readers to go through the pages of Civil and Military Gazette, Lahore, March 19, 1913, wherein Mr. Macauliffe’s contribution to the Sikh cause was highlighted in the following words:

“The name o the late Mr. Max Arthur Macauliffe will always be associated with his monumental translation into English of the Granth Sahib, a work on which he was engaged for 16 years. He was thus an example of an Indian civilian whose most important work was done after his retirement from the service. Mr. Macauliffe was appointed to the service at the examination of 1862, after an education at Newcastle School, Limerick, Springfield College, and Queen’s College, Galway. He was posted to the Punjab, and arrived in the country in 1864. He reached the grade of Deputy Commissioner in 1862 and he became a Divisional Judge two years later. During his service in the Punjab, Mr. Macauliffe had devoted himself to the study of Sikhism and its literature, and published a series of articles on the subject in the Calcutta Review during 1880-1881. The translation of the Granth Sahib which the Indian Office had commissioned a missionary to undertake was acknowledged to be full o imperfections, besides offending Sikh susceptibilities in many particulars, and Mr. Macaulife, therefore, resolved to devote himself to the preparation of a new translation, a task which he urged to undertake by representative Sikh societies. For this purpose he resigned the service in 1893. The work occupied him for the next 16 years, and when completed its great value was acknowledged by many scholars and by the leaders of the Sikh community as well.

The work was printed at the cost of the University of Oxford, but this only represented a small part of the translator’s expenditure. He himself estimated that he had spent as much as two lakhs on the work. Some years ago the Punjab Government offered Mr. Macauliffe a grant of Rs. 5,000 in advance for certain copies of the translation, but the offer was declined. More recently the Punjab Government repeated its offer of Rs. 5,000 but Mr. Macauliffe again declined to accept a sum which he regarded as utterly inadequate to his labors and the importance of his work. ‘Its acceptance’, he added, “would not be o much material advantage to me, neither would it enhance my reputation in the eyes of the Sikhs or the general public.”