Varan Bhai Gurdasਵਾਰਾਂ ਭਾਈ ਗੁਰਦਾਸ

About the book

Varan Bhai Gurdas — 'the ballads of Bhai Gurdas', also known as Varan Gyan Ratnavali, 'ballads of gems of knowledge' — is the name given to the 40 vars (a form of Punjabi heroic poetry) traditionally attributed to Bhai Gurdas (1551–1636), composed circa the early 17th century. The 40 vars contain 912 pauris (stanzas) in Punjabi, alongside his Kabitt-Savaiyye in Braj Bhasha.

The work's status is unique in Sikh letters: it is popularly regarded as the key to the Sikh scriptures. Tradition holds that Guru Arjan Dev, the fifth Guru, called it the kunji — the key — to the Granth: where the Guru Granth Sahib is the ocean (samudra), Bhai Gurdas's vars are the lake (saagar) that helps the seeker navigate it. The Gurbilas Patshahi Chhevin (1718) records Bhai Gurdas's own account: 'Guru Arjan ordered me to compose 40 vars, so that peace may descend upon me.'

Plot & themes

The vars are not narrative in the qissa sense but expository and devotional: a detailed commentary on Sikh theology and ethics as taught by the Gurus. Across the 912 pauris Bhai Gurdas explains the tradition's key terms — sangat (congregation), haumai (ego), gurmukh and manmukh (the God-facing and the self-facing), sat (truth), naam (the Divine Name) — in simple language and often in several different ways, as if turning a jewel to catch the light.

The vars also document the lives of Guru Nanak and the early Gurus — tradition says the first var was written at Guru Arjan's request to complete an authentic literary account of Guru Nanak's life — and they preserve the earliest systematic exposition of Sikh doctrine anywhere. Their verse form, the var, descends from the heroic ballad tradition: the same form used for tales of warriors, turned here to the warfare of the spirit.

The author

Bhai Gurdas (1551–1636) was the first cousin of Mata Bhani, mother of Guru Arjan Dev, and among the most learned Sikhs of his age — master of several Indian languages and of the ancient religious scriptures. He was the first scribe of the Guru Granth Sahib: when Guru Arjan compiled the Adi Granth, Bhai Gurdas inscribed the entire text under the Guru's direction (the work was completed in 1601–1604 at Ramsar, Amritsar). Macauliffe records that the Guru offered to include Bhai Gurdas's own compositions in the Granth; the scribe declined as unworthy, and the Guru replied that whoever read the Bhai's writings would acquire spiritual profit and instruction.

Reception & legacy

The vars are recited and sung along with Gurbani at Sikh congregations to this day, and they remain the standard companion to the study of the Guru Granth Sahib — the text teachers reach for when a verse needs its key. Their 912 pauris are among the most quoted lines in Sikh discourse, and modern translations (including English) have carried the 'key' to readers who cannot approach the original. In the Sikh scriptures series the Varan stand alongside the Guru Granth Sahib, the Dasam Granth and the Sarbloh Granth as foundational literature.

Read it if...

you are studying the Guru Granth Sahib and want its traditional key; you are interested in the earliest systematic Sikh theology; or you want to see the heroic var form turned from battlefields to the inner life.