ਚੰਡੀ ਦੀ ਵਾਰਚੰਡੀ ਦੀ ਵਾਰ

Chandi di Var is the ballad of the goddess Chandi, a 55-stanza Punjabi composition by Guru Gobind Singh Ji in the ਦਸਮ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ. It retells the battle between Chandi and the demon brothers Shumbh and Nishumbh, and its first stanza opens the Ardas, the Sikh prayer of remembrance.

What is Chandi di Var?

Chandi di Var, also called Var Sri Bhagauti Ji Ki and, in the oldest manuscripts, Var Durga Ki, is a ballad of 55 stanzas, or pauris, by ਗੁਰੂ ਗੋਬਿੰਦ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀ. It is the fifth composition of the Dasam Granth, the collection of the Tenth Guru's writings, and it stands out among them for its language. Apart from one short hymn in Shabad Hazare, it is the only composition in the Dasam Granth written wholly in Punjabi, while its companions are written in Braj. That choice matters. A var is the ballad form Punjabi bards sang before battles and at gatherings, a form made to be heard aloud and remembered, and Guru Gobind Singh Ji chose it for a story of war and courage. The word Bhagauti in the formal title means the sword, and the Var opens by remembering Bhagauti first, before Guru Nanak Dev Ji. The Dasam Granth opens with ਜਾਪੁ ਸਾਹਿਬ, and the Var stands fifth among its compositions. In short, it is a warrior's ballad, written in the people's own language, about a goddess who stands alone against an army of demons.

The story it tells

The story comes from the Devi Mahatmyam, the hymn to the Goddess set inside the Sanskrit Markandeya Purana. Two demon brothers, Shumbh and Nishumbh, win a boon from Brahma that no god, demon or man can kill them, and with that protection they drive the gods from heaven and rule the three worlds. The gods, unable to fight back, pray for help, and the goddess appears: Chandi, also called Durga, shining with the combined power of all the gods and armed with their weapons. Shumbh sends his generals against her one by one. Dhumralochana falls to a single roar. Chanda and Munda are beheaded, and from that deed she takes the name Chamunda. Then comes Raktabija, from whose every drop of spilled blood a new demon rises, until Kali drinks each drop before it can touch the ground. When Nishumbh leads the remaining army, he too is killed after a long fight. Shumbh, the last brother, demands she fight him alone, without her companions, and she agrees: she draws every form back into herself and meets him in single combat. He falls, the gods return to their thrones, and order is restored. The Var follows this telling closely, but it compresses the long Sanskrit episode into 55 swift Punjabi stanzas, keeping the battle at the centre.

How the Var was composed

Early Sikh historians place the writing of Chandi di Var at Anandpur Sahib. Bhai Koer Singh Kalal records in Gurbilas Patshahi 10, written in 1751, that Guru Gobind Singh Ji composed it there, and later historians including Giani Ditt Singh, Professor Sahib Singh, Giani Gian Singh, Ratan Singh Bhangu and Kavi Santokh Singh support the same account. Anandpur was the Guru's seat in those years, a town of poets, warriors and craftsmen. Tradition tells a story about the occasion: pandits asked the Guru to perform a yagya, a fire ritual, so that Chandi herself would appear and bless him, and the Guru answered by reciting the Var, then drawing his sword and declaring that here was Chandi. The story carries the Guru's meaning whether or not the incident happened exactly as told: divine power is not to be waited for in ritual, it is to be taken up as the sword in the hand of the righteous. The Var was written for a people the Guru was preparing for a hard struggle. Its purpose, as the old summaries put it, was to change the temper of society, to fill ordinary people with the spirit to stand against tyranny, and to honour the mother as the embodiment of might.

Chandi di Var and Chandi Charitra: what is the difference?

New readers often confuse Chandi di Var with Chandi Charitra, and the confusion is understandable, because Guru Gobind Singh Ji told the same story three times. The first telling, Chandi Charitra Ukti Bilas, runs to 233 verses in Braj. The second, Chandi Charitra II, retells it in 266 verses, again in Braj. The third is Chandi di Var: 55 stanzas, the shortest of the three, and the only one in Punjabi. The two longer tellings belong to the Bachittar Natak section of the Dasam Granth, and in the order of the scripture the Var follows Chandi Charitra II and is itself followed by Gian Prabodh. Some descriptions call the Var a part of Chandi Charitra, but it is a separate composition with its own title, its own language and its own form. Chandi Charitra in Braj is a courtly, literary retelling, while the Var is a ballad meant to be sung and heard, its Punjabi direct and its stanzas short. He kept returning to the story because it carried what he needed: a picture of power that stands up to tyranny, told in a form his people could carry in memory.

Why does the Ardas begin with Chandi di Var?

The first stanza of Chandi di Var is the opening of the ਅਰਦਾਸ, the standing prayer of the Sikhs. The stanza begins 'Pritham Bhagauti simar kai, Guru Nanak layin dhyai': first I remember Bhagauti, then I remember Guru Nanak. It goes on to remember the nine Gurus who came before Guru Gobind Singh Ji, and the Sikh Rehat Maryada, the code of conduct, requires that this opening never be changed. In the Ardas as it is recited today, an invocation to the Tenth Guru follows. The line is heard at the opening of Guru Granth Sahib Ji for prakash in the morning and its closing for sukhasan at night, at the end of congregational worship, and at every rite of passage, from the naming of a child to a wedding to a cremation. To begin a prayer with the sword is a deliberate teaching. Before remembering the Gurus, the Sikh remembers the power that destroys evil, and the Ardas then carries that spirit through its long remembrance of the martyrs and the Khalsa. The Var's opening stanza is therefore not a quotation borrowed by the Ardas. It is the foundation the Ardas stands on.

Who recites Chandi di Var today?

Among Sikhs, the Var is kept alive above all by the Nihang Singhs, the Khalsa order that guards the martial tradition, for whom it remains part of the daily Nitnem. Namdhari Singhs also recite it daily. The old codes of conduct, the Rahitnamas, say it should be read standing up, with the sword in hand, and that instruction is still followed in Nihang circles. For most other Sikhs, the Var lives mainly through the Ardas, whose opening stanza is recited daily, while the full 55 stanzas are read less often. That is a change from earlier times, when the ballad was read widely by soldiers and warriors before battle, and it is why the Var is sometimes described today as one of the less read compositions of the Dasam Granth. Every Sikh who stands for Ardas speaks its first line, and the Nihang tradition keeps the whole ballad in daily use, so the Var remains what it was written to be: a text for the sword arm as much as for the ear.

What the Var teaches

The Var's teaching is not about the worship of a goddess. Sikhs do not worship Durga, and Guru Gobind Singh Ji did not, and the Var itself makes the point: Chandi here is Bhagauti, the sword, the power of the Timeless One that destroys evil, and the Guru gives the credit for the victory to Akaal Purakh, not to any deity. The story is a frame, and the teaching is inside it. First, that tyranny, however strong, can be faced: Shumbh and Nishumbh have a boon no god can break, yet they fall. Second, that the power which defeats them is not borrowed strength but the unity of all strengths: the goddess carries the weapons of every god, and in the final combat she draws every helper back into herself and stands alone. Third, that this power is close at hand. The closing stanza promises that those who sing the Var are freed from the cycle of rebirth, and the tradition that the Guru drew his sword and said 'here is Chandi' says the same thing in a single gesture: the divine sword is the one in your own hand, used for righteousness. Read that way, the Var is a call to the reader as much as a story.