Structure of Guru Granth Sahib

A page from the bir of Guru Granth Sahib handwritten by Pratap Singh Giani, located on the first floor of Sri Harimandir Sahib, Amritsar.

The Guru Granth Sahib begins with the word "Ek Onkar" – The All Pervading Being. From this Word to the tenth Word “Gur-parshad” is called the Mool Mantra. After this is the rest of the composition called the Japji composed by Guru Nanak Dev. This comprises 38 Pauris or stanzas, a Prologue and an Epilogue. This is one of the morning prayer of the Sikhs.

The next composition has two parts - (1) "So Dar" and (2) "So Purkh". The Bani, "So Dar" contains 5 Shabads and "So Purkh" contains 4 Shabads. This form most of the evening prayer of the Sikhs and is called the Rehras. After this is the Bani called Sohila (full name, Kirtan Sohila), which contains 5 Shabads and is the bed-time prayer.

Raga section

After the above mentioned Compositions, most of the compositions are divided into the following 31 Rags or musical measures –

Sri raga, Manjh, Gauri, Asa, Gujri, Devagandhari, Bihagara, Wadahans, Sorath, Dhanasri, Jaitsri, Todi, Bairari, Tilang, Suhi, Bilaval, Gond (Gaund), Ramkali, Nut-Narayan, Mali-Gaura, Maru, Tukhar, Kedara, Bhairav (Bhairo), Basant, Sarang, Malar, Kanra, Kalyan, Prabhati and Jaijawanti

Main article: Sikh Ragas

Within it's 1430 pages, most of the Shabads (hymns) of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib are arranged in thirty-one Ragas, the traditional Indian musical measures and scales. Within the Ragas, they are arranged by order of the Sikh Gurus, with the shabads of the Hindu and Muslim saints. The shabads are written in various meters and rhythms, and are organized accordingly. For instance, Ashtapadi - eight steps, or Panch-padi - five steps. The Sri Guru Granth Sahib is written in Gurmukhi script, but the shabads were written in many different languages including Punjabi, Sanskrit and Persian.

The Sequence of Compositions with the Raags

Within each Raag, the compositions are arranged in the following order:

Shabads, followed by Astpadis, follwed by Chhants, followed by Compositions of the Bhagats.

Each section of Shabads, Astpadis, Chhants are arranged in the order of the Gurus. Surprisingly, there are no Shabads by Guru Arjan Dev - He only wrote Sloks. Each section of Shabads in each Raag is follwed by Astpadi again in order of the Gurus. There is no Astpadi written by Guru Tegh Bahadur. After the Astpadi section are Chhants in the same chronological order of the Gurus.

The Contents of 31 Raags are:

Post Raga Section

After the completion of the Raag section of the Guru Granth Sahib which form the majority of the holy scripture, the following compositions appear:

Var

Altogether, there are in all 22 Varan in Guru Granth Sahib, of which 21 have been written by the Gurus, and one by Bhatts Satta and Balwand. The details of Vars are given below -

Details of Vars in order of Rags

The following is the breakgown of the number of Varan in the Raags:

• Ramkali has 3 varaa

• Gaurhi, Gujri, Matu each have 2 varaa each.

• The remaining 13 raags each have 1 var: Sri, Majh, Asa, Baihagara, Vadhans, Sorath, Jaitsri, Suhi, Bilawal, Basant, Sarang, Malar and Karma.

Except for Satta and Baiwand’s Var in Rag Ramkali and the Var in Basant Rag of Guru Arjan Dev, in all the remaining Varaa, Sloks of first five Gurus have been attached to the Pauris of the Vars. The details of Pauris and Sloks of these Vars are given below:-

• Guru Nanak Dev 78 Pauris (stanzas)
• Guru Amar Das 85 Pauris
• Guru Ram Das 183 Pauris
• Guru Ram Das 183 Pauris
• Guru Arjan Dev 117 Pauris
• Total number of Pauris of 2l 463 Pauris
• Vars Satta-Baiwand’s Var 8 Pauris
• Grand Total of Pau.ris 471 Pauris

Details of Sloks of 21 Vars -

• Guru Nanak Dev 227 Sloks
• Guru Angad Dev 63 Sloks
• Guru Amar Das 343 Sloks
• Guru Ram Das 105 Sloks
• Guru Arjan Dev 252 Sloks
• Kabir Ji 4 Sloks
• Total of 994 Sloks

Compositions of the Bhagats

The compositions of the Bhagats appears in 22 of the 31 raags. There are a total of 349 Shabads by the Bhagats. Within these 349 Shabads are also 3 Shabads by Guru Arjan Dev. The breakdown of these 352 shabads is given below:

In addition to the above Shabads, there are 3 more compositions by Bhagat Kabir in Raag Gauri. They are Bavan Akhari, Pandrah Thithi and Satt Var.

Within the 1430 pages are found Saloks of Bhagat Kabir, Sheikh Farid, Guru Tegh Bahadur, etc. The final composition of the SGGS is the Ragamala