Help! Best Sikh History Books

[BenaresKaThug]

Dear Sangat Ji

I want to get a book on the sikh's history that is supported by the panth and is supported by many scholars.

can anyone recommand one

because every time i quote one event from a sikh history book someone will say the author is RSS or missionary or something else.

what does the Sangat think of Max Arthur Macualiffe 6 volume work i read it and find it good

Please recommad that is the most accurate old or new Thanks. 

[gurdssingh]

Dear Sangat Ji

I want to get a book on the sikh's history that is supported by the panth and is supported by many scholars.

can anyone recommand one

because every time i quote one event from a sikh history book someone will say the author is RSS or missionary or something else.

what does the Sangat think of Max Arthur Macualiffe 6 volume work i read it and find it good

Please recommad that is the most accurate old or new Thanks.

Please sangat correct me for wrong info.

Max Arthur Maculiffe I think is genuine in his approach to understand SIkhi. I think he translated SGGS Ji, to a standard which the Sikh scholars of time thought was correct. Prior to him I think there was a German, Trump (?), who misinterpreted the holy scriptures. I think the ~British commisoned them. That is of the top of my head. Google and get the correct info.

I'll check @ work 2moro i'm trying to type and my kid keeps on pressing all the keys, even though the munchkin should be a sleep.!!

[SunSingh]

Macaulliffe is excellent. There are some mistakes in there, but it's worth reading just for the way he explains bani using sakhis.

Patwant Singh's The Sikhs is excellent. I don't agree with his views on Bhindrenwale and I think he got them wrong, but otherwise he is solid.

The best to fill in your understanding of the 1984 years is The Gallant Defender by AR Darshi. You can read it online for free at bhindrenwale.net.

Cunliffe's History of the Sikhs is very good. It gives a very clear picture of the times, in deep detail.

There's also Suraj Prakash Granth, the oldest source of history. An amazing read, although you can find katha of it on www.gurmatveechar.com as well where any mistakes/discrepencies in the text are pointed out.

There's also the oldest source on Guru Nanak SAhib ji's life. You can read English translations of it here.

[dalsingh101]

If you want raw contemporary information try Sicques, Tigers and Thieves by Madra and Singh. This work has collected all the surviving early European accounts of Sikhs and Persian sources of Sikh history eds. Grewal and Habib has collected a lot of early Persian writing on Sikhs.

The works contain stuff that is not agreeable to our understanding of Sikhi today but is very useful from a historical perspective.

I should also add the translation of Rattan Singh Bhangu's Panth Prakash (by Kulwant Singh) too. It is an important historical text.

You need to be able to judge the text you read so if this is difficult for you, it may be better to wait until you have given yourself a solid grounding in more popular works.

Addition - I found Jagjit Singh's Sikh revolution very good at contextualising the early Sikh movement in political and social terms. If you hunt for it, you may be able to find it online?

[VanHelsingh]

There was one stand-out issue for me in the Max Arthur Macauliffe volumes which shocked me when I first read them. He mentions Sikh warriors preparing and eating meat in-between battles against the Mughals as a way of keeping their strength up. I was very surprised at reading this the first time, and I honestly didn't know what to think, because nearly everything else Mr. Macauliffe wrote seems to be absolutely spot-on. It is still a bit of a weird issue for me. If anyone can shed any light on this I'd be very grateful.

Just for the record, I'm not looking for confirmation (or not) of being able to eat meat - I've never touched the stuff since birth and don't intend to.

[Singh559]

http://www.sacred-texts.com/skh/tsr1/tsr100.htm

[BenaresKaThug]

I think most of the Sangat agrees that Max Arthur's 6 volume work is the most authoritative book on Sikhi with few mistakes thanks.

[SHOGUN ASSASON]

Macaulliffe is excellent. There are some mistakes in there, but it's worth reading just for the way he explains bani using sakhis.

Patwant Singh's The Sikhs is excellent. I don't agree with his views on Bhindrenwale and I think he got them wrong, but otherwise he is solid.

The best to fill in your understanding of the 1984 years is The Gallant Defender by AR Darshi. You can read it online for free at bhindrenwale.net.

Cunliffe's History of the Sikhs is very good. It gives a very clear picture of the times, in deep detail.

There's also Suraj Prakash Granth, the oldest source of history. An amazing read, although you can find katha of it on www.gurmatveechar.com as well where any mistakes/discrepencies in the text are pointed out.

There's also the oldest source on Guru Nanak SAhib ji's life. You can read English translations of it here.

Do you mean Cunningham?

[gurdssingh]

Do you mean Cunningham?

I think it was a typing error as Cunnigham wrote the first History of the Sikhs, I think Kushwant Singh the later revised it.

[dalsingh101]

I'm sure you can find Cunningham's book online too.