During the guruship of
Guru Nanak, collections of his hymns were compiled and sent to distant Sikh communities for use in morning and evening prayers.
[11] His successor, Guru Angad, began collecting his predecessor's writings. This tradition was continued by the third and fifth gurus as well.
When the fifth guru, Guru Arjan, was collecting the writings of his predecessor, he discovered that pretenders to the guruship were releasing what he considered as forged anthologies of the previous gurus' writings and including their own writings alongside them.[12] In order to prevent spurious scriptures from gaining legitimacy, Guru Arjan began compiling a sacred book for the Sikh community. He finished collecting the religious writings ofGuru Ram Das, his immediate predecessor, and convinced Mohan, the son of Guru Amar Das, to give him the collection of the religious writings of the first three gurus.[12] In addition, he sent disciples to go across the country to find and bring back any previously unknown writings. He also invited members of other religions and contemporary religious writers to submit writings for possible inclusion.[12] Guru Arjan selected hymns for inclusion into the book, and Bhai Gurdas acted as his scribe.
While the manuscript was being put together, Akbar, the Mughal Emperor, received a report that the manuscript contained passages vilifying Islam. Therefore, while travelling north, he stopped en route and asked to inspect it. Baba Buddha and Bhai Gurdas brought him a copy of the manuscript as it then existed. After choosing three random passages to be read, Akbar decided that this report had been false. He also granted a request from Guru Arjan to remit the annual tax revenue of the district because of the failure of the monsoon.
In 1604 Guru Arjan's manuscript was completed and installed at the Harmandir Sahib with Baba Buddha as the first
granthi, or reader. Since communities of Sikh disciples were scattered all over northern India, copies of the holy book needed to be made for them. The sixth, seventh, and
eighth gurus did not write religious verses; however, the ninth guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, did. The tenth guru, Guru Gobind Singh, included Guru Tegh Bahadur's writings into the
Guru Granth Sahib.
In 1704 at Damdama Sahib, during a one-year respite from the heavy fighting with Aurengzeb which the Khalsa was engaged in at the time, Guru Gobind Singh and Bhai Mani Singh added the religious compositions of Guru Tegh Bahadur to Adi Granth to create a definitive version. The religious verses of Guru Gobind Singh were not included in Guru Granth Sahib, but some of his religious verses are included in the daily prayers of Sikhs. During this period, Bhai Mani Singh also collected Guru Gobind Singh's writings, as well as his court poets, and included them in a secondary religious volume, today known as the
Dasam Granth Sahib This secondary text is not revered by the Sikhs, however, for whom only
Guru Granth Sahib is Guru.
