Verses ascribed to Kabir have been compiled in three distinct but overlapping traditions. Which among the following is not one of them?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Guru Granth Sahib
Verses ascribed to Kabir have been compiled in three distinct but overlapping traditions.
Option (1) Kabir Bijak — Incorrect. It is one of the three. It is preserved by the Kabirpanth (the path or sect of Kabir) in Varanasi and elsewhere in Uttar Pradesh.
Option (2) Kabir Granthavali — Incorrect. It is one of the three. It is associated with the Dadupanth in Rajasthan.
Option (3) Adi Granth Sahib — Incorrect. It is one of the three. Many of Kabir’s compositions are found in it; Guru Arjan compiled in it the hymns of Baba Guru Nanak, his successors and poets like Baba Farid, Ravidas and Kabir.
Option (4) Guru Granth Sahib — Correct. It is not one of the three as they are named. It is the name the scripture got in the late seventeenth century, when Guru Gobind Singh included the compositions of Guru Tegh Bahadur in the Adi Granth Sahib.
Note: The given answer is as per the NTA answer key. Since the Guru Granth Sahib is the Adi Granth Sahib with the compositions of Guru Tegh Bahadur added, Kabir’s verses are found in it too, and one can argue that it is not separate from Option (3). However, the three traditions are named as the Kabir Bijak, the Kabir Granthavali and the Adi Granth Sahib, and the Guru Granth Sahib is not one of these names. Therefore, it is the most appropriate answer.
NCERT (2026-27): “8.1 Weaving a divine fabric: Kabir … Kabir (c. fourteenth-fifteenth centuries) is perhaps one of the most outstanding examples of a poet-saint who emerged within this context. Historians have painstakingly tried to reconstruct his life and times through a study of compositions attributed to him as well as later hagiographies. Such exercises have proved to be challenging on a number of counts. Verses ascribed to Kabir have been compiled in three distinct but overlapping traditions. The Kabir Bijak is preserved by the Kabirpanth (the path or sect of Kabir) in Varanasi and elsewhere in Uttar Pradesh; the Kabir Granthavali is associated with the Dadupanth in Rajasthan, and many of his compositions are found in the Adi Granth Sahib (see Section 8.2). All these manuscript compilations were made long after the death of Kabir.… 8.2 Baba Guru Nanak and the Sacred Word … It appears that Baba Guru Nanak did not wish to establish a new religion, but after his death his followers consolidated their own practices and distinguished themselves from both Hindus and Muslims. The fifth preceptor, Guru Arjan, compiled Baba Guru Nanak’s hymns along with those of his four successors and other religious poets like Baba Farid, Ravidas (also known as Raidas) and Kabir in the Adi Granth Sahib. These hymns, called ‘gurbani’, are composed in various languages. In the late seventeenth century the tenth preceptor, Guru Gobind Singh, included the compositions of the ninth guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, and this scripture was called the Guru Granth Sahib.…” |