Intellectual Authority in the Precolonial Sikh Tradition A Case Study of Bhai Mani Singh Shahid

Abstract

This article explores the formation and expansion of the Sikh intellectual tradition through a case study of the enigmatic scholar Bhai Mani Singh (c. 1644-1738) who appears to have been a key contributor to the intellectual consolidation of the Sikh community in 18th-century Punjab. Part I and part II of the article take an overall approach to illumine the contributions of early generations of scholars and the institutional milieus they created, their intellectual production and participation in wider South Asian knowledge systems, as well as their knowledge-dissemination to younger generations of scholars. With this social context, part III of the article then examines how Bhai Mani Singh operated within such milieus and networks to become an intellectual authority par excellence in the Sikh tradition.