There are a total 4 Janamsakhis of Guru Nanak Dev in trend, Puratan Janamsakhi, The Miharban Janam-sakhi, Bhai Bale Wali Janamsakhi, Bhai Mani Singh Janamsakhi Gyana Ratnavali.
Among them, the fourth and evidently the latest is the Gyan-Ratanavali attributed to Bhai Mani Singh who wrote it with the express intention of correcting heretical accounts of Guru Nanak. Bhai Mani Singh was a Sikh of Guru Gobind Singh. He was approached by some Sikhs with a request that he should prepare an authentic account of Guru Nanak's life. This they assured him was essential as the Minas were circulating objectionable things in their version. Bhai Mani Singh referred them to the Var of Bhai Gurdas, but this, they maintained was too brief, and a longer more fuller account was needed. Bhai Mani Singh writes :
Just as swimmers fix reeds in the river so that those who do not know the way may also cross, so I shall take Bhai Gurdas’s var as my basis and in accordance with it, and with the accounts that I have heard at the court of the tenth Master, I shall relate to you whatever commentary issues from my humble mind.
At the end of the Janamsakhi, there is an epilogue in which it is stated that the completed work was taken to Guru Gobind Singh Ji for his seal of approval. Guru Sahib Ji duly signed it and commended it as a means of acquiring knowledge of Sikh belief.
Download Bhai Mani Singh Janamsakhi
| Book | Bhai Mani Singh Janamsakhi Gyan Ratnavali |
| Writer | Bhai Mani Singh |
| Pages | 488 |
| Language | Punjabi |
| Script | Gurmukhi |
| Size | 68 Mb |
