What do the numbers mean in gurbani?

[Guest Din Bahir]

I recently welcomed The Guru Granth Sahib in to my home and began reading this translation (chahail).  There are the numbers 1,2,3,4,5 and some like 4.4, 5.2 found before sentences.  I never read The Guru myself so I am quite unaware as to what these numbers mean.  Are they to denote the chords on an instrument or pitches of the voice? Can anyone help? Thank you!

[Guest s555]

They are quite useful to learn and come in handy. For the most part they are essentially just indications of "chapters" except usually added after each stanza rather than a large section of text in a book, (but it may get a little more complex maybe as well, see bottom).

For the most part consider this simple example (Eg look at Japji Sahib)

Sentence words things example. 1. Sentence things example more.2  You get the picture kinda. 3. Something something something 4 

 

But then it gets more complex sometimes, note the last number (Eg Look at Sri Sukhmani Sahib)

 

[start of text]

Sentence words things example. 1. Sentence things example more.2  You get the picture kinda. 3. Something something something 2.1. 

Sentence words things example. 1. Sentence things example more.2  You get the picture kinda. 3. Something something something 2.2. 

Sentence words things example. 1. Sentence things example more.2  You get the picture kinda. 3. Something something something 3.3. 

Sentence words things example. 1. Sentence things example more.2  You get the picture kinda. 3. Something something something 4.4. 

Sentence words things example. 1. Sentence things example more.2  You get the picture kinda. 3. Something something something 4.5. 

[end of text]

 

Now where you will find the most is in vaars (Eg asa Di vaar). Vaar is a considerably long "shabad" and found at the end of Raags. It usually has say 25 sections and each section may contain a salok, pauri and other sections and each is grouped together to make one section. The key here to find where you are is to look right before a shalok (I think in most or all cases) and at the last number eg 4|2|8 and that would indicate you are at the 8th section. Sometimes one bani is taken from another section like in kirtani asa di vaar so in hindsight it means I think that this is part of a bigger composition. It may also be related to different bhagats. 

 

[RajKaregaKhalsa1]

On 10/21/2018 at 7:56 AM, Guest Din Bahir said:

I recently welcomed The Guru Granth Sahib in to my home and began reading this translation (chahail).  There are the numbers 1,2,3,4,5 and some like 4.4, 5.2 found before sentences.  I never read The Guru myself so I am quite unaware as to what these numbers mean.  Are they to denote the chords on an instrument or pitches of the voice? Can anyone help? Thank you!

I recently found out what this meant and it is quite cool

The first number stands for the number of stanzas in the Shabads and the next numbers are for how many Shabads are for Guru Nanak Dev ji Maharaj etc. In that raag and the total number of Shabads writeen

It is just a way of the Guru helping Sikhs to protect Guru Granth Sahib ji from others putting their own Bani in

This link may help 

http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Guru_Granth_Sahib_Numbering_System

Have a nice day

ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ ਜੀ ਕਾ ਖਾਲਸਾ ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ ਜੀ ਕੀ ਫਤਿਹ

[Guest guest]

Hello

there are numbers before and after verse ("pauri").

the ones before (in the titles of each new verse) with the word Mahalaa before them are thought to imply the Guru who spoke them (e.g. Mahalaa 1 means Guru Nanak, Mahalaa 3 means Guru Amar Das).  I personally do not believe this explanation.

The numbers after the lines of text mark each verse.  They act like paragraphs in English do, by separating each point.  

if there are two numbers, two counts are going on.  For example, the fourth verse of the eights section.  

hope that helps.

these points are kind of obvious.  however a lot of things about SGGS have been forgotten sadly and are not known, like what the ghars stand for, how the grammar works, etc