In the post-Banda period, especially after the ignominious removal of Farrukhisar, which gave the Sikhs some relief, they needed wise leadership to ingrain the concept of the Granth and the Panth into the Sikh psyche. For a decade and a half, until his martyrdom, it was provided by Bhai Mani Singh, an erudite scholar well-versed in the exposition of Sikh scriptures and Sikh philosophy. His missionary tours, explaining the Sikh scriptures, helped to leave an indelible mark of recognition of the shabad, the word as contained in the Adi Granth as the Guru. The point that Bhai Mani Singh instilled into the Sikh psyche was that the shabad, as contained in the Adi Granth in its entirety, without any distinctions, including the hymns of the bhagats, was the Guru to be shown an equal degree of respect and reverence. He also said that the Adi Granth was not to be worshipped as an idol.¹

Theologically, Bhai Mani Singh was very clear; he made a distinction between bhagat bani and Gurbani. A significant contribution of Bhai Mani Singh was the emergence of the medium of ardas. As mentioned before, Bhai Mani Singh was born on 6 February 1672 in his ancestral village of Hanso Majra near Samana to Naghaiya and Bibi Diali (Daya Kaur)². At the very tender age of three, he, along with his parents, visited Anandpur to seek the blessing of Guru Teg Bahadur, and this is where he befriended Gobind Rai, who was a few years older than him and the son of Guru Teg Bahadur. Thus, deep bonds of friendship were formed, such that they were by each other’s side till the end.