Bhai Banno

Bhai Banno (30 April 1558 – January 1645) was a Sikh figure who is remembered for being a devoted follower of the fifth Sikh guru, Guru Arjan. He was also a contemporary of Guru Hargobind. He is remembered for preparing a copy and possible variant recension of the Ād Granth. ), was in circulation during the historical period. The composition of this recension is traced back to 1604 and attributed by Bhai Banno, Another view is that it was prepared in 1642 by a certain Banno of Khara Mangat (located in modern-day Gujrat district). Guru Gobind Singh would later publish the Damdami recension (also spelled as 'Damdama') of the Adi Granth with Bhai Mani Singh acting as the scribe. The reason for him doing so has been said to be the unauthorized recensions of the Adi Granth scattered throughout the community, especially the Banno recension, which contained unauthorized additions.

Bhai Banno is said to have made an exact copy of the original manuscript of the Ād Granth that had been compiled by Guru Arjan. first, Guru Arjan deliberately left the blank folio pages to complete it later, but was unable to because he was arrested and executed by the Mughal emperor Jehangir; second, the hymn and pages existed in the original manuscript, the Banno bir is older, the pages were removed by Khalsa Sikhs from the Kartarpur manuscript and replaced with blank folios in their attempt to carve out a separate Sikh identity from the Hindus during the Singh Sabha Movement; third, the blank pages were intentionally left by Guru Arjan for unknown reasons, and the complete hymn in the Banno bir is an interpolation added by a Sikh follower who wanted to insert Brahminical rites-of-passage rituals in the text. According to G.B. Singh – a Sikh scholar who pioneered study of the early Sikh manuscripts, the evidence supports the second theory. According to Pashaura Singh, his examination of the manuscripts and linguistic evidence yields support for the third theory, noting that the smaller hand and different writing implement in which the remaining 22 lines were written, the lines themselves do not match earlier manuscripts and differ in structure and lexicon from the rest of Guru Arjan's writings, the presence of other short verses in all manuscripts like Vār Basant with only three stanzas, and points to the fact that G.B. Singh had made the claim without actually examining the text, positing that he seemed to have been serving the interests of the Arya Samaj based on his writings. |group=note

Later life and death Bhai Banno later conducted missionary work in northwestern Punjab, dying in January 1645. The gurdwara was constructed by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Havelis for Banno's descendants were also constructed in the settlement. Furthermore, a jagir was bestowed upon the family.