Malay Sikh achieves rare feat of handwriting Granth Sahib for a fourth time

PETALING JAYA - Malay Sikh Jaswant Singh Khosa has accomplished a rare feat of completing his fourth handwritten copy of the 1,430-page Sikh holy book, Guru Granth Sahib.

According to The Star, this is possibly the largest and heaviest Guru Granth Sahib in the world, weighing 84 kilograms.

It is 91.44 centimetres in length and 66.04 centimetres wide, breaking his previous Malaysia Book of Records for his second copy, which weighed 45 kilograms and was 76.2 centimetres long and 48.26 centimetres wide in 2004.

“It is a labour of love. The (latest) book is 182.9 centimetres long when it opens up. I wrote for 14 hours a day. It was worth it,” he told The Star.

The 73-year-old took 14 months to complete his fourth handwritten copy, which he donated to a Sikh temple in the United States.

Jaswant is now writing the holy book in traditional Gurmukhi calligraphy. Sikh temple in Amritsar had replaced its 200-year-old holy book and is currently using Jaswant’s second hand-written copy, which he had also donated.

The third copy, which is the same size as the second, was given to a Sikh temple in Canada in 2007.

His first hand-written copy, a smaller version, was donated to a Sikh temple in London in 1998. (ANI)