ABSTRACT
Art “for the Sikhs, by the Sikhs, and about the Sikhs” is gaining tremendous momentum. At this exciting moment, my chapter interrogates: what are the essentials of Sikh art? It focuses on the 57 visuals of Guru Nanak’s life stories in the B40 Janamsakhi – an important iconotext because of its documentation. The artist of the B40 is Alma Chand Raj, the scribe is Daia Ram Baol, the patron is Sangu Mal, and it is dated 1733. The exquisite B40 paintings depict Guru Nanak’s interior and exterior journeys, his manifold interfaith conversations, and his marvelous actions. Their style and iconography confirm that the artist Alam Chand Raj is working in a new style and iconography that is uniquely, distinctively “Sikh.” In their dramatically simple and vibrant language of colors, five essentials of Sikh art can be retrieved: (1) new “Sikh” identity, (2) biophilial existentiality, (3) pluralistic iconography, (4) wondrous khushi, and (5) transcendent materiality.
