ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the network of intertextual references found in early Sikh literature by examining the Janamsākhī anecdote called “Vein Parvesh,” alongside compositions from Vārān Bhāī Gurdās. I argue that this network of references increases our ability to understand how epistemology and knowledge production occurred in the Sikh tradition. I consider how the sākhī was vital to these developments and that one of the key epistemes to develop was the notion of being udāsī by comporting oneself through an exilic relationship with the material world. This meant that one should not be wrapped up in material things but should also remain in society. Exilic life reflects a literary response to the challenges of sectarianism and social hierarchy referred to in Srī Gurū Granth Sāhib and Vārān Bhāī Gurdās. Exilic life is predicated on a form of non-oppositionality that reduces sectarian antagonism through an aloofness to antagonism. These concepts form the allegorical network of figurative language infused in the Sikh literary world.
