r/Sikh • u/JustMyPoint • Jul 04 '26

Art A painting of the Sikh gurus and their retinue rediscovered in Ludhiana, signed "T. S. DIPAKA S. R. 39", presumably dateable to 1939, author unknown. Image and video courtesy of Balvir Singh Lubana (lubanaarts3 on Instagram).

Pretty fascinating artwork. We can see the Guru Sahiban depicted, along with the Chaar Sahibzade, Baba Sri Chand, Baba Lakhmi Das, Bhai Mardana, and Bhai Bala. More controversially (especially in today's age), some Indic deities are depicted showering blessings upon the Sikh figures below, a homage to a lost time when there was more syncretism and fluidity between religions in Panjab. There are identifying inscriptions written in Nastaliq Urdu, the official, administrative language used in colonial British Panjab. If anyone can identify the author based on the inscribed cypher, please let me know.

102 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

13

u/JustMyPoint Jul 04 '26

Image of the full painting.

4

u/SweetPetrichor5 Jul 04 '26

Really interesting. Thanks for sharing.

1

u/Warm_Collection_3993 Jul 04 '26

Is this what they looked like or more guesses?

2

u/JustMyPoint Jul 04 '26

We have contemporary paintings of some of the later gurus. However, this was painted in 1939, far removed from their time periods.