The role of Yoga in Sikh practice has been the topic of recent scholarly investigations raising
questions of authority, authenticity, and adaptation within oral and textual knowledge production,
lineage transmission, scriptural translation and interpretation. The Sikh scripture has a multitude
of Yogic terminology, metaphors, allusions, and critiques about Yogic renunciation and
techniques for spiritual attainment. Still, conceptions of yoga (jog) are abundant in Sikh practice,
and specifically within Sikh kirtan (shabd, naad, taal, laya). This paper focuses on Sikh kirtan as
an embodied praxis (jog) of living knowledge that has sustained and adapted over time through
dueling claims to authentic and authoritative traditional knowledge.
Over the last century, Sikh embodied knowledge streams reached near-extinction due to British
colonization, India's partition, nationalist identity politics, and the neo-liberal marketplace. The
loss of performative and musical memory spurred a critical renaissance in the late 1980s to
recover and revive the remnants of Sikh's intangible knowledge contained in the musical
heritage. My extensive ethnographic research on this contemporary renaissance has revealed
hermeneutic chaos within the revival based on dueling notions of authenticity, authority, and
whether adaptations are allowed in the Guru's music (gurbani kirtan).
This paper identifies the tensions inherent in concepts of authentic and authoritative ‘tradition'
by exploring the rift between parampara - maryada enmeshed within pre- and post- colonial
contexts. Within the revival there are: 1) reformists homogenizing and institutionalizing Sikh
music ‘tradition' (maryada) through erasure of diverse practices; 2) neo-traditionalists
attempting to revive an ancient ‘pure tradition' by creating new histories within the neo-liberal
marketplace; 3) memory-bearers recovering Sikh knowledge systems (guru-shishya parampara)
through embodied pedagogies and practices. This paper argues that Sikh wisdom cannot be
constrained by (post)colonial logics of conformity and closure. As a living stream of knowledge
of embodied pedagogy and praxis (jog), it resists hegemonic and homogenous notions of
authority and authenticity altogether allowing for diverse future creations.