About Open Granth
What is this?
Open Granth is a markdown-first presentation of the complete Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji: all 1,430 angs with Gurmukhi and romanized transliteration.
On that foundation, Open Granth provides a browsable website, search, and verification tooling for AI clients and human readers alike.
This is seva. No ads. No accounts. No tracking. No commerce. Just Gurbani, freely accessible to anyone with a web browser.
Project scope
Open Granth contains Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji in full: all 1,430 angs, from Japji Sahib through the concluding Ragmala. This includes the bani of the six Gurus, the Bhagats, the Bhatts, and Gursikhs whose compositions Guru Arjan Dev Ji and Guru Gobind Singh Ji enshrined in the Granth.
Open Granth currently covers Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji in its standard 1,430-ang form. It therefore does not include bani outside the scope of this release, including Jaap Sahib, Tav-Prasad Savaiye, and Benti Chaupai. This is a project-scope boundary, not a judgment on their place or importance in Sikh tradition.
Why build this?
I started using AI tools regularly, for both personal and professional work. Naturally, I began asking AI about Gurbani. What does Guru Nanak Dev Ji say about ego? Which shabads speak to grief?
The answers I received sounded confident. They also contained verses that don't exist.
AI models can hallucinate. For most topics, a wrong answer is an inconvenience. For sacred scripture, it's something else entirely. I was reading fabricated Gurbani without realizing it. I later learned that other Sikhs had encountered the same problem.
Accuracy matters here in a way it doesn't for most things. Gurbani is Guru. Misquoting it is harmful.
Open Granth was created to address this. Every verse is stored as plain text, readable by humans and machines alike. The project includes an MCP server that lets AI tools query verified source text instead of generating from memory. When an AI uses Open Granth, it can retrieve Gurbani directly from the released source files with ang and line citations instead of relying on model memory.
This is for anyone who wants to seek Naam using the tools of today, accurately and with reverence for the source.
Sources and provenance
Gurmukhi text and metadata: derived from the Shabad OS database.
English translation: imported from the DSSK translation asset in the Shabad OS database, attributed there to Dr. Sant S. Khalsa. Included as a study aid.
Romanized transliteration: mechanically generated by Open Granth as an approximate companion to the Gurmukhi. It is not an authoritative pronunciation guide. The Gurmukhi remains the authoritative source text.
Built by Open Granth: the Markdown corpus format covering all 1,430 angs, the static website and search, the citation-first verification system, and the seven-tool MCP server.
Open Granth is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Shabad OS or any Gurdwara, Jatha, Takht, or Sikh institution.
Provenance is kept explicit so differences between sources are auditable and it is always clear what was rendered from where. See the NOTICE file and transliteration documentation for complete attribution.
English translation
The English layer is included as a study aid, not as the canonical layer and not as Open Granth's own interpretation. The Gurmukhi text remains authoritative. Open Granth will not present AI-generated interpretation as authoritative Gurbani.
Interpretation belongs to the scholars, Granthis, and ultimately the reader. If a rights holder believes a translation passage should be corrected, reattributed, or removed, the project maintains a public takedown process.
Accuracy
This site renders its source text as faithfully as possible. If you find errors in text or transliteration, open an issue on Open Granth with the ang and line numbers.
Takedown
If you are a copyright holder or authorized representative and believe any material on this site infringes your rights, see TAKEDOWN.md for the request process. Good-faith requests are acknowledged promptly.
Open source
This project is fully open source. The code, the build scripts, and the rendered output are all freely available.
Built by
Open Granth was created by Satnam Singh Narang as an act of seva, in memory of his late father. The goal: make Gurbani accessible regardless of language or technical background.