Granthi

A granthi is responsible for the reading, care and ceremonial installation of the Guru Granth Sahib, treated within Sikhism as the living embodiment of Guruship since the tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, ended the line of personal human Gurus in 1708, a role requiring accurate command of the Gurmukhi script and the scripture's own specific liturgical melodies and reading conventions, together with detailed knowledge of the correct daily and ceremonial procedures for installing, covering, and closing the scripture at the appointed times each day. Because Sikhism deliberately rejects a formally ordained priestly class, a granthi is a respected functionary appointed by a gurdwara's managing committee for demonstrated skill and dedication rather than an ordained clergy member holding sacramental authority distinct from any other baptized Sikh.

A granthi's duties extend beyond the daily reading schedule to officiating at Sikh life-cycle ceremonies, including naming ceremonies, weddings, Anand Karaj, and funeral rites, all conducted in the Guru Granth Sahib's presence, and to leading akhand path, the continuous, unbroken forty-eight-hour recitation of the entire scripture that marks significant occasions in Sikh communal and family life, a demanding undertaking usually shared in relay among several qualified readers rather than performed by one granthi alone.

The modern institutional framework surrounding a granthi's appointment and duties in India traces largely to reforms following the early twentieth century Singh Sabha and Gurdwara reform movements, which sought to standardize Sikh religious practice and remove hereditary or non Sikh custodians from gurdwara management, and which led to the creation of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, the elected body that today oversees many of the most historically significant Sikh gurdwaras and sets standards for their religious staff, including granthis. Major gurdwaras typically employ a head granthi alongside several assistant granthis, dividing responsibility for the near continuous cycle of readings, services, and ceremonies larger gurdwaras maintain throughout the day, while smaller gurdwaras may rely on a single granthi or, in some communities, on rotating volunteer readers rather than a permanently appointed one.

Because Sikhism deliberately rejects a formal ordained priesthood, a granthi's authority rests entirely on recognized skill in reading and reciting the Guru Granth Sahib correctly and respectfully rather than on any rite of ordination, and in principle any suitably trained Sikh, not only those formally employed as granthis, may read from the scripture, a point Sikh teaching consistently emphasizes against the idea of a specialized priestly class standing between worshippers and the Guru.