Kuala Lumpur:
A 73-year-old Malaysian Sikh has completed his fourth handwritten copy of 1,430 page Guru Granth Sahib, which could be the largest and heaviest in the world.
Jaswant Singh Khosa's handwritten fourth copy of the Guru Granth Sahib weighs 84kg and is 91.44cm in length and 66.04cm wide, breaking his previous 'Malaysia Book of Records' for his second copy which weighed 45kg and was 76.2cm long and 48.26cm wide in 2004, a media report said on Sunday.
"It is a labour of love. The (latest) book is 182.9cm long when it opens up. I wrote for 14 hours a day. It was worth it," he told The Star newspaper. It took Khosa 14 months to complete his fourth copy which he donated to a Sikh temple in the United States.
The daily said a gurudwara in Amritsar had replaced its 200-year-old holy book and was currently using Khosa's second hand-written copy, which he had also donated. The third copy, which is the same size as the second, was given to a Sikh temple in Canada in 2007. His first hand-written copy, a smaller version, was donated to a Sikh temple in London in 1998. All four copies were in traditional Gurmukhi calligraphy.
Currently, most copies of the holy book are printed. "I am not getting any money for it nor am I doing it for fame. Someone even offered C$200,000 (about 70 lakhs) for my third copy but I refused," he said.
Muar-born Jaswant, who wrote the latest copy in Freemont City, California, spent about two-and-a-half hours writing each page without even a toilet break in between. "When I start writing a page, I shut everything out and write continuously until I am done. I have to write it exactly as it appears in the original copy," said Khosa who planned to make a submission to the Guinness Book of World Records.
However, a bent back and feeble legs not withstanding, he plans to write his next copy. "The doctor warned that I could be paralysed but it has been my dream to complete four volumes just as Baba Deep Singh (renowned Sikh scholar and warrior) did more than 300 years ago.
"I will still write even if I end up in a wheelchair," said Khosa who now walks with a limp.