An akhand path is a continuous reading of the entire Guru Granth Sahib Ji, all 1,430 pages, without a break, by a relay of readers. It takes about forty-eight hours.
It is held for weddings, deaths, house openings, business ventures, anniversaries and public occasions. The bhog, the conclusion, is timed for the day of the event.
The practice is generally dated to the eighteenth century, when the Khalsa was dispersed and a complete reading before an action was a way of assembling.
It is now often paid for and performed by hired readers, which the Rehat Maryada permits but discourages, since the family is supposed to participate. Ordering an akhand path over the phone and attending only the bhog is common and is criticised inside the Panth.
A sehaj path is the same reading done at any pace over days or weeks, which is the older and less pressured form.
The Jaito morcha of 1923 began over an interrupted akhand path, which is worth remembering when the practice is described as routine.
The reading is continuous for approximately forty-eight hours, handed between readers, with no gap in the recitation, and it ends at the bhog.
It is done for births, marriages, deaths, house openings, departures and anniversaries. In practice it is the standard Punjabi ceremony for anything of consequence.
The reform argument against it is that a reading nobody is listening to has become a ritual purchased rather than an act performed, and that argument has been made continuously for a century.