ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>D&#256D&#362 DI&#256L (1544-1603)</TITLE> <style type="text/css"> .BODY { background-color: #EAF1F7; background-image: url('images/gtbh.jpg'); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; background-position: center; color: #0066CC;} .C1{text-align: justify;color: #0066CC;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .BIB{text-align: center;color: #000099;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} .CONT{text-align: right;color: #FF0000;FONT-size: SMALL;FONT-family: Tahoma;} </style><META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="DDj,DIL,Person,Person"> <META http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></HEAD> <BODY class="BODY" oncontextmenu="return false" ondragstart="return false" onselectstart="return false"> <FONT ALIGN="JUSTIFY" FACE="Tahoma"> <p class="C1">&#65279D&#256D&#362 DI&#256L (1544-1603), ascetic and mystic, was in the line of the saints of medieval India. In his career and teaching he relived the Kab&#299r legend. He was born in AD 1544 in Ahmed&#257b&#257d in Gujar&#257t to a Muslim couple. He had little formal education and took to his father's profession of cotton-carding. At the age of eighteen he left home and wandered extensively all over northern India. He especially consorted with the N&#257th yog&#299s whose influence left a permanent mark on him. At the age of twenty-five he renounced the world and migrated to S&#257mbhar and spent the time wandering and preaching in the country around. He attracted a considerable number of followers who gave themselves the designation Brahma-samprad&#257ya, later popularly designated as D&#257d&#363 Panth. The core of his teaching was universal brotherhood and the worship of one God.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; D&#257d&#363 has left religious poetry amounting to five thousand verses. Another work called <i>D&#257d&#363 Prak&#257sh</i> which is in Punjabi has recently been discovered by a modern scholar. D&#257d&#363 laid great stress on <i>simran</i>, the contemplation of God's name. Caste, image worship and pilgrimages were rejected. Towards the end of his life D&#257d&#363 shifted to N&#257r&#257ya&#7751&#257, near Jaipur.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; An anecdote is related in Sikh history. Journeying through these parts in the first decade of the seventeenth century, Gur&#363 Gobind Si&#7749gh passed through N&#257r&#257ya&#7751&#257. He pitched his tents near the Sant's shrine and to test the conviction of his Sikhs he saluted the sepulchre by lifting an arrow to his forehead. The <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 took exception to it, and demanded a fine. One of them, M&#257n Si&#7749gh, quoted the Gur&#363's own verse : <i>Gor ma&#7771h&#299 mat bh&#363l na m&#257nai</i> (worship not even by mistake cemeteries or places of cremation). The Gur&#363 immediately offered to pay. The fine was fixed at Rs 5, 000, but a Sikh objected that it was too big a sum and proposed to reduce it to Rs 500. Another Sikh thought it too little and said the Gur&#363 would not feel the loss of such a paltry amount. One of them said that he would not be satisfied with anything under five lakhs, but some of them argued that, though the Gur&#363 could even pay that sum, the <u>Kh</u>&#257ls&#257 would find it impossible to pay fines in proportion thereof. They at length asked the Gur&#363 to pay Rs 125 which they spent on the purchase of a kitchen tent.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; D&#257d&#363 died in N&#257r&#257ya&#7751&#257 in 1603.</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> S&#363r&#299, Kart&#257r Si&#7749gh, <i>Gur&#363 Arjan Dev te Sant D&#257d&#363 Di&#257l</i>. Chandigarh, 1969<BR> <li class="C1"> Bhandarkar, R. G. , <i>Vaisnavism, &#346aivism and Minor Religious Systems</i>. Delhi, 1965<BR> <li class="C1"> Hastings, James (ed. , ), <i>Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics</i>, vol. IV. New York, 1964<BR> <li class="C1"> Oman, John Campbell, <i>The Mystics, Ascetics and Saints of India</i>. Delhi, 1973<BR> <li class="C1"> Schomer, Karine and W. H. McLeod (eds.), <i>The Sants : Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India</i>. Delhi, 1987<BR> <li class="C1"> Harbans Si&#7749gh, <i>Guru Gobind Singh</i>. Delhi, 19'79<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">Gurnek Si&#7749gh<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>