ÿþ<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>DAY&#256L B&#256B&#256 (1783-1855)</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="DAYL,BB,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">&#65279DAY&#256L, B&#256B&#256 (1783-1855), founder of the Nira&#7749k&#257r&#299 sect of the Sikhs, was born at Pesh&#257war on Bais&#257kh <i>sud&#299</i> 15, 1840 Bk / 17 May 1783. He was the only son of R&#257m Sah&#257i, a banker, and his wife La&#7693ikk&#299, daughter of Bh&#257&#299 Vas&#257kh&#257 Si&#7749gh of Roht&#257s. He lost his father while he was still an infant. He learnt Gurmukh&#299 from his mother and Persian and Pushto at a <i>maktab</i> (elementary school kept by a Muslim <i>maulaw&#299</i>). His mother, a devout Sikh, nurtured him in the best traditions of the faith and took him out daily to make obeisance at the local Gurdw&#257r&#257 Bh&#257&#299 Jog&#257 Si&#7749gh. After the death of his mother in 1802, Day&#257l migrated to R&#257walpi&#7751&#7693&#299 where he opened a grocer's shop and also started preaching a message of simple living, commonly addressing congregations at Gurdw&#257r&#257 Peshaur&#299&#257&#7749 and Gurdw&#257r&#257 Bh&#257&#299 R&#257m Si&#7749gh. A recurring theme he developed was criticism of the rituals and practices which, rejected by the Gur&#363s, were creeping into Sikh society. His main target was worship of the images against which he launched a vigorous campaign. He re-emphasized the Sikh belief in Nira&#7749k&#257r, the Formless One. From this the movement which grew out of the protest he voiced with such sincere concern came to be known as Nira&#7749k&#257r&#299. For solemnizing his own marriage in 1808 (bride : M&#363l Dev&#299, daughter of Charan D&#257s Kap&#363r of Bher&#257), Day&#257l, refusing to invite the traditional Br&#257hma&#7751 priest, had <i>L&#257v&#257&#7749</i> and <i>Anand</i> hymns recited from the Gur&#363 Granth S&#257hib. This is cited as the first instance of a wedding performed by <i>anand</i> ceremony in the modern period of Sikh history. The simple <i>anand</i> form of marrying rite became a cardinal point in the Nira&#7749k&#257r&#299 scheme of religious and social reform. B&#257b&#257 Day&#257l was averse to ostentation and cavilled at the rich style of the Sikh aristocracy of the day. He enjoined honest living, respect for parents and abstinence from liquor and drugs. Idolatrous worship and extravagant religious ceremonial were his principal rejections.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Although B&#257b&#257 Day&#257l's preaching was confined to the northwestern corner of the Punjab, its intimations spread to distant parts. It is said that the reigning Sikh monarch in Lahore, Ra&#7751j&#299t Si&#7749gh, once visited him in R&#257walpi&#7751&#7693&#299 in 1820. From across the Sikh frontier came emissaries of the American Presbytarian Mission at Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257 "to ascertain the true nature of the movement. " It struck the Mission that by overruling image worship and Br&#257hma&#7751ical ritual the reformer of R&#257walpi&#7751&#7693&#299 was preparing ground favourable to the reception of the Gospel. Observations of the emissaries were published in the Annual Report of the Lodiana [Ludhi&#257&#7751&#257] Mission for 1953. This is how the Report described the sect forming around B&#257b&#257 Day&#257l's teaching :</p> <blockquote class="C1"><p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;On investigation. . . it was found that the whole movement was the result of the efforts of an individual to establish a new <i>panth</i> (religious sect) of which he should be the instructor and guide. The sect has been in existence eight or nine years, but during the Sikh reign, fear kept them quiet; since the extension of the Company's Government over the country, they have become more bold, and with the assistance of our religious publications to furnish them with arguments against idolatry, they have attacked the faith of the Hindus most fiercely. They professedly reject idolatry, and all reverence and respect for whatever is held sacred by Sikhs or Hindus, except N&#257nak and his Granth. . . . The Hindus complain that they even give abuse to the cow. This climax of impiety could not be endured, and it was followed by some street disturbances, which brought the parties into the civil courts. . They are called Nira&#7749k&#257r&#299s, from their belief in God, as a spirit without bodily form. The next great fundamental principle of their religion is that salvation is to be obtained by meditation on God. They regard N&#257nak as their saviour, in as much as he taught them the way of salvation. Of their peculiar practices only two things are learned. First, they assemble every morning for worship, which consists of bowing the head to the ground before the Granth, making offerings, and in hearing the Granth read by one of their numbers, and explained also if their leader be present. Secondly, they do not burn their dead, because that would assimilate them to the Hindus; nor bury them, because that would make them too much like Christians and Musulmans, but throw them into the river.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</blockquote></p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; For what were understood as his heterodox views, B&#257b&#257 Day&#257l was debarred from Gurdw&#257r&#257 Peshaur&#299&#257&#7749. He thereupon acquired, on 3 November 1851, a plot of land and erected a small room, thus laying the foundation of the Nira&#7749k&#257r&#299 Darb&#257r which became the central religious seat of the new sect.</p> <p class="C1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; B&#257b&#257 Day&#257l died on 30 January 1855, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Darb&#257r&#257 Si&#7749gh (1814-70).</p> </font> <p class="BIB"> BIBLIOGRAPHY<p class="C1"><ol class="C1"><li class="C1"> Vahim&#299, Taran Si&#7749gh, <i>Jass J&#299van</i>. Rampur (Hissar), 1971<BR> <li class="C1"> Ga&#7751&#7693&#257 Si&#7749gh, <i>K&#363k&#299&#257&#7749 d&#299 Vithi&#257</i>. Amritsar, 1944<BR> <li class="C1"> Jolly, Surjit Kaur, <i>Sikh Revivalist Movements</i>. Delhi, 1988<BR> <li class="C1"> Farquhar, J. N. , <i>Modern Religious Movements in India</i>. Delhi, 1977<BR> <li class="C1"> Harbans Singh, <i>The Heritage of the Sikhs</i>. Delhi, 1983<BR> </ol><p class="CONT">M&#257n Si&#7749gh Nira&#7749k&#257r&#299<br></p><BR> </font> <img src="counter.aspx" width="1px" height="1px" alt=""> </HTML></BODY>